main dishes

Indian Spiced Lamb

First week back after vacation is always sort of a shock to the system…especially after a vacation as awesome as that one! We highly recommend Riviera Maya, Mexico, that’s for sure.  But it was nice to get back to some home cooking (though I won’t lie, I already miss the copious amounts of Mexican food and Corona ;)).  This was a great back to reality weeknight dinner – took all of 45 minutes to cook and you could do this with any bony cut of lamb.  We used a lamb shoulder roast that had been sliced into thick chops.   Just a tossed bunch of roasted veggies (also generically Indian spiced) as a side, and it made for a great, low carb dinner.

indianspicedlamb

 

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Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za’atar, and Lemon

Sumac and Za’atar are two of my favorite spices/seasonings to work with – I love the flavors.  When I saw this recipe from Spendid Table, based on a Palestinian called m’sakhan, I put it on my list to make.  Somehow it has taken a long time before I got around to it, but I’m glad we finally did.  We both liked it a lot, and it’s very easy – marinade, roast, done.  We had it with roasted butternut squash and broccoli for a nice fall meal.

chickensumaczaatar

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Chicken Enchilada Meatloaf

So this was pretty awesome.  I’ve had this Serious Eats recipe on our “to make” list for months, but have never gotten around to it for some reason.  What a shame, because it was awesome, and will also make fantastic leftovers!  In fact, I’m ready to make it again, just to freeze and have more for later.  Anyway, I have never worked with ground chicken before, and was doubtful when I put the mix in the loaf pans, because soupy slop is kind.  But it all turned out.  I did ditch the jalepenos and cayenne (other than a dusting) because neither of us loves heat.  I subbed generous red pepper flakes instead.  I used 2lb of chicken for this and estimated liquids/spices to make up for it.  We had this with chili-lime green beans…loved it! To top it off, a VERY generous portion is very little in the calorie department…can’t beat that!

chickenenchiladameatloaf

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Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

We have been trying semi-successfully to make sure we have at least one meatless dinner a week.  I say “semi” because we keep aiming for Monday, and something happens, we get busy, and we end up grabbing something fast (and not veggie).  This worked out well, though – our first go at stuffed peppers in the crock pot, and we used Morning Star crumbles in place of ground beef or turkey.  We loved this!  I have always worried that stuffed peppers in the crock pot would be kind of mushy, but no problems.  We also used quinoa in place of rice and really liked that as well.  A do over for sure.

vegetarian_stuffed_pepers

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Beer-Brined Pork Chops

The more we try different recipes, the more I think pork chops are pretty much  my favorite thing on the grill.  And this was probably my favorite recipe to date.  The only thing I’d change is to add more garlic and sage to the rub next time…and it is still great as is!  Otherwise…awesome!  We served this with some grilled squash and cucumber and black eyed pea salad.

 

beer_braised_chops

 

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Pork and Charred Brussels Sprouts

After the better part of a month on travel, and the end of my CCIE studying (finally), it’s time to get back in the kitchen!  I think *anything* cooked at home would have tasted great today, but this one was really good.  I’ve had my eye on this recipe for several weeks, and just never seemed to get around to it, but I’m glad we did.  This was out of Sunset, and the only changes I made were to up the garlic and sub Sriracha for chiles in the sauce.  The sauce was especially good, and we were thinking it would do well with pretty much any meat out there (steak marinade or fish comes to mind in particular).  Worth repeating for sure.

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Moroccan Chicken Thighs

After traveling for two weeks and eating restaurant food (some of it not very good), I was dying to cook despite the study hours.  This is a Cooking Light recipe I had been eyeing for a while, but never got around to making.  We were very pleased with it.  I cooked it a bit too long, so there was less sauce than I would have liked, but still a winner. I did sub golden raisins for apricots since that’s what I had on hand and it worked well.  This might also do well with chicken breasts, though I prefer thighs in general.

moroccanchicken

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Chicken in Dill Mustard Sauce

We have a CSA dill plant that is flourishing when most of our other plants have kind of had it…went searching for an easy weeknight dill recipe and here’s what we found!  This came from an old issue of Gourmet magazine.  We enjoyed it and it was a pretty fast meal – the original recipe called for chicken legs, but I used chicken breasts and it was fine.  Otherwise no changes.  Definitely a make-again, but I do think I’d add more mustard next time.

mustarddillchicken

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Slow Cooker Hungarian Chicken

Now that I’m juggling two horses  after work on top of normal life and crazed studying, I’m suddenly becoming BFFs with our slow cooker.  It’s so far allowing us to keep making healthy dinners even if neither one of us is home until after 7pm (and tired, who wants to cook after that?).  This was a Cooking Light recipe that we liked, though it needed extra on all the seasoning – especially the salt and garlic.  The only real change I made to the original (besides a heavier seasoning hand) was to use boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of bone-in…that’s just what we had.  We’re mostly doing the low carb thing, so we did not server over pasta and it was just fine with a vegetable side.  The below is with my changes to up the seasoning.

hungarianchicken

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Grilled Swordfish with Lime, Basil and Mint

Given it was Labor Day weekend, we wanted to spend some QT with the grill – which is kind of silly because it’s not as though it’s going to be 5 degrees now that “summer is over.”  But it was a good plan, since there was some deliciousness going on!  This was a nice swordfish recipe that I got from Giada De Laurentiis and substituted lime for lemon because I thought it would go well with the rest of the flavors, and modified to serve just two.  There was a lot of sauce left, so I think you could cut back the oil even further – we threw a lot out.  Definitely a winner.  Very filling with corn on the cob for a side.

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