Yesterday our second batch of groceries arrived from Blue Apron. I unpacked everything and then we had the task of deciding which fabulous meal to cook first. Ultimately, we selected the pork chops. The last pork meal we tried from Blue Apron was so awesome and we had high hopes for this one, too. This recipe was tasty, but we decided that the last pork recipe was truely awesome. We were excited that once again we got to work with a new ingredient. This time that ingredient was tomatillos. Mike started as my sous chef with prepping the produce by washing, cutting and slicing it. Meanwhile, I preheated the oven to 475, prepared a baking sheet, and got a pot of water to start boiling. In a medium bowl, I mixed together the tomatillos, cilantro, juice of two lime wedges, jalapeno, and the lime zest (whoops!). I also added in some salt, pepper, and olive oil. Once the water was boiling, I added the barley and let it cook 25 minutes. Next, I put the cut squash on the baking sheet, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and drizzled it with olive oil. The squash cooked in the oven for 9 minutes. To prep the pork chops, I seasoned them with the season packet and salt and pepper. I cooked them in a hot skillet with olive oil for about 4-6 minutes per side. I let the pork chops rest for a few minutes. I mixed the squash into the barley, along with lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. We served the sliced pork with the barley and salsa Fresca. The pork was very tasty, but the barley was pretty bland. However, the salsa mixed with the barley was quite tasty. Overall, we liked this meal, but it wasn't necessarily the best meal we'd ever made.

The New Austonian