The exquisite culinary experience continued last night with two delicious recipes from the Weight Watchers Points Plus Cookbook.
The amount of planning needed for these dishes was a little more than I expected. As I said yesterday, using ingredients that are new to me simply takes time to get used to. The prep time for the recipes I chose for last night was a little longer than I anticipated, and that was largely due to the combination of recipes I chose. Things like chopping fresh cilantro or rosemary are a bit time consuming, but nothing is more motivating to cook than the fresh fragrance of these wonderful herbs around your kitchen.
We started our evening with this refreshing, colorful and tasty salad, which can be found on page 114. With fresh squeezed lime juice, some cumin and coriander, this salad will tickle your taste buds. I have never used coriander before, but love to use cumin. The fruit tossed in these spices has a real nice flavor to it and makes for a great summer night salad. It is also filling and only 2 points per 1 cup serving. And… it looks beautiful!
Spiced Watermelon and Tomato Salad
The main course was the Rosemary Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables. I was able to find the boneless lamb shoulder at Whole Foods, where they cut it to nice 1-inch cubes for me (I recommend calling ahead to your local store).
As with a lot of healthy vegetable dishes, this recipe required a bit of cleaning and cutting of vegetables. I never used leeks or baby carrots prior to making this dish. Leeks add a great fragrance and flavor, and baby carrots have a more delicate taste than regular carrots. I found that this stew can be served over brown rice, but it will make you perfectly happy without it too. A one and a quarter cup serving has a value of 9 points and makes for a great and satisfying dinner at the end of a long day.
Rosemary Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables
rikicarignan 