W30: Grilled Lamb Chops

One of the foods I learned to love as a child was lamb. It is a common food in England and we ate them quite a lot. Here in the states they are more of a luxury in the South than elsewhere. For that reason I don’t eat them much. In fact I’ve not had a good lambchop in many many years.

Kayte and I have shied away from the lamb recipes because they are hard to find here in Podunk USA. When a friend mentioned she was buying chops at SAMS I thought I would try some and make some of the W30 lamb dishes. This is the first one.

These chops are grilled and served with fingerling potatoes and arugula pesto. I changed mine up a bit. I used red potatoes and basil pesto. I’m not a fan of arugula and thought I might not like pesto made with it. I followed the recipe for the potatoes (very tasty) and the chops using an indoor grill pan rather than the grill. I was a little disappointed in the chops. They were rather tasteless. It wasn’t the recipe. It was the chops. American lamb rather than New Zealand. Just not the same.

When I reheated one for lunch I added more seasoning and it tasted better. The pesto adds a very good flavor, though.

The recipe is from The Whole 30 Cookbook. (pg. 54)

Kayte made them earlier in the week and they quite enjoyed them.

 

W30: Chicken Tikka Masala

My dad was military, Air Force. It was a wonderful life. Full of adventure, living in different countries, eating different foods. My parents were always adventurous eaters. Sometimes TOO adventurous. My dad tried beef tongue (yucky to me), steak tartar (when it was safe to eat more raw foods). We ate just about every cuisine available. My favorite then, and now, is East Indian. When Kayte and I were choosing chicken dishes this one caught my eye very quickly. And the fact that it was in the slow cooker meant I could just mix it and go. Perfect!

This was spot on with the flavor. I have tried other recipes but they just weren’t as good as this one. ALMOST as good as our local Indian Restaurant.

The recipe is straight forward and easy to put together. But I missed the marinate the chicken overnight and had to wait a day. I made about 2/3 of the recipe and it was plenty for just me. Hubs is NOT adventurous when it comes to food. There are lots of spices here – cumin, garam masala, curry powder, coriander, turmeric, fresh ginger – all coming together for a fragrant and delicious meal.

I served it with cauli-rice flavored with chicken soup seasoning.

The recipe is from Melissa Hartwig’s The Whole 30 Slow Cooker. (pg 190) There are recipes for the Insta-pot as well which is what I used. If you want a healthy meal, if you love Indian cuisine, try this one.

Kayte made this before me and her family loved it.

 

W30: Seared Salmon Fillets with Ginger Caramelized Pineapple

Kayte and I are continuing to do the whole 30 recipes. This one came from Melissa Hartwig’s Whole 30 Fast and Easy Cookbook. I have been waiting to do this because I have not been able to find good salmon. I still don’t have good salmon but chose to go ahead and make it with frozen (GASP!).

I used apples instead of pineapple and they were good with the ginger. I liked the salmon but will use a little more seasoning next time.

Try this one, it’s good!

The recipe is on page 88 of Fast and Easy.

Kayte’s post is HERE.

 

W30: pork chops and squash over green onions

I love a good pork chop. Especially if it’s well seasoned comes with a great side. This recipe hit the mark. A well seasoned toasted pork chop over green onions and followed by well seasoned butternut squash.

Salt, pepper time, lemon zest and sage. That’s all it took to make this pork chop taste great. The pork chop is placed on top of the green onions and the butternut squash on the side. The butternut squash is diced and tossed with the same seasonings. It all comes together quickly and easily. And it’s delicious.

Kayte also made the recipe.

The recipe comes from Melissa Hartwig’s Whole 30 Fast and Easy Cookbook. (P131)

I also found the recipe HERE.

If you are on whole 30, this is one of the books that you should have. Lots of delicious recipes and all of them, as the title implies, are fast and easy.

 

W30: chicken sausage, stuffed peppers.

About two weeks ago, Kayte made the chicken sausage stuffed bell peppers. At the time I did not have the ingredients to cook along, but I did today and so I made them. The stuffing for the peppers is absolutely delicious. While the recipe called for chicken sausage and casings to cut up into chunks, what I had was minced chicken sausage so that is what I used.

Well, Kayte did not add in the cauliflower crumbles. I decided I would. They were very bland so they did not upset the flavor of the sausage. I was lucky enough to still have some homemade marinara in my pantry so that is what I made. I only made three so I put them in large muffin pan to bake.

I have enough for two more lunches here. And some leftover stuffing to make cabbage rolls.

You can find the recipe at littlebitsof.com as well as other whole 30 recipes,

Kayte’s blog post is here.

 

W30: Lemon-Ginger Salmon and Asparagus

Good salmon is sometimes hard to find. I’ve been looking for some good fresh salmon, emphasis on good, for a couple of weeks now. I could get it easily if I go 15 minutes to a different grocery store but I don’t get over that way very often. I got tired of waiting to make this recipe so I just bought some frozen salmon. I had to make it quickly because my asparagus was not going to last much longer. So Here it is.

The fresh asparagus is tossed in a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, etc. It’s supposed to have coconut amino in it but I completely forgot. That might’ve made a big difference in the flavor.

Asparagus is then roasted a little before. The salmon is placed on top with lemon slices and the rest of the olive oil mixture. Roasted for about 15 minutes and it’s done.

I thought that overall the dish was a little bland. I keep forgetting that most recipes, as Kayte has mentioned, are made for everyone, but not everyone’s taste is the same. So I need to remember to add more seasoning to mine, because, being from Louisiana, I like things a little more spicy. I would definitely make this again. I would just add more seasoning.

You can find the recipe on page 129 of Whole 30 Fast and Easy

Kayte made this back in March. I was still looking for tender asparagus.

 

TWD: Breakfast in Rome Lemon Cake

it has been a very long time since I had breakfast in Rome. Maybe I’ll do it again sometime. But until then I can enjoy this cake from Dorie Greenspan. It is a luscious lemon sponge cake. Very light, very tasty, and very enjoyable.

I added blueberries to mine, but as you can see, they all sank to the bottom of the cake. It doesn’t matter. It was still delicious. I took it to church, and there was only one piece left and everybody said that they enjoyed it. That’s enough for me. I had a half a slice and I thought it was delicious.

This is a sponge cake so you have to whip the egg whites until stiff and then fold them into a very thick cake batter. While it takes time to do all of this, it is well worth the trouble. You should try this one.

The recipe is on page 76 of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Dorie: sweet, salty, and simple.
See what the other Bakers made this week at Tuesdays with Dorie

 

W30: Shrimp and Asparagus Dinner Omelets

It’s whole 30 again. This time Kayte and I made a wonderfully tasty omelet which is good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, as the title implies.

The omelet is stuffed with shrimp, asparagus, and tomatoes. And even though I am not a big fan of tomatoes I did add them in in small dice. I think it would have been good with some sun dried tomatoes. There is also pesto in the omelet. I wasn’t sure about that but it added a lot of flavor. We added water to the eggs which is supposed to make the omelet fluffier. It didn’t work for me.

This one is definitely a keeper.

Kayte made it last week and hers looked so good I knew I would have to make it — eventually. I had a lot of trouble finding some good asparagus.

The recipe is from Melissa Hartwig’s Whole 30 Fast and Easy Cookbook

 

TWD: Parisian Custard Tart

These days I don’t bake much. Not because I don’t want to but because I don’t need to.

Not that anyone really needs an excuse to bake but because we just don’t eat a lot of sugar.
But I made an exception for this week’s TWD. I HAD to make this tart.
Puff Pastry and vanilla custard. How could you pass that up? So I didn’t.

Puff Pastry is square when it comes out of the box so putting it in a square springform pan just seemed to make sense.

It did take some time. Making the custard is always a challenge to me. I’ve had them curdle on me too often. But I got lucky this time. It came out quite nicely and it was tasty, too. We could have used rum but I chose to use vanilla. And added in some coconut extract as well.

This week we had a choice of this tart or a lemon cake. Next time — the cake.

Who made what this week? Check it out at Tuesdays with Dorie. We are baking from Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty, and Simple by Dorie Greenspan. (p 292).

 

Whole 30: Sausage-Mushroom Frittata

Looking for a tasty breakfast or lunch that is compliant AND delicious. Then try this frittata. A great mix of sausage, spices, eggs and arugula.

To be truthful I used fresh spinach instead of the arugula and did not top the frittata with the chopped tomatoes. I did add in some chopped red bell pepper which added some color and additional flavor. This was so good. Definitely a keeper.
I loved that I could use a handmade pan from a local metal worker.

The recipe is from The Whole 30 Cookbook. (P20)