Chicken Curry with Dry-Roasted Spices

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste (we made this, basically blending ginger and garlic. For the 2nd recipe we just bought it pre-mixed. Much easier cause we only have a stick blender.)
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp white poppy seeds ( we did not include)
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp green cardamon seeds
• 1 tsp ground dried pomegranate seeds ( we did not include)
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 1/2 lbs chicken (we used thighs)
• 1 1/2 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt – whisked til smooth
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro

First you have to prepare the ginger-garlic paste. Like I said, this was kinda of a pain and we couldn’t get it blended really well. It would probably be worthwhile to just buy the paste if you plan to cook a lot of Indian.

Next in a little dish put the cumin, garam masala, poppy seeds, ginger, cardamon, and pomegranate seeds.

Throw them into a small skillet and roast on medium low for about 2 minutes, or until they start to smell all yummy.

Next in a big pan heat up your oil and cook the onion til well browned. Here is some onion browning. I’m pretty sure I have a picture like this in almost every blog post.

Add the ginger-garlic paste to the onions.

Then add the chicken, coriander and salt.

Cook for about 7 minutes, flipping the chicken a couple of times. You want the chicken to be nice and browned.

Add the yogurt. You have to do this slowly and only add a little at a time. Also you have to stir it while you do it so it doesn’t curdle…cause that’s icky.

Once all the yogurt is mixed in throw the roasted spices on and then cook everything on medium heat until all the liquid evaporates and the chicken is done. Roughly 15 minutes ( according to book, ours took closer to 25ish).

Serve with some rice and enjoy!

Part 2 Coming in a few moments

Turns out it was amazing. I really wanted to just eat the entire pot. Just as good as the restaurant risotto! However, it is kind of a pain to make because you have to sit and stir it constantly and with that cooking and pork in the oven it was very toasty standing there. I will definitely make this again though. Recipe comes from our box of Mediterranean Cooking Recipe Cards

Asparagus Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs fresh asparagus
• 3 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 onion – sliced
• 1 1/2 short grained rice
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan

First cut the asparagus up and throw them in a sauce pan with water. Cook for about five minutes drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a big skillet over medium heat. Add the onion an let brown.

Meanwhile in a sauce pan heat up your chicken broth so it’s at a nice simmer.

Add the rice and half the asparagus pieces to the onion pan. Then stirring constantly add the broth one ladle full at a time. Stir until it’s all absorbed and then add the next ladle full.

Keep doing this until you have used all of the broth. It takes a while.

Once all the broth is used up, stir in 2 tablespoons butter and the Parmesan . Mix well and add the rest of the asparagus.

We had it with some pork. Very tasty!!

Here is the description that she has on the card: “A rich chocolate cookie, slightly high in the center with a rather unusual texture and flavor due to the chocolate-oatmeal combination. A crunchy, crisp cookie that stores well.”

(Sorry for blurry pic )

Chocolate Oatmeal Bon Bons

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup soft butter
• 1/4 cup soft shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups quick rolled oats.

First mix together butter, shortening, sugar, egg, chocolate, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add this bowl to butter/sugar bowl and add the oats. Cover and chill throughly. Roll into small balls about the size of a walnut.

Place about 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Then you eat it and it’s delicious but you are tired. “Good night,” you say, as your eyelids begin
to droop…

Spanish Tortilla

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 2 pounds potatoes – peeled and sliced
• 2 onions – peeled and sliced into rings
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 3 oz prosciutto
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Cut up potatoes, onions, and prosciutto.

In a pan put 1/2 cup olive oil and heat at medium/low heat. Throw in half your potatoes.

While these are cooking (for about 15/20 minutes) roast your red pepper. Once roasted, remove skin and chop up.

Once your potatoes are done cooking (when they are nice and tender) remove them and throw the rest of the potatoes in the pan and cook.

In another skillet heat 2 tbsp olive oil. Add onions and cook for about 15 minutes until brown.

When potatoes are finished cooking add them to bowl with other potatoes and let cool for a few minutes. Leave the oil in this pan you will use it again in a few minutes.

In a bowl whip up eggs. Add everything to eggs, prosciutto, pepper, potatoes, and onions.

Heat up oil in the potato pan and add the mixture to it.

Cook for about 10 minutes til edges are nice and firm. Here comes the tricky part and i have no pictures of this. Slide the tortilla onto a plate. (Make sure your plate is big enough, mine wasn’t so a lot of it fell off.) Put skillet upside down over plate. Flip tortilla into skillet so the top is now on bottom and cook for another 4 minutes.

When finished slide onto plate and let cool to room temperature. Enjoy!

Nutrition (1/6):
Calories: 399.3 (most likely from all the olive oil which you could probably cut back on)
Fat: 25.7g
Protien: 12.5g
Carbs: 30.8g

Strawberry Pizza Ingredients:

• 1 prebaked pizza crust
• 1 cup cut strawberries
• 1 cup trimmed watercress
• 3 oz goat cheese
• 1 oz parmigiano reggiano
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• pepper
• handful of almonds ( recipe calls for pistachios, but I didn’t notice that, despite it having pistachios in the title…. so I used almonds!)

Bake pizza crust all by itself for 8 minutes at 425.

In a bowl mix strawberries, watercress, pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice.

Pull crust out of oven, crumble goat cheese all over it. Pour strawberry mixture on top of that.

Sprinkle parmigiano reggiano and almonds on top and enjoy!

This recipe is from 1000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra.

Nirmala’s Sindhi Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 tbsp coriander
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper ( I didn’t use cause I was out)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3-5 green cardamom pods, crushed lightly to break the skin
• 2 tbsp peeled minced fresh ginger
• 1 cup finely cute cilantro (also out of this)
• 2 lg onions
• 4 tomatoes
• 12 scallions (white and light green parts only)
• 1-3 chili peppers ( I used one, Steve would have liked more…too bad for him I say)
• 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt – whisked until smooth.

In bowl one amalgamate coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt and cardamom pods.

In second bowl ( I needed two to hold it all) mix ginger, garlic, scallions, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and green chili peppers.

Add oil to pan. Throw chicken in pan and cook for about five minutes.

Dump in first bowl (spices). Stir, coating the chicken.

Dump in second bowl and cook for a bit ( recipe says five minutes, I think I did it a little longer so it could cook down somewhat cause it was exploding out of my pan).

Add the yogurt a little at a time. I couldn’t get a good picture of this cause you have to constantly stir so the yogurt does not curdle.

Let cook for another minute or two, lower heat to low and let simmer for about 30 minutes until it becomes viscous.

While that’s happening lets work on our bread.

Chapati Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup water
• 3-4 tbsp melted butter
• 1 Chabie cat

Okay, I tried to make this but it didn’t turn out very good. It tasted good, but it didn’t look right.

In a bowl put 2 cups flour and stir in with fingers about 1/2 cup water. Stir til dough forms, add more water if needed. Knead dough a few times. Let sit at room temperature for about an hour.

Separate into 12 pieces.

In a small bowl put 1 cup flour. Take little dough ball place in bowl of flour and flatten into a circle. The on a floured surface roll it out.

Heat up griddle or pan. Put dough on pan for about 30 seconds then flip. Once it starts to puff you are supposed to guide the air into the center so it forms into a ball. This is the part I failed at. Once you do this coat with butter and then crumple it all up so the butter gets all in it and gets yummy. Serve these hot.

Enjoy!

I’ll put the calories in later.

p.s I’m studying for the GREs, hence all the weird words.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 tbsp milk
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion
• spinach (a lot)
• goat cheese (about 8 oz)

In an oven safe pan heat up some olive oil. Add your onions and saute for a minute or two then add your garlic. Then add your spinach. Cook this for a few minutes til it looks all wilted.

While that’s going on put your eggs and milk in a bowl and beat them.

Pour on top of spinach.

Let cook til the edges start to set.

Add half the cheese and then throw in the oven which is pre-heated to 375. Let cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the cheese then let cook for about another five minutes. Pull it out and let set for a minute or two, then ENJOY!

Nutrition 1/4 of Frittata:
Calories: 270.4
Carbs: 4.1g
Protein: 18.4g
Fat: 20g

Asparagus and Roasted Red Pepper Omelet Ingredients

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 lb asparagus
• table salt and black pepper
• 1 medium shallot
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 garlic clove
• pinch of chili powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 5 large eggs
• 1/3 cup roasted red peppers
• 1/2 cup fontina cheese

First I had to roast the red pepper. I chopped it open, stuck it on a baking sheet and put it in the oven at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes. Part way through I flipped them over.

While the pepper was roasting I cut up the other veggies.

I made Steve grate the cheese .

Put you’re 5 eggs in a bowl or this weird little dish that came with my blender and blend those guys up.

Heat up your pan and add 1 tbsp of butter.

Once it’s browned up a bit add in the asparagus.

Saute those for a minute or two then toss in the shallot.

Finally throw in your garlic, lemon juice, and spices. Let this cook for 3-4 minutes til asparagus starts to brown. Remove from pan and put in a bowl with your roasted red peppers that you have now taken out of the oven and cut up.

In the same pan, or a new one, heat up remaining 1tbsp butter (i actually used non-stick spray for this, 0 calories). Pour eggs into the pan once it’s heated up. Let them cook for a few seconds.

With your rubber spatula, lift up the edges of the egg and tip the pan so the runny stuff goes under the cooked eggs and cooks. Do this all the way around the pan until very little runny egg is left on top. With your spatula push whatever runny egg remains to the edge.

Toss your bowl of toppings on top of the eggs and your cheese and cover with a tight lid and turn off the stove. Let sit for a couple minutes until remaining egg cooks.

Meanwhile I had Steve cooking up some home fries.

Once your omelet is all cooked remove the lid and turn the heat back on just for a few seconds to help lift the omelet from the pan. This is the tricky part, somehow get the omelet out of the pan and onto your plate and make it look kinda of pretty. I have no suggestions for this, i ended up ripping the omelet . I think part of it is because this a big full omelet and is hard to flip.

nonetheless it tasted delicious and it switched up our meals a lil!

Enjoy!

(sorry for the poor photography, one day we will get a camera that is good )

Nutrition (1/2 omelet):
Calories: 441.5
Fat: 33.1g
Protein: 11.1g
Carbs: 26.0g

• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 can corn, rinsed and drained
• 1 red pepper
• 2-3 scallions
• 1 cup dried cranberries ( i accidentally bought craisens )
• 1 carrot
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 tbsp cilantro
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 tbsp soy sauce (consider low-sodium, but not necessary)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup olive oil****
• slivered almonds

**** When I made it I used 1/2 cup olive oil and personally it was wayyy to oily. Still delicious, but it raised the calories way up and didn’t seem necessary. Next time when I make it I will try 2tbsp and see how that works out.

Cook up your brown rice (in a rice cooker! get one!) . When that’s done cooking put it in a bowl with the corn, chopped red pepper, shredded or chopped carrot, cranberries, chopped scallions, black beans and cilantro.

In a small bowl mix up garlic, soy saucse, lemon juice, and oil. Throw that on bowl one and top with slivered almonds. It seems best to add the almonds right before you are about to eat it so that they retain their nice crunchyness.

Yum!

Enjoy!

Nutrition 1 serving of salad (6.8 oz) w/ .3 oz of almonds:
Calories: 381 – (if you used 2tbsp of olive oil it would be 291 calories)
Fat: 19g
Protein: 9g
Carbs: 47g