Braised Lamb with Apricots
With sweet dried apricots, bright lemon, and fragrant spices, this braised lamb is the perfect way to bridge the gap between winter and spring.
I thought I was headed to Morocco with this recipe, but I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way and ended up somewhere closer to India. No matter, it was still delicious even if it wasn’t traditional. This recipe takes a little longer than most of my dinners, but it’s mostly inactive time. You probably won’t want to make it on a weeknight unless you don’t mind eating late (I’m ready for dinner at 5:30… which doesn’t usually work out well since I don’t get home until closer to 6!), but it’s the kind of recipe that can easily be made ahead of time and reheated when you’re ready for it. I made this on a Sunday with plans to eat it on Tuesday, and it was so nice to come home and not have to worry about cooking. I just moved the pot from the fridge to the stove and, in the time it took to boil some rice, dinner was ready.
Tandoori Chicken Salad {Lactose Free!}
When Yoplait recently asked me if I would be interested in creating a few recipes using their new line of lactose-free yogurt, and I immediately told them that I was, and that I’d love to make this salad. I used to make it all time time – in fact, I used to make tandoori chicken for the sole purpose of having leftovers to use in this tandoori chicken salad – but somehow I let it fall of my radar completely. It’s actually been 6 years since I had it last! (I distinctly remember that I ate it in a pita while sitting on my balcony and writing a paper for grad school.)
Anyway, I was really excited that I remembered it existed, but I unfortunately jumped the gun a little by assuming that the yogurt was available in plain. (I should have realized there would be a catch, since they specifically mentioned that they were interested in savory recipes!).
Chickpea and Wild Rice Mulligatawny & Lunch Wars
I finished reading Amy Kalafa’s book, Lunch Wars, a few days ago. The book is about improving the food served in school cafeterias, and it was impossible not to think about my own school lunches as I read. In elementary school, I always felt bad for the kids who had to eat the hot lunch. It was absolutely disgusting. I remember one time I forgot my lunch and had to get the spaghetti. It was mushy and tasted like can. I sat there and cried, refusing to eat any more after the bite. Back in those days, at least in my school, there weren’t a lot of options in the cafeteria. You got whatever the lunch that day was and, if you were lucky and had an extra quarter, maybe you’d get an ice cream sandwich. But by high school, things changed. There were nachos. And pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (Yes, pints. I don’t know what they were thinking!) One year, a local pizzeria ran the kitchen and the only food available was pizza. Every day. Seriously? With the exception of the pizza year, I have no idea if there was a traditional hot lunch option. If there was, no one ever got it. Why would they? The junk food was good, and that spaghetti was nasty.