Day Four - Mojo-Roasted Pork Medallions (2.5.14)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 2-inch medallions

Instructions

Combine orange juice, lime juice, garlic, cumin, oregano, salt and cayenne pepper in a zip-top plastic freezer bag; add pork. Seal and refrigerate 2 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove pork from marinade; discard marinade. Place pork medallions on a baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in center reads 145 degrees; let stand 3 minutes.

We made garlic parmesan green beans for our side with this dish. Let us know if you want the recipe!

Opinions

Katie: This dish was good. The tenderloin held the citrus juices well which was good to keep it tender; however, the other spices in the dish were very subtle. I was expecting to taste the spices more. I think that we'll make a note on this recipe to play with the spices a bit to get a more robust flavor.

Potter: I liked the medallions. Make sure to cut them in even sizes because a couple of mine were a little overdone and just not as juicy. As Katie said they had a great citrus flavor but everything else was just a little too subtle. Dipped in some spicy mustard helped even it out a bit without overpowering the citrus flavors too much but cancelled what you could taste of the other flavors. As Katie said a bit of playing with it can make the mustard unnecessary. 

Day Three - Itallian Chicken (2.4.14)

Ingredients

• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 cup italian dressing
• 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder (or 2-4 cloves fresh garlic minced)
• 1 sweet pepper, chopped

Instructions

1. Add dressing, Italian seasoning and garlic to a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Marinate for 1-8 hours (the longer you marinate the juicier and more flavorful the chicken but this recipe can also be done without marinating depending on how much time you have).
2. After your chicken has finished marinating take it out of the bag and place on a baking sheet. Spread peppers over the top of your chicken pieces. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes, until chicken is cooked all the way through.  

Our side tonight was Garlic-spiked Mushrooms and Broccoli with Rosemary, as always let us know if you want the recipe for this.

Opinions

Potter: This one is actually an old favorite of mine from college and funnily enough was also submitted for us to try by my cousin Sam. It's a super-fast, super-easy recipe that is always good. If you don't have time to marinate it I've found it's best if you make a foil pouch for each breast, pour the dressing in and lightly sprinkle the seasonings on top then seal the pouch. This traps the moisture and flavors, it also stops you from burning Italian dressing onto your baking sheet. All-in-all a good, tasty dish.

Katie: The chicken dish tonight was good. It was flavorful and very moist, which came from actually being able to marinate it. We usually aren't able to marinate for very long. This is definitely a go-to dish though even if you don't have the time to marinate for very long; Potter's suggestion when you don't have time to marinate works really well.

Day Two - Top Sirloin Steak with Homemade Marinade (2.3.14)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinaigrette
• 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

1. Place the soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, basil, parsley, and pepper in a blender or bowl and mix together thoroughly.
2. Pour marinade over desired type of meat. Cover, and refrigerate for up to 8 hours (We marinated for an hour and a half). Cook meat as desired.

Served with baked asparagus with balsamic butter sauce. Let us know if your interested in this recipe and we'll post it in the comments.

Opinions

Potter: This did not turn out as good as I had hoped. I've made better marinades replacing half the soy sauce with teriyaki and without the mustard. I think the mustard was a good choice but maybe a little less of it. It possibly could have been improved by substituting balsamic vinegar for the vinaigrette. Our cuts of meat also weren't the greatest we've bought either. All in all very sad this was the last time I will have steak for dinner for a year.

Katie: The steak looked and smelled delicious but as I started to eat it I was not as impressed. It had okay flavor, but I agree with what Potter said about substitutes and the cuts of meat. I have had much better cuts at home along with better marinades. I am also very sad that this was the last time steak is my menu choice for a year.

Day One - Pulled Pork (2.2.14)

Ingredients

• 1 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 4 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup root beer
• 2 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
• 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (if desired, you can cut back on the pepper by only using ½ teaspoon of cayenne)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (3- to 4-pound) boneless or bone-in pork shoulder (also known as pork butt), twine or netting removed
• Barbecue sauce (optional)

Instructions

1. Place the onions and garlic in an even layer in the slow cooker and pour in the stock or broth and the root beer. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the mustard, honey, vinegar and olive to the bowl and mix until you have a nice even paste. Place the meat on top of the onions and garlic in the cooker and pour the paste over the meat covering evenly (it's okay if you pour some into the onion/garlic mixture). Cover and cook until the pork is fork tender, about 4 to 6 hours on high or 7 to 9 hours on low.
2. Turn off the slow cooker and remove the pork to a cutting board. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the onion mixture from the slow cooker through the strainer and set the strained liquid aside. (You can put the strained solids back into the slower cooker if you like but Katie and I did not do this for our meal).
3. If the pork has a bone, remove and discard it. Using 2 forks, shred the meat into bite-sized pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat. Return the shredded meat to the slow cooker use a spoon to skim and discard the fat from the surface of the strained cooking liquid, and then add 1/4 cup of the liquid at a time to the slow cooker until the pork is just moistened.
4. Serve on buns of your choice. At this time feel free to add some barbecue sauce over the top (though with this recipe it is not needed). Katie and I used Sweet Baby Rays Original which was perfect.

Our side was Carrot Fries. If you'd like the recipe for that let us know and we'll post it in the comments.

Opinions

Potter: This was, hands down, the best pulled pork I have ever had. And I am not just saying that because it was my own recipe. The blend of flavors in every bite was amazing and it had a perfect balance of sweet and spicy (not my normal spicy for those of you who have had my cooking before). This dish serves roughy 8 so if you're having people over give it a try. If you're not having people over try it anyway, it's just as good leftover (I discovered at lunch... and snack-time, today). 

Katie: This recipe was amazing and I agree with Potter that it is the best I have ever had. I commented multiple times while eating that I just loved the mix of sweet and spicy. The great thing too is that this is that great pulled pork where you can enjoy on a sandwich, with or without BBQ sauce, and also just on its own and it is just as good!

We both said, about the same time while we were eating this, that we were a little sad we started this expedition with such a great dish because there are going to be roughly 362-364 disappointments to follow.

The Idea Behind It and Rules

We aren't traveling for work anymore and one of our goals was to cook meals more often. We wanted to try new meals as opposed to having the same over and over or having just slight variations to the same recipe, so we thought it would be fun to try a different dinner for 365 days.

A different dinner for 365 days to us follows these rules:

• No duplicate main dish, including home cooked or if we go out.
• A slight variation of a main dish is considered a duplicate. i.e. No spiced pulled pork and then different spices pulled pork or no chicken fajitas and then steak fajitas
• A main dish can have the same main ingredient but with different ingredients added. i.e. BBQ chicken and then chicken cordon bleu

We will be using this wonderful blog to track and share our progress. Each day (or at least for each meal) we will post the recipe we used, a picture of the meal and both of our opinions of the meal. We would love for each of you to share recipes you'd like us to try, try recipes we've done or even share variations on our recipes you like better. We look forward to eating with you!