Balsamic glazed lamb chops with salad and steamed veggies

Well, Spring Cleaning finally reached my fridge and freezer today. I like to go through weekly just to look and see what I have, what needs thrown out, but once every few months or so I deep clean it, digging all the way to the back to remember what's under those 5 bags of frozen corn, and re-organizing. That's how I found the lamb chops I had forgotten about. My family purchased a lamb whole and had it butchered a few months back, and were nice enough to give me a few chops to take to school. Well, since my boyfriend detests lamb in all forms, I hadn't thought of it in quite a while. But he's at work, I just worked out and was starving, and pulled this gem out of the freezer! Put the 3 chops on defrost in the microwave while I showered, and loosely based my recipe on one from Allrecipes.com. Total time in the kitchen, about 20 minutes. Total spent: $0 (because I had the ingredients all on hand. If I'd had to purchase them all, it would probably be ~$25). That's the way I roll. =)

You will need:

3 lamb chops

Spice mix (I made mine from rosemary, dill, sage, and mint)

1/4 medium onion

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup chicken broth

~4 redskin potatoes

Handful baby carrots

1 tbsp Country Crock

Olive oil

(Also, salad and whatever toppings you like if you want)

The veggies I wanted to steam, so I got a big pot of water boiling right away, with some salt in the water. I diced up the potatoes into chunks and the baby carrots just threw in whole. Let those steam the whole time I was cooking the lamb.

 Then I put about 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, and added the defrosted chops. Cooked a minute or two, turning once. Basically until they were nicely browned but not totally charred. I like a little bit of pink.

 This is the salad I made to go with my meal. I happened to have some cucumber, olives, a roma tomato, and 1/4 of an avocado. Threw in a handful of romaine, toppings, and some Italian dressing. YUM.

 These are the chops once cooked. They were oozing juice! Tasty.

 Then add the onion to the pan. Cook a minute or two, until translucent and soft. Add in the chicken broth and balsamic. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get any lamb drippings mixed in. Let this simmer until about half the liquid boils off.

Once the potatoes were soft when poked with a fork, I took the veggies out and mixed in 1 tbsp Country Crock, sprinkled with Nature's Seasoning and some sea salt. Holy. Crap. Steamed baby carrots are like candy! And the potatoes with them were a perfect pairing.

Once the balsamic is reduced to your liking, pour it over the chops. It smells SO good!

 Then dig in! Such a delish mixture of flavors and textures. I served myself on smaller plates, so the portion sizes were perfect. I also have 2 lunches put away for the week now. A very productive Monday if you ask me. =)