Herbaceous Grilled Lamp Chops

Herbaceous Grilled Lamb Chops

Last weekend I visited a Persian market.  The market filled me with all sorts of food inspiration, but it mostly left me with a strong desire to eat lamb.  I guessing that desire came from the cooked foods section, which had fresh lamb kabobs and sharma. The market also housed a rather large meat department, it had lamb in every form, hooves, hearts, livers, basically every part of the lamb that a better cook than I am could possibly want to cook. A far cry from the selection at my local Whole Foods! I feel like I hit the lottery if they have stewed lamb meat once every 4 months.  Wouldn't it be fabulous to be able to walk into your local market and find, um..choices?  Like ramps in the spring time, in California--but I digress.  Let's just say, I left the Persian market with market envy.   I shop at Whole Foods so often that when I go into a conventional grocery store, I'm always amazed at how inexpensive things are.  Haha..call it reverse sticker shock! Thank you Whole Foods!  Surprisingly, I did not leave the Persian market with lamb.  I did find some great spices, some pomegranate molasses, and a few other great items.  I left with my new finds and a mission to cook these lamb chops.

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Ingredients:

1 lb lamb chops

2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary, finely chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic minced

1 teaspoon lemon powder, can sub with lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon of olive oil

Directions: To a small bowl add garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and oil, mix well.

Dry lamb chops, season generously with sea salt. Rub the lamb chops with the herbaceous garlic paste.

Place lamb chops on a hot grill, and cook for 5-7 minutes on each side, or until lamb chops are cooked to your liking.  Remove from grill, serve with a fresh squeeze of lemon and enjoy!

Indian and Herb Spiced Grilled Lamb Chops

Indian and Herb Spiced Grilled Lamb Chops

Lamb is one of my favorite meats.  Personally I like it more than beef, if given the choice between lamb and steak, I'd choose the lamb every time.  My husband on the other hand prefers steak.  He is 100% a meat and potato's kind of guy.  After having these lamb chops he said that he's a convert..Lol..I doubt it!   However, I'm glad that he thought that these lamb chops were delicious. I came up with the idea of marinating these with the fillings that I use for my Lamb Patties.  I added a little bit of curry powder and cumin to give the chops a little punch of flavor.  I'm so glad I did these are super flavorful, and grilling them made them more amazing than they already were.  If you only try one of my lamb recipes try this one! You will not be disappointed!!!

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

 

Ingredients:

1 pound of lamb chops

1/4 cup  fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley

1/4 cup fresh mint

1 large shallot (can sub with onion, use half of a small onion)

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon of cumin powder

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Sea salt to taste

 

Directions: To a blender add cilantro, parsley, mint, curry powder, cumin powder, shallot and olive oil, blend into a paste.  Season the lamb chops with sea salt, then rub with the marinade.

 

Once your grill is nice and hot, place the lamb chops on the grill and cook for 7-8 minutes on each side or until the chops reach you're desired level of doneness.  Remove from heat, serve and enjoy!

 

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Ground Chicken and Cabbage Curry

Ground Chicken and Cabbage Curry

Do you ever pull out something for dinner and then have no clue what you're going to make with it? I do...all the time! Most of the time it works out, but working out on some days can be relative. Success for me is getting a nutritious meal on the table on most days. This Chicken and Cabbage curry recipe  almost didn't come together. I pulled out the ground chicken, but all I had to go with it was the cabbage. I didn't have any fresh onion, no fresh garlic, none of the ingredients one needs to make something taste good. My fridge was empty because I had put off grocery shopping, and now I had to pay the price. I turned to my cupboards for help. I had a bevy of ground dried spices, curry, onion powder, ground ginger and garlic.  From those dried spices, this meal was born, and let me tell you what a delicious meal it was! It is one of my husbands favorite meals. I've made this with fresh onion and garlic, but the dried spices give this much better flavor.

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Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1 lb of ground chicken
1 tablespoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
2 tablespoons of curry powder
1 teaspoon of ground ginger powder
2-3 tablespoons of  olive oil, or ghee
1 small head of cabbage, chopped roughly
4 tablespoons of freshly chopped cilantro

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a pan add dried spices and  heat for 20 seconds or just until spices become fragrant. Add in ground meat and brown. Once meat has cooked, add in the cabbage, and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until cabbage wilts a bit. 

Remove from heat, top with cilantro and serve as is, or over a bowl of brown basmati rice and enjoy!

Cucumber Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

Cucumber Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

I have a confession to make, sometimes I make salad when I don't want to cook a side---okay maybe I do that more than sometimes, I do it a lot. There is a reason I named this blog lazy girl dinners.  This salad is a result of me being lazy and needing to use the ingredients I had on hand.  It was a hit with both my husband and my daughter.  It was the first time I got her to eat cucumber without chewing it up and spitting it out. Slicing them with my spiral vegetable slicer had everything to do with that because when it comes to getting her to eat something, it always comes down to texture.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: none
Total time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
2 large cucumbers sliced thinly
4 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh basil, finely chopped
Sea Salt to taste

Directions:
Add the lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt, and basil to a small bowl and whisk together. Spoon as much of the vinaigrette as you'd like over a serving of the cucumbers and enjoy!Note: If you are serving this at a dinner party--yes it's lazy but it's elegant and very delicious--then be sure to spoon the vinaigrette over the salad just before serving, otherwise the cucumbers will loose their crunch and get soggy.

Basil Chicken

Basil Chicken Recipe

So everyone has that one friend whom they idolize, you know the one who is super intelligent, charismatic, gorgeous, and the kind of mother to her children you only wish you could be. Well that person for me is my friend Jennifer. She has the energy of the energizer bunny--actually I think she could out last that bunny 3 times over, She's a great friend, reliable without fault, and on top of all that, she is a great cook. One of her signature dishes is basil Chicken.  It's beyond delicious, the sweet notes of basil mixed with the Unami flavors imparted by the soy sauce in this dish make it heaven on a plate.  She makes hers with the whole parts of chicken, usually legs, or drummetts. I decided to try it using ground chicken, because who couldn't use another way to use ground meat?  I'm so glad I did, it is equally as delicious as using chicken with bones, but much less time consuming, because there aren't any bones.

Prep time: 5-7 minutes
Cook time : 15 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1 pound of ground chicken
3/4 cups of fresh basil chopped
1 small brown onion or shallot chopped
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 large cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of olive oil/ghee
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Sea salt to taste

Directions: heat oil in skillet, add garlic, sauté for 30 seconds, then add the onion, and cook until translucent. Add the ground chicken and brown. Add in the soy sauce, basil and red pepper flakes, cook for 2 minutes then turn off the fire. Serve over brown rice, or in lettuce cups.

Greek Marinated Lamb chops

 Greek Lamb Chops

The FoodSaver that my husband gave me for Christmas this year has turned out to be one of my favorite kitchen gadgets of all time! I absolutely love it. I can place meat into a container and push a button and 10 minutes later I have marinated meat! And not just meat marinated on the surface, the marinade goes throughout the meat. The process of sucking the air out and pulsing the marinade in, produces tender, delicious, and fully marinaded meat. It's so awesome that I'm smiling just typing this. I love it when a kitchen gadget does what it's supposed to do, and I love it more when it saves me time in the kitchen. I've been using my new gadget a lot lately and testing out some fun marinades. This lamb marinade is just one of the many, many delicious marinades coming up on the blog for you.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes


Ingredients:
6 lamb chops
1 teaspoon of fresh rosemary chopped finely
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1 clove of garlic grated or crushed
1/4 cup of organic Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:
In a medium bowl combine ingredients 2-6. Season the lamb chops with sea salt and black pepper then place them in the marinade and toss. Let marinate for 10-20 minutes. Pre-heat the oven 425F, place the lamb chops on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes, remove from the oven and enjoy!

Lime and Red Pepper Flake Chicken Wings

I am not a huge sports fan, and thankfully neither is my husband! I can't sit through games. In our house politics is what has us yelling at the television and calling the players idiots. That doesn't mean that we don't enjoy game day foods like chicken wings. I for one am a huge fan of spicy buffalo wings, but they aren't huge on my husbands list of favorite things to eat. So if I want them, I have have to invent ways to indulge my craving and make them palatable for him. This recipe does just that. The tang of the lime, matched with the spice of the red pepper flake, make for a tasty and satisfying wing!

Prep Time: 5 minute
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 lb of chicken wings
1/4 of lime juice
3 cloves of garlic crushed or grated
Zest of 2 limes
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Sea salt to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 425F. Pat dry your wings with a paper towel, In a bowl season the chicken with sea salt, then add the lime zest, olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes and mix well. Place the chicken on a foil lined baking sheet and place in the oven, cook for 20-25 minutes, until the chicken is crisped and cooked through. Remove from the oven, sprinkle evenly with lime juice and enjoy!

Tamales

Now that Thanksgiving is over, you're probably trying to think of ways to use all of the leftovers. These tamales are a great way to rid your refrigerator of all that left over turkey. They're simple to make, but very delicious! If you're family ate all the turkey and you don't have any leftover, chicken works just as well for these tamales, in fact I usually make these with chicken.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30minutes
Total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups of cooked turkey or chicken shredded
1 cup corn meal
1/2 cup flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cups of buttermilk ( substitute with 3 /4 cup of yogurt, or add 1 teaspoon of white vinegar to 3/4 cup of milk and let sit for 10 minutes before using)
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
1 10 ounce can of  enchilada sauce
1 teaspoon of cumin
1.5 cups of creamed corn (see my recipe Here)
1 egg
1 cup of shredded cheese cheddar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Combine 1/4 cup cheese, corn meal, egg, milk, sea salt, baking powder, baking soda, cumin, creamed corn and flour in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with turkey/chicken, and sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream, and salsa, and enjoy!

Braised Chicken in Caper Sauce

Braised Chicken in Caper Sauce

I love capers, something about their salty brininess speaks to my taste buds. This dish is so simple, and easy to make. All the work is in remembering that you're cooking it, so that you don't burn down the house!


Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1lb of chicken ( I used skinless, boneless thighs, you can use bone in with skin, but just be aware it will extend the cooking time a bit.)
1/3 cups white wine vinegar
1.5 cups of organic chicken broth
1/3 cup of capers drained and rinsed
1/2 cup of fresh parsley
1 medium onion
Sea salt and black pepper to taste


Directions:

• Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Season the chicken with sea salt and black pepper, then add the chicken and brown on both sides. Add in the  onion; cook, stirring often, until softened. Add the parsley, and capers to skillet; cook for 1 minute. 
  
  
  
  
  
  Stir in broth and vinegar.  Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until meat is tender and  cooked through falling off the bone, about 20 minutes.
• Transfer chicken to a large platter. Spoon sauce over chicken; garnish with parsley.

Smoked Paprika Lime and Garlic Chicken

Smoked Paprika Lime & Garlic Chicken

One of my favorite Mexican restaurants serves this super yummy and tangy chicken with paprika and lime. As always I love to try to recreate my favorite restaurant meals in my own kitchen. Let's face it, it's not always convenient to eat out, especially with a toddler who doesn't like to sit for an hour with her hands in her lap. This chicken dish can be made with just parts of the chicken, you don't have to use a whole chicken. I used two kinds of paprika, but if you only have one kind use that.


Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook  Time: 45 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon of paprika
1 Tablespoon of smoked paprika
2 large cloves of garlic grated or pasted
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
The juice of two limes
Handful of cilantro
Two tablespoons of oil

Directions:
In a bowl mix the garlic, paprika and oil into a paste, then rub it into the skin of the chicken. Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 425F degrees  for 45 minutes to an hour until the bird is cooked through. Remove bird from the oven, pour on the lime juice and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve and enjoy! It's tangy with a kick from the smoked paprika!