Easy Dinner Menu

You know it's basketball season when the ottoman becomes our kitchen table!

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I appreciate the small successes in the kitchen. My un-savvy culinary ways create many a mishap, and completion of a good dish is noteworthy.

Which is why I'm sharing this meal. It is simple--very basic, here--but some small touches brought it out of the usual mediocrity. So I had to share. Plus, I haven't been blogging much this week so I'm feeling a bit of pressure to get something out on the table.

And as I write, I'm sitting in bliss, with my beautiful snoring Dexter laying beside me on the bed with his head on Tristan's pillow. I can almost feel my heart pumping out the love. And he is my Australian Cattle Dog.

Leftovers because I'm too hungry to wait for my dinner plate to say cheese before eating. Shown here: Leftovers in my Pyrex-leftover-for-lunch dish that I love, my new cutting board that I want to marry, and my new rolling pin that I want to take behind the high school and get pregnant (30 Rock, anyone?). Read on to find out why I love my new tools!

A Better-than-going-out-and-much-healthier-too Dinner

Simple, Easy, Hardy, and Some Raw Veggies

Okay, so those of you who know my blog will see that I cheated in many ways in this meal. But that might start to happen more as I try to fatten up my husband and also as I have lazy days : ) The thing I like about this meal is that for my husband, I served it with salsa, and for myself, I served it with mango pickle (and Indian accent). So it was versatile in that it could cross cultural boundaries.

Beans

Canned refried pinto beans, vegetarian, Whole Foods brand

Place one can of beans into a saucepan, add:

1/4 cup of water

a handful of nutritional yeast (I have big hands)

a small dab (1/8 teaspoon?) bullion (or salt).

Stir well over medium-high heat. When it starts to bubble, turn it to low and add:

1/8 teaspoon garam masala

(weird, right? but it turned out sooo good with a subtle hint of something else good).

Brown Basmati Rice

I cooked this in our pressure cooker...only my second time using the cooker. It scares me! But I'm getting brave because I like having brown rice ready in twenty minutes. After it was cooked, I added some chaunk with canola oil, one bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds, and a red chile chopped in three pieces (so it could easily be removed). I took it off the heat as soon as I added the spices so as not to disturb the healthy qualities more than necessary. It made a difference in the rice, too, and because there is fenu greek, our body odor will smell like maple syrup tomorrow : )

Tortillas

I made wheat chapatis (that link also links to the original source of the recipe, although I've gotten my groove with these now so I have my "system"). It was really, really nice to have our own homemade tortillas rather than store bought wraps and such. I can't say mine are much healtheir, but they also have a more traditional feel that I appreciate. I used my new cutting board to knead and roll out dough and my new french rolling pin. If you ever plan to make your own tortillas, the french rolling pin is the easiest I've ever used (I've only used our regular American style ones with the handles and the traditional Indian skinny ones). It makes a huge difference! At some point I will post my full recipe but right now it includes a partial amount of white flour so I want to try to replace that with something first.

Sides and Garnish

Chopped raw spinach

Chopped campari tomatoes

Sliced avocado

Garnish with chopped cilatro

Salsa for him (we used Costco's organic salsa and it's pretty good)

Mango Pickle for me (very spicy but I'm used to it now)