Roasted pork chops and vegetables

We sell a magazine at work called "diabetes & you" and in it there are a few recipes. Around the Christmas season a magazine came out that had a roasted pork chops and vegetables recipe that looked really good. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make it until now, but better late than never. I certainly will make it again.

Review: This was a fairly quick and easy recipe to make. The most extensive part was cutting the potatoes and vegetables. Even though the vegetable mixture is just sweet potatoes, onions and peppers, you could add a few other vegetables if you wanted. In fact, the recipe calls for mushrooms and tomatoes but I don't like either one so I left them out. I did add a red pepper even though the recipe just calls for a green pepper. The pork might have been a tad bit dry from keeping it in the oven for an hour so next time I make it I might just cook it the first 45 minutes. If you add the tomatoes I'd suggest instead of cooking everything for 45 minutes then adding them and letting them cook for another 15, that you cook it for 30 minutes then add the tomatoes to let it cook for a total of 45 minutes. The seasoning also gave it a nice flavor. The garlic salt gave it the salty flavor it might otherwise have been missing. I ended up doubling the spice and herb amounts to put on the pork chops then made the mixture again with the recommended amounts to put on the vegetables. I felt like if I just used the amounts suggested for both the pork chops and the vegetables it wouldn't have been enough.

Recipe:

• 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
• 4 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick (I used boneless but if you prefer bone-in then they would work too)
• olive oil-flavored cooking spray
• 6 new potatoes, cut into fourths (3 cups) (I used 2 sweet potatoes)
• 4 ounces mushrooms, cut in half (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
• 1 medium tomato, cut into 8 wedges

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Mix the parsley, marjoram, thyme, garlic salt and pepper. Spray both sides of the pork chops with cooking spray. Sprinkle with the herb mixture and place in the corners of the pan. Mix the potatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper and onion in a large bowl. Spray the vegetables two or three times with cooking spray and stir. Sprinkle with the herb mixture and toss to coat. Spread evenly in the center of the pan between the pork chops (if you have to put them as a layer on top of the pork chops that's okay too). Bake uncovered for 45 minutes. Turn the pork and stir the vegetables. Place the tomato wedges over the vegetables. Bake uncovered 10 to 15 minutes or until the pork is slightly pink when cut near the bone and the vegetables are tender.