2 Great Meals, 3 Recipes to Share

Thanks to my Stuck in a Rut post, I got great ideas (see next post), so I put one into action last night. Then tonight, I made another dish that turned out great, so I wanted to share them with you. I wish I had a picture of all 3 recipes (2 meals, 3 recipes), but I only have a picture of one. Sorry!

The first is Indian/Thai curry. Braden LOVES curry, well yellow curry, and always wants to eat at Thai restaurants. Needless to say, we haven't been to a Thai restaurant in over 3 years when we went to the one next door to our little Provo house and there was a huge centipede crawling across the table. Anyway, when my friend suggested curry, I begged for the recipe and she said I could share it. Thanks Nicole!

As with everything we do, I am modifying this recipe a little bit because it made a TON of sauce, way more than we can ever use. The original recipe also called for 1 can each of cream of chicken and mushroom, but I hate cream of mushroom soup, so I did 2 cans of cr. of chicken. Also, it called for mushrooms as an option, which I omitted too. It also called for butter, but I used oil so Taryn could have it and I put in 3 tsp. curry paste instead of 1 tsp curry powder. And I put in carrots and potatoes. So, here's my final recipe.

YELLOW CURRY with CHICKEN, CARROTS, and POTATOES

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup onion, chopped

2 chicken breasts, sliced or cubed

1 cup carrots, chopped

1 cup potatoes, cubed

3/4-1 cup milk (depending on your preference)
1 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream

3 teaspoon curry paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
Heat oil in large skillet and sauté onions until tender. Add chicken and cook thru. Add carrots and potatoes and cook until tender. Combine all other ingredients in a saucepan and heat thru. Serve over rice.

Second, tonight I made another attempt at Pasta Carbonara/Primavera. I make this a lot and each time, there's some complaint about it. Not enough flavor, not enough sauce, not enough pasta. Whatever. But tonight, it turned out great! So I thought I'd jot it down, even if its just for me to reference later.

PASTA CARBONARA/PRIMAVERA

1 pkg pasta of your choice (but I wouldn't recommend spaghetti, linguine, or fettacine. Stick with radiatore, penne, rigatoni, etc.)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp pre-minced garlic)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1 pkg grape tomatoes (or cherry, or roma chopped if you prefer), sliced in half

1/2 cup ham cubes (I used our frozen ham from a ham we bought at Christmas time but you can use thick lunch meat or ham steak or anything else. Sometimes we use bacon, but the ham provides more flavor and less fat)

3/4 cup fresh or frozen green beans, cut into 1 inch strips

1/2 cup peas (optional)

Boil water in saucepan and prepare pasta according to directions.Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet. Add onion and saute until tender. Add garlic, salt, basil and oregano. Saute and stir well. Add tomatoes, cover, and let simmer until tomatoes are tender and have released their juices (there won't be an overwhelming amount of juice...). Add more oil if necessary or desired. Add ham, beans, and peas and let simmer for 10 minutes. Drain pasta and add to skillet. Toss with sauce until well coated.

It was so yummy! And no complaints this time! (Except maybe there's not enough leftovers!)

And third, with our pasta carbonara, I made a smoothie to help get more vitamins in. One of the best things that came from my trip to Chicago last fall was learning to make smoothies without milk! Duh, I know, but we'd always made smoothies with milk so I just didn't think about the alternative, except water, which I had done and didn't like. So, with Taryn's allergy, I was delighted to learn my mom's way. Her basic recipe is this: 1 cup juice, frozen bananas, frozen orange juice concentrate, frozen fruit. She makes a smoothie practically every day and each time it comes out different, yet totally delicious! She often will add powdered milk to get the calcium in there, but we obviously don't do that.

So tonight, I made the smoothie, but wanted to try sneaking in some zucchini...and it worked! It did taste a little "green" but it was sweet and Keara had 3rds, so at least I knew she was getting full servings of fruits and veggies for dinner. Here's the smoothie we had tonight. Nothing is exact, and everything can be substituted for other things. Add more bananas or less juice to reach your desired consistency. Also, add powdered milk, flax seed oil, wheat germ, or whatever odd things you want to to suit your fancy. I know fruits have a lot of natural sugars, but I love giving my girls a delicious treat that has no added sugar or any other added ingredients. Just straight fruit! I took the leftovers and poured it into our popsicle molds. Keara's so excited to have that tomorrow!

MILKLESS FRUIT SMOOTHIE

2 cups apple juice

2 frozen bananas

1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup raspberries

1/2 cup zucchini, grated

Blend it all up and serve!