how to incorporate lemons into your dinner...

This post is a non-dessert food post, are you shocked? And no I am not pregnant or loosing my taste buds for all things sweets. I wanted to challenge myself to find recipes that incorporated lemons into my dinner or main dishes rather than just settle for making lemony desserts. I have two dishes for you today that actually in both dishes use lemon juice and zest. Double lemon whammy is what I call it!
The first dish is what we had for our Easter dinner on Sunday, lamb shoulder chops.
All you need is some lamb shoulder chops, 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, 3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary, 3 medium garlic cloves, pressed, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
In a cup combine the lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper.

Pour the contents of the cup all over the lamb shoulder chops.

Turn your oven onto broil, and place a cast-iron skillet or a metal skillet in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, place the lamb shoulder chops in the skillet and cook for 4-5 minutes depending on their thickness.

Then serve, eat and enjoy!
Also for our Easter dinner, we had steamed asparagus topped with lemon zest.

Last night for dinner we had lemon spaghetti to continue to use up the lots of lemons I was blessed with by my friend Laura.
It was quick and simple and produced great results.
All you need for a pound of spaghetti is 2/3 cup olive oil, 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, 1 tablespoon lemon zest, 1/3 cup chopped basil.
Cook your spaghetti noodles. In a small bowl combine the olive oil, Parmesan cheese and lemon juice.

Once the noodles are cooked, strain them but reserve the pasta water. Throw the spaghetti noodles back in the dish they were cooking and pour the olive oil lemon juice mixture over the noodles then stir to combine.

Once fully combined, season the noodles with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle the chopped basil and zest a lemon over the pasta. Now you serve, eat and enjoy!

Oh and Kip may have tried to sneak a bite or two of the spaghetti.

I have given you three different ways to incorporate either lemon juice or zest into a main or side dish. Using fresh ingredients, such as lemon juice or zest, means your dish will taste better and you don't have to load butter or salt into your meal to make it taste good. Remember, fresh is best!