Weekly Menu 7

VEW

Lamb Chops with Sundried Tomato Butter, Green Beans with Garlic and Prosciutto, Baked Eggplant with Prosciutto, Sundried Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives

Chipotle Chicken Fajitas with Quick Corn Risotto

Lemon Chicken, Baked Cauliflower with Lemon-Mustard Sauce, Wild Rice and Lentils

Day 1
This was a slightly more involved celebratory dinner I made for my husband, but it came together really quickly as the lamb cooks for mere minutes and everything else is pretty hands-off once it’s cooking. The Sundried-tomato butter was really good—I would definitely try in on a pasta or orzo as suggested (see recipe).

Season lamb chops with s & p, sear on a hot grill pan brushed with a little olive oil and just a few mintes per side (lamb should be served medium rare at the most...) Spread a little Sundried tomato butter on each chop.

For the green beans, sautee some garlic and olive oil in a pan for about a minute and add in about 2 T chopped prosciutto for one minute more. Rinse beans and throw in the pan, cover. Cook for about 10 minutes, remove the lid, add a bit of sea salt and cook until carmelized.

I am not a huge fan of eggplant, but this recipe was pretty good. I doctored it to use some of the ingredients I had left over from the other dishes above and it worked out well. A pretty forgiving recipe if you don't follow it to a T.

Day 2
Chipotle Chicken Fajitas with Quick Corn Risotto
The fajitas are straitforward: Cut some red, yellow and green bell peppers into strips along with onion and whatever else suits your fancy. Do the same with some boneless chicken breasts and marinate for at least 30 minutes in some lime juice, minced garlic and chipotle seasoning (How much you use depends on how hot you like it). My sister-in-law sent this to us and it’s great. It gives the chicken that smoky, spicy chipotle flavor and sets these apart from your run-of-the-mill version. If you can’t find a chipotle spice you like, you can replace it with 1-2 chipotles in adobo sauce—just beware that these are hot! Sautee the veggies first, then remove and tent on a plate to keep warm. Cook chicken, throw everything together for a minute in the pan and then plate. Serve with pico de gallo, sour cream, cheese, fresh cilantro and guacamole.

The “risotto” is easy and tasty. I’m not a fan of pepper jack cheese, but it’s what makes this dish great so don’t substitute plain jack cheese.

Day 3
Lemon chicken, baked cauliflower with lemon-mustard sauce, wild rice and lentils

This lemon chicken is one of my favorites. The cauliflower was so good I was wishing I’d bought 2 heads as I could’ve eaten one alone. You can easily cut the sauce in half and have plenty.

For the chicken, mix the juice of 4-6 lemons with ¼ C olive oil, 1T red wine vinegar, 1t dried oregano (or 1T fresh chopped) and 4 garlic cloves chopped and some salt and pepper. Put in a large ziplock bag and add a cut up chicken (I really recommend using bone in chicken as opposed to boneless chicken breasts); marinate for at least an hour and as long as overnight. Pour chicken with marinade in a 9x13 pan and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes, flipping once.

For the wild rice and lentils, I just threw together the ends of bags. I tossed about a cup of wild rice and ½ C of lentils in a pot with 1.5C water and 1 C chicken stock. You can change the ratio of water to stock, just keep the liquid to about 2.5 cups to start. Bring all to a boil and then cover and simmer until done. You may have to add a little hot water if it’s too dry. Salt to taste. This sounds boring, but it was really good, and the lemony juices from the chicken are great to spoon over the top.