Well it's Memorial Weekend and we are having an equal amount of fun family time and hard work. We are busy as bees trying to conquer the beast that is our yard. My husband is getting a back rub from his own personal PT in a little while after a full day of yard work. In addition to helping him weed and get our vegetables planted, I went to Meijers and spent a small fortune in groceries and yard accessories and well who could resist patriotic tshirts for my family for $3.99! Just trying to help the economy I guess. It is hard work cooking healthy and interesting meals and it is very expensive. I read an article about how to make your blog make you money, maybe I need to start advertising on the margins, I even read about one food blog where companies gave them money for groceries for endorsing their products. Hmmm....I think you guys need to make me more popular before I can qualify for that. I have been loving when you tell me you are making a recipe, makes me feel like I am not just doing this for my own kicks (well maybe I am!)
Yesterday was book club Friday and we read the book Splendor of Silence which took place in India and although it was in the past (1940's) you really felt immersed in the scenery and culture of the country. And really I can only listen to them talk about curry and coriander and cilantro and cumin (the 4 c's) without getting a hankering for some Indian food. So I found a really easy recipe (embellished it as always) and came up with a delightful little Indian dish that was SO easy, we are talking crock pot people....
Coconut Curry Tikka Masala
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into chunks
1 can of coconut milk
(I used lite)
1 jar of Tikka Masala sauce
2 tsp curry
2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp each of roasted ground coriander, dried cilantro, ground black pepper, ginger, chili pepper and cumin
1/2 cup to 1 cup of chopped fresh cilantro (
have you noticed how much I use of this stuff!)
Instructions: Throw everything (minus fresh cilantro) in crock pot on high/6hrs and let sit. Throw fresh cilantro in just before serving. Makes 8 servings, 4pts each, serve with.....
Coconut Basmati Rice
1 1/2 cups water
1 can coconut milk (again I used lite)
2 teaspoons (packed) brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups diced colored peppers
2 cups basmati rice (about 13 ounces), well rinsed, drained
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted
1/2 cup to 1 cup cilantro (seriously you can't have too much can you...)
Instructions:
Combine water, coconut milk, sugar, and salt in heavy large saucepan. Add diced peppers. Bring to simmer, then stir in rice. Cover, leaving slight opening for steam to escape. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 12 minutes. Cover tightly, remove from heat, and let stand 10 minutes. Transfer rice to bowl;stir in cilantro and sprinkle with toasted coconut.
The rice is more point heavy then the meat, again 8 servings and one serving is 6 pts, but added to the meat/sauce its only 10 pts and we served it with Garlic Naan (Indian flatbread) which a big sheet of Naan divided in 4 pieces each piece is only 1 pt. So my yummy Indian dinner was about 11 pts which is really pretty good. Meijers sells Naan now in the bakery, I feel very ethnic buying it! But if you can't find it you could eat it with any kind of flat bread. It's a good way to sop up that yummy sauce on your plate. So that was it, we had the full Indian experience and it was SO easy. Now don't you all think you can rush right out there and try it too and be able to say casually in conversation, "Oh well I think I'll just make some Indian food for dinner tonight..." and with crockpot meals, you seriously can get the meal made in 10 minutes at lunch time and then sit back and smell the aromas kicking in all day! Nice, right?
So for dessert we decided to embrace our American side, I mean it is Memorial weekend after all. Besides the Indian dessert they talked about in my book was some milky custard that they looked in a greenhouse full of roses so that rose scented dew covered the custard, come on now, I am not that insane. Of course this was a party for the royalty so maybe not every family in India is having rose flavored custard. Anyways so for our All American dessert we made...
Patriotic Ice Cream Sandwiches
Take chocolate chip cookies with red/white/blue M&M's, add 1/4 cup ice cream (ours was breyer's cookies and cream) and roll the edges in red/white/blue sprinkles. Refreeze for 2 hrs (and it's good to do something exhausting like yard work during this time so you have something to look forward to when you get your work done). Now these are NOT healthy, but hey I have enough pts today to splurge on one of these 8pt little monsters (I actually still have 5 pts after that too! What to do? I better have some milk to wash it down...). I haven't had it yet, this blog entry was on my to-do list yet tonight and I don't get one until all my work is done. But let's see what these All American girls think...
They seemed pretty happy I think! So much fun yet to be had this weekend. Working outside and in as a family is great bonding time and listening to my dorky Patriotic Playlist on iTunes. We even lined our sidewalk with tiny American flags, it was fun. Well maybe I will show off all our hard work when we get it done, who am I kidding, with a yard like mine it will never be done. Enjoy your weekend everyone!
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