Lamb chops, Mediterranean veg, garlic butter potatoes

Yesterday’s quest has left me utterly exhausted and in some pain: chronic illness is a right nuisance, it really is. I intended to do not much, but the best I can say is that I didn’t have to go out to deal with the job centre, the GP surgery, the pharmacy, the council, and mum’s irritable insistence that handing my flat back to the mortgage company didn’t mean I could expect any space over here for my things: her exact words were “you’re not bringing it into my house”. She later apologised, but my mood has been rather low ever since: I’m really looking forward to curling up in bed and just listening to the rain on the windows.

Dinner tonight was intended to be prawn curry, made using a recipe that mum got from an Indian friend when I was in my early teens, and which I happily rediscovered in the handwritten family cookbook while searching for something else entirely. However, my recent grocery shop left off the one thing you can’t make prawn curry without – prawns – so the week’s meal plan got rearranged and we ended up with a lamb chop traybake which I think mum enjoyed far more than I did. (Mum adores lamb – if I ask her for menu suggestions “lamb” is pretty much always the response – while I really only cook and eat it because mum likes it. I’m also unconvinced that cooking lamb chops from frozen in the oven, as stated on the pack, brings out the best in them: it’s convenient, but I think a hot pan and some seasoning would greatly improve them.)

The veg and potatoes were both pre-prepared from Tesco: the potatoes, ready-made with garlic butter, were meant to be cooked in the microwave but I found it easier to just bung everything on a baking tray together. The fact that everything made it into and out of the oven not once but three times is a testament more to luck than to my dubious grip and dexterity on days like today.

I realised as we dished up our meal that my phone was charging in the bedroom and so not available to take a photo, so I’m going to just put a random picture on as the headline image and be done with it. Sorry (or possibly not) for whatever we end up with.