Spicy Thai Lamb Kabobs

First - I apologize for my absence this last week. I really needed a break and Wednesday holiday screwed up my internal calendar. I didn't intend to take a week off from blogging, but I feel much better  now that I'm rested.

It's July, which means cookouts, weekends at the beach, and standing directly in front of the air conditioning when necessary. When it comes to summer entertaining, burgers and hot dogs have become the default setting. As much as I love the classics, I also like to mix things up a bit. Which is why I was thrilled to be able to host another lamb supper club courtesy of the Tri-Lamb Group.

Using a gorgeous boneless leg of lamb, I decided to make some yummy kabobs to throw on the grill. For this little soiree, I decided to go with a Thai theme, using my favorite spicy Thai marinade for the meat and coming up with some Thai inspired side dishes. Lamb is an ideal meat for entertaining because its flavorful and extremely lean. It grills beautifully and soaked up the complex flavors of the marinade.

I am always thrilled to have another lean meat option. On average, a 3oz serving of lamb has ONLY 175 calories. Additionally, a serving of lamb has 23 grams of filling protein, and is filled with B vitamins, iron and zinc.

Anyway, so I put together a simple menu that would incorporate a whole bunch of Thai inspired flavors, ginger, garlic, chilies and cilantro were emphasized in every dish. I'll be bringing you the rest of these recipes this week, so keep an eye out for these tasty treats.

COOKOUT MENU:

Spicy Thai Lamb Kabobs

Grilled Sweet Potatoes

Rainbow Peanut Slaw

Thai Guacamole

Raspberry Ginger Sangria

Since this was an outdoor party I had lots of opportunities to snap some photos of my garden! Everything is coming along nicely - the heat wave fried my kale, so I learned a lesson about planting cold weather crops early. So far things are coming along nicely. I've already got tons of hot peppers coming in, some will be mature in a few weeks. I've also got cherry and roma tomatoes. I am sooo excited about these. In other news, the butternut squash is taking over the garden, growing in every direction and covering all the other plants. I had no idea it would be so ... vigorous.

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Lean on Lamb Supper Club

I was recently contacted by the Tri-Lamb Group to host a Lean on Lamb Supper Club. The Tri-Lamb Group is a collective of lamb producers from the US, Australia and New Zealand which is devoted to raising awareness about the wonderful nutritional benefits of lamb and educating consumers about how to incorporate it into a healthy diet. They sent me some gorgeous lamb shanks and the ingredients to make a fabulous and healthy lamb recipe for myself and some friends.

I was really excited because I don't have much experience cooking with lamb. I grew up eating it at Easter and that's about it. Occasionally I will experiment with it, like my Shepherds Pie last week, but for the most part it's not part of my regular cooking routine. The Tri-Lamb Group very generously provided me with the lamb and ingredients to make the braised lamb shanks, but I was not otherwise compensated for this experiment. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

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Shepherd's Pie with Horseradish Cheddar Mashed Potatoes

Shepherd's pie is one of those dishes Craig has been begging me to make for years. I have never tried it, since I'm generally turned off by super heavy comfort type foods. It always seemed like a very unhealthy and labor intensive dish to make.

Well. I decided to give it a try this weekend. Craig and I celebrated Valentine's Day a bit late. On Saturday, he took me up to the White Mountains to finally try snowmobiling! I have been wanting to try it for years, and I actually had it on my list of things to try before I turn 30. We went on a tour up through the mountains and it was so beautiful. More importantly, snowmobiling was so. much. fun. I had a blast. I only wish the instructors had let us drive faster! It was a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday. So when we got home, I finally made Craig the shepherd's pie he's been requesting.

Having no clue how to make this dish, I primarly got my inspiration from an article in Men's Journal that Craig had shown me a few months ago. I found an online version here. I started with the suggestions in the article and sort of made my own modifications. I tried to cram in a lot of delicious root veggies and kept the mashed potatoes as low calorie as I could. For flavors, I used thyme and bay leaves, as the article suggested and then used horseradish to flavor the potatoes. I bought a huge horseradish root this weekend, so I'll be incorporating it into a whole bunch of recipes this week.

The result was delicious. The preparation is pretty straightforward and easy to put together. I was really impressed with the delicious flavors and found the veggies added great texture to the dish. As expected, it falls into the super filling, comfort food category, the sort of meal that makes you feel sleepy when you're finished. I can officially say I'm a shepherd's pie convert! I am already envisioning all sorts of variations to this simple recipe.

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