This weeks dinner menu!

Ive gone down a bit of a different road this week, in terms of what I'll be eating... I actually planned what Ill eat and made a list for it. It didnt take me too long really, and I tried to choose recipes with ingredients that I know I already have and am keen to use up (like mustard, potatoes and halloumi).

So I went for the shop today and found that I bought much LESS than I usually buy, because I had some direction in what I knew I needed, rather than buying a heap of things I MIGHT want to use... I spent about the same amount that I usually spend, but I think this had alot to do with a few extras I bought that werent food related.

What I've decided to eat this week is:
1) Seared lamb with hummus and pine nuts
2) Mustard pork chops
3) Double potato and halloumi bake
4) Warm Bean Salad w/ bread
5) Crispy chicken w/potatoes and tomatoes
6) Welsh Rarebit

The first 3 are from nigella.com and the last 3 from Jamie Olivers book, Jamie at Home, but I dont have a link to the welsh rarebit sorry!

I had the lamb tonight for dinner, and it was really nice! Ive decided that I quite like hummus, ever since I had it at the Subiaco Hotel in Perth. It was served with pickled vegetables and dukkah bread - it was the hero dish of the night, it was deceptively good! Anyway so my first attempt at making hummus went fine, I dont have a blender but you really dont need one... Just took a quick step into the old days before there were any appliances and everything was manual labour! The hummus was great, its really easy, though I never really thought otherwise, but its definately something I'd make again! Now, the recipe calls for pomegranite seeds, pinenuts and dill... I hate dill (due to an unfortunate incident with salmon with dill sauce resulting in food poisoning), there was no pomegranite at the market (not in season Im guessing!) and pinenuts were insanely expensive (cheapest I found was $7 for a little bag... hmf) so I skipped all those aspects. It wouldve been an amazing dish with the pinenuts and pomegranite, though they werent available so I made do... The lamb i changed a bit to use what I had, which was lamb shanks. I put sealed them first in a pan with S&P and a sprinkle of cumin, then into the slow cooker, set on high for however long it took me to get to the shops and back (where I do my shop is 40mins away...). When I got home the lamb was almost ready so I left it a bit longer until I couldnt pick the shanks up to turn them over in the slow cooker, without bits of meat falling off the bone! I flaked it all off, mixed it up with the hummus and some extra cumin, S&P and ate it! I was pretty hungry so I didnt manage to get any pics of it, but next time I make it Ill take a pic and hopefully itll have the little pomegranite bombs of flavour on it!!

Ill report back on the others during the week as I make them, but Im looking forward to a delish week!!

PS this is about 45mins after Ive eaten dinner, followed by a little tub of yoghurt with mango - I feel really satisfied by this meal and dont feel like I need to eat anything else! I often feel like something else after Ive eaten dinner but not tonight! All teh chickpeas have done me good :)