I ordered beforehand just to save time. I requested two Baja fish tacos and refilled the sports drink cup for 99 cents. And I went with the Queso Fundido nachos just for the heck of it. It was only $1.34 and it was new, so I figured, why not? It turned out to be a pretty good thing. The cheese dip was spicy and quite tasty. Jim discovered that pairing the queso with the pinto beans that came with his taco meal was perfect. For whatever reason, I was absolutely famished, so I ate some in addition to my roasted vegetable sandwich (which, for the record, was super yummy).
Midget went in to see the vet today (again) for an all-day visit in order to do a blood glucose curve. She wasn't ready until 6:30, so I went over to Jim's right after work to quickly whip up dinner. We had gotten some ground lamb from Whole Foods and I decided to make proscuitto lamb burgers, courtesy of Giada. The recipe is super easy and relatively quick, which was perfect for today.
I beat an egg into my largest Williams-Sonoma glass bowl, then dumped in 1/2 a cup of bread crumbs, 1/2 a cup of grated Pecorino Romano, 3/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp salt (instead of the 3/4 tsp called for), 1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, 1/4 cup of chopped parsley (regular instead of Italian flat-leaf cuz that's what I had), and 2 tbsp of half and half (instead of whole milk, cuz we're all out). I stirred it together and then incorporated a pound of ground lamb, mixing it by (gloved) hand. I laid out 6 pieces of proscuitto on top of some parchment paper, scored the mixture into 6 pieces, and then molded them into patties, wrapping each in a slice of proscuitto.
I put Jim on frying duty, which ended up being about 7 minutes on each side, cooking them in EVOO. They were fried in two batches of three. The first batch almost burned, because I set the timer for 8 minutes, which was the upper limit of the listed cooking time. I patted the second batch thinner, just to ensure that the lamb was cooked through. The problem was making sure that the proscuitto didn't burn.
Anyway, I didn't finish the burgers off like Giada called for (a slice of tomato and spring of basil on top of each), mostly because Jim doesn't really care for either. Well, he likes basil, but not in a piece on top of something. So the overall effect wasn't as pretty as hers. But they were pretty nice looking and the sun-dried tomato bits gave some pretty bursts of color in the patty. I tried draining the burgers on paper towels, but to my surprise, there really wasn't a ton of fat.
Jim liked the dish enough to eat three burgers. Seeing as the dish was supposed to serve 4-6, I'd say that was a pretty big compliment. So based on tonight's helping, he only has one more meal out of it. I was a little concerned about the salt content, but he said it was plenty salty. I know proscuitto is pretty salty by itself, but I wasn't sure if 1/4 tsp of salt was enough for the rest of the meat. Next time I may simply omit all of the added salt because the cheese ought to give the meat mixture enough saltiness. Because the dish was so easy, there will likely be a next time.
This is only the second or third time I've cooked lamb, and this is certainly the first time I've tried ground lamb. But Jim seems to like it, so I may try to make it more often. I've come to the realization that while organic and other higher quality meats are more expensive, it's still way cheaper than eating out. Today's meat was $7.99 for a pound, and the proscuitto was probably $3. The other ingredients probably cost about $5 and then about $1 for the side of asparagus I steamed. So it was $17 for two meals. Seeing as Jim's Baja Fresh lunch cost $9, that's essentially the same price and it was a heck of a lot more food that I cooked. So basically, so long as Jim isn't eating fast food all the time (like $3.50 of fish tacos from Rubio's), it's going to be far cheaper to cook some high quality, healthy meals. And really, how can you put a price tag on healthy food? Is it really worth saving a few dollars for him to eat three-headed chickens that have been pumped full of antibiotics and crap?
I did some online research about lamb and discovered that it's very good for you, with tons of zinc, B12, B3, and of course protein. The downside is the high level of saturated fat, but that's a portion thing. You're supposed to have a 4 ounce serving. Jim had twice that tonight, about 8 ounces. Of course, Jim eats (and needs) about twice as much as the average person. The saturated fat level concerns me, but if I supplement the meal with some more veggies and a starch, he might be okay with 2 instead of 3 burgers, which would mean a 5 1/3 ounce serving. That's not so bad.
As for the rest of my day, when I picked Midget up from the vet, I was very disappointed to learn that her blood sugar levels are still sky high, as in off the curve panel test levels. The vet increased her insulin up to 10 units per dose and she's due back in next Monday. While she lost a pound (down to 58 now, the little pork chop), the vet didn't see it as a good thing because she's still not stable. I swear it's not just my imagination that she's perkier, but that may just be because her bladder infection has been cleared up.
After I got home, fed Midget and gave her her insulin, and ate some dinner myself, I practiced an hour of piano, trying to prepare for this Saturday's concert. It's all about refining right now and getting the pieces concert-ready. Since I don't perform regularly anymore, it's easy for me to be a little on the sloppy side these days. So I went through the harder sections, taking care that I didn't just slop and cheat my way through them. I'm exhausted from my efforts, but I think I sound a whole lot better now, so I should be good to go this Saturday if I make the time to practice Tuesday-Thursday and of course on Saturday, too.
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