Back in my pre-pre-diabetic days, one of my favorite dishes was baked pork chops crusted with bread crumbs. The chops would come out of the oven juicy and succulent… yum.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when pork chops were on sale and we stocked our fridge with them. Usually, ST grills them to perfection but one night, he was out playing in a soccer game and grilling simply isn’t in my repertoire. I’ve found that Googling “carb free” + the food you want to eat will usually turn up a few viable options.

That’s how I found myself making something totally new. Begin by pre-heating the oven at 375 F.

We had a container of generic roasted almonds lying around. I usually stay away from Pathmark’s generic America’s Choice brand because I don’t like the taste of most of their stuff. However, I decided to try out their almonds because they were a lot cheaper than name brands.

Turns out, they’re cheaper for a reason. They don’t taste so great. I figured that combining them with garlic, herbs, and pork would probably improve their flavor. So I put about half of them into our mini food processor along with three cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary.

Then I pulsed it until to a breadcrumb consistency.

After that, I cracked an egg and whisked it with some milk to create an egg wash. First I dipped the chop in egg and then in almond crumbs. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until I had this:

I baked them for about 40 minutes (isn’t it weird how the cooking time is always longer than the recipe?) and served them with steamed carrots. They were juicy, but the “breading” didn’t stick so well. It sort of fell off as you ate, but it we still enjoyed it. This dish is good enough for a second try, with some improvements:

• Process the almonds until they’re finer. But be careful that you don’t go too far and make almond butter.

• Season the chops before the egg wash and almond crumbs. While the baked coating with flavorful, the pork underneath it all was a bit lacking.

• Use better quality almonds; the taste of the generic almonds didn’t totally disappear even combined with herbs, pork, and roasted.

Have you ever changed up an old favorite recipe?