Surprisingly Thankful: April 2011

Indian dishes- rememended by Cactus

Rava Dosas with Potato Chickpea Masala

South Indian Vegetable Curry

I ndian Spiced Lentils

Coconut Red Lentil Curry

My friend Cactus sent me an email of dishes to make, since how April is Indian food month. I'm notorous for forgetting about emails, so I relocated the links here so you and enjoy them and so that I can reference them too. I'm going to make the coconut curry later this week. Pictures on the way!

spirulina and dried seaweed

A few new foods to spice up my formally routine eating habits...

A local company, go raw, makes vegan and gluten free bars. I'm undecided about this spirulina energy bar because of the vomit like after taste. I'm sure the ingredients are fresh, it's the combination that I think is to blame. Perhaps it's the coconut and spirulina combo. I'm up for trying another flavor. I LOVE the idea of eating raw superfoods.

Salty, paper thin, dried seaweed. Gone in about 3.4 seconds.

Kombu seaweed- toss in chili to get make the "musical fruit" not so musical. Or so I hear. This super thick seaweed is still in the package. Next time I make chili, I'll toss some in there.

I won the BYOB!

After diligently trying to win the raffle at Trader Joe's for BYOB (bringing your own bag) I WON!!!

The dilemma- do I spend it on regular groceries or splurg on fun foods?

Just imagine $20 worth of blueberries.
Or $20 of superfood smoothies.
Ah yum!

I decided fun food is the way to go. Life is not that serious.

It wasn't until I was putting the food away did I realize that the foods I instinctively picked up fit the food themes from the last three months: Thai, Superfoods and Indian.

For exactly $20.05 I took home:
canned Indian curry
2 pre-made box Indian dishes
sweet chili sauce
blueberries
bell pepper
tomato
garbanzo beans
green smoothie
wild rice (I got this because weekly I pick up 1 food I haven't bought or tried before and this fit the bill.)

Ironically I didn't have my own bag when I redeemed the BYOB.

2011 Monthly Food Themes Table of Contents

Since my meals were all tasting the same I decided to pick a theme per month and cook one new dish per week. Even trying a snack or a drink from that theme is fine. No pressure. Just time to change it up! By setting such an easy goal I've met it and exceeded it every month.

November is Don't Start Anything New Month

It's time for hibernation and conservation of energy. I'm focusing on actively ending things, returning cookbooks I am not using, using up ingredients that almost never move in the cupboards, and letting what I've learned about cooking gel and not go out and get more information.

October is Vegetarian Food Month

I hadn't realized this is the first time I've posted about what I cooked during October. But really all that I am going to leave you with is that it was delicious. Sorry. See November's goal for why there is no post.

May

I took the month off because it was chalk full of wonderful things: having company three different times and preparing for a huge interactive art installation.