everybody's got choices

Choose Your Own Adventure Bowl

Choose Your Own Adventure Bowl

The Dilemma: Kids won’t eat tofu. Husband won’t eat beef. I have steak and tofu in the fridge. I don’t want to make chicken.

My Bright Idea: Rice bowls with your choice of protein and veggie add-ons. Choose your own adventure!

The Plan: Cook the tofu how I like it—baked and crispy. See this recipe for a best basic tofu. Make rice in the Instant Pot (see this recipe for the best basic rice.) Pickle some thinly sliced peppers, roast some broccoli and sweet potatoes, sautee some mushrooms, cut up some cucumbers and tomatoes. Make some simple peanut sauce: chunky peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, soy sauce, hot sauce, water. Put it all out in a big dish in the middle of the table.

Variations: Mix and match any proteins or roasted/sauteed/grilled veggies (use leftovers!)—swap rice for quinoa or noodles. Choose a different sauce—like soy sauce/sesame oil or a garlic aioli.

The Verdict: Mostly success! Everyone was able to find something they liked. Mack wound up trying and liking the tofu while Nate stuck with steak/rice. With some hot sauce and a nice dose of the peanut sauce, the bowl of different healthy bites was surprisingly hearty and satisfying.

Swati chicken curry

Here’s a very sloppy recipe for the curry. Seriously going to need to use your instincts as I’m not a recipe person. I’m sure I’m forgetting something or in the very least not estimating accurate amounts. 

By the way, way to go with getting your actual name and nothing else as your gmail address! 

Anyway, hope it comes out awesomely! 

Red Onion Chutney:

Chopped small onion. Any kind that you have. 

A squish of tomato paste. Enough that when all mixed up it, it’s still a light liquid. Not very thick. 

Juice of one lemon. 

An average to small  finger pinch of paprika. 

A petite finger pinch of cumin.

A little agave or honey. I don’t know. Maybe a teaspoon. Maybe less. Maybe more. 

Salt. 

Combine and whisk everything except onions til kind of emulsified and then add onions and stir it up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRyELKGLGag 

Set aside in a glass or ceramic container covered and not in the fridge while you make everything else. After, store any left in fridge. 

For the curry.  ( * means it’s necessary or find an amazing substitute) 

3-6 servings (This is because less is needed to make tacos with the leftovers.)*Less than a can of coconut milk, maybe 5/8*Around a pound but not less, chicken breast (medium bite chunks)*A med sweet potato (Same size as chunks of chix)*2- 4 big clugs of chicken broth (low sodium preferred)*Tomato paste or fresh chopped tomatoes but then add it before the chicken to cook it down*2 minced garlic cloves *2 -3x the garlic amount of finally chopped ginger or some ginger powder.*Curry powderCumin*Berbere (Sub w garam masala or more curry if no berbere. If the sub doesn’t have any heat, a little spicy hot, add cayenne) Ground cardamomPaprika Before prepping the curry stuff unless you take forever to prep like me, chop chicken into medium bite sized chunks. Sprinkle curry powder on chix chunks. Enough to very lightly coat. You should still easily see the chicken. Like a see through dress. If that’s too much curry for your taste, then coat enough that it looks like one of those fishnet disco crop tops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmx1GL1Kyuw&app=desktop  Add a little salt. Mix a little. Set aside. Heat oil and onions and half of the ginger til onions are almost translucent.  Add chicken, an average pinch or 2 of cumin, garlic and rest of ginger and cook til the outside is sealed. Whitish. Add 2 or 3 or 4 medium squishes of tomato paste. Stir it up. Add 2 or 3 big finger pinches of berbere, a big finger pinch of paprika and a medium finger pinch of ground cardamom. Stir it up. After a minute or 3 or 4 but not 2, (2 with this part is useless), add chicken broth and some salt and stir. Let that cook for a few minutes to be truly influenced by the other flavors. Little by little add the coconut milk. Do what it takes for it to not curdle. (Even if it does curdle, it will get better as you stir. It will be fine. Maybe not perfect but fine.) Stir gently at med-low heat. You don’t want big bubbles. Gentle bubbles might be okay. But not a lot. A gentle simmer. I indiscriminately cover and uncover. 10 or 15  mins before you’re ready to eat, add sweet potato chunks. You don’t want very mushy potatoes. You don’t want hard to bite potatoes either.Add salt, extra coconut milk, berbere etc. to taste after the chicken is safely cooked. Hopefully you got that rice cooked in the meantime. I like to add peas to mine. Plate the rice so that there is less rice in the middle so it kind of makes it’s own bowl. Put the curry on the rice, mostly in the bowl part. You should still be able to see some white rice the farther you go from the middle.  Garnish w cilantro and serve w red onion chutney.  Yogurt or even better, raita goes well w it too.