Chicken and Veggies in an Indian Sauce

The situation:  Need to use up organic chicken in fridge before the weekend.

The solution:  I'll find a new recipe!  No, I'll make something up.  No, I'll find a recipe.  Ugh.

What went down:  I put half a chopped onion in a pan and threw some oil in.  When I don't know what else to do, I throw an onion in a pan and wait for inspiration.  So then I put in a hearty squeeze of ginger paste (have you discovered this stuff in the produce aisle?  it's great).  I added a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil to the mix.  I chopped 2 celery stalks finely and added them.  It started to smell lovely.  I decided to boil chicken in another pot.

After the onions were translucent, I added about two teaspoons of flour, stirred, and let it cook a little.  Then I deglazed the pan with some chicken broth (about 1 cup- add more if you need it saucier).  I remembered I had half a can of chopped tomatoes in the fridge.  I tossed them in.  Then I added the last half of a red pepper chopped coarsely.  By now, it was a good looking thing.

Spices.  Hmmm.  I was thinking the whole time about a sauce I made in February when I attempted malai koftas (Indian veggie meat balls with a yummy sauce) so I sort of went in that direction.  I added 2 teaspoons coriander, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons turmeric, 1 teaspoon cumin.

Oh.  You might be assuming I measured this stuff for real.  Nope.  I don't measure for stuff like this.  But I was thinking of you the whole time so I looked at about how much I was adding.

Salt to taste.  Hey, wait.  I have cilantro!  So I coarsely chopped what I had and tossed it in.  Side note: Cilantro seems so yummy, tangy and mild to me yet people completely HATE it.  Why is cilantro so polarizing?

Then I tasted it.  Yum.  I added some lemon zest.  I shredded the chicken breast that had been boiled and let the whole thing cook together on very low heat.

You could serve this over rice and it would be lovely.  I can't really digest rice right now so I had it straight up in a bowl with organic crescent rolls on the side.  (Whatevs, don't judge.  LOL).  I squeezed a lemon wedge on top.  Oh my.  So delicious.  

Here's the recipe in a list like normal people would do:

2 chicken breast, boiled, shredded

8 oz canned chopped tomatoes

1/2 large yellow onion

2 stalks celery

1/2 red pepper

1 T ginger paste

2t flour

1 C chicken broth

olive oil and toasted sesame oil

2 t coriander

1 t cinnamon

2 t turmeric

1 t cumin

 chopped fresh cilantro

salt

This makes enough for two hearty servings.  I made my lunch for tomorrow (bottom picture - sorry it's weird and upside down).

Healing 

I had an awesome session with my counselor yesterday and she said this great thing.  I can't paraphrase it right - Lighthouses can go out in the sea looking for ships to save; they stay on the shore shining their light to guide.  For me, this is about holding boundaries, not giving my power away, being the light that I am.  

She also said this cool thing:  

Time for a mental garage sale:  time to let go of a belief that is not supportive of the life I want to be living and replace it with one that is.

Also - biggie for me - I really am working on receiving.  Receiving love and care from others.  Receiving gifts from the universe.  Letting it happen.  Less controlling.  Yeah.  Hell yeah.  

Smoothies in Green and Pink

Since I am a smoothie loving freak of a woman, people always ask me about what I put in mine.  So, I have shared this important information with many of you before, but since you will ask me again, it will be here for all of time (or until the death of the internet as we know it).

I have a bunch of pain things to share about today, but this time, recipe first, bitching later.

I have used Spirutein shake mix for a long time now.  I have not had any other flavors beside chocolate because, really, what else is there?

You really have to mix this in the blender for it to come out tasty.  You use 1 scoop of shake mix per person.  Then 8 oz milk (dairy or almond or whatever).  Add 4-5 frozen berries.  I love frozen strawberries in it.

Organic frozen berries are not so expensive.  (You know what else is delicious?  Frozen organic cherries!  I love them heated up a little with some plain yogurt! - sorry for excessive exclamation points but they are so good!)

So if you blend up milk, protein powder and fruit, you get this lovely smoothie right here.  

Nate loves these so I'm guessing many picky eaters would like it.  It keeps you full for many hours.  Lately, I add 2 more things to mine:  Spinach and peanut butter.  I add a handful (1 C ish) of baby spinach leaves and 1 T of smooth peanut butter.  Then blend until no spinach is visible (chunks of spinach leaves is not desirable).  Then it looks more like this.  

I read about green smoothies and decided to try it since I can't eat salad anymore.  This smoothie is very filling.  I had this for breakfast today and I wasn't really hungry until after school (but my appetite is a weirdo anyway these days).  Your question, of course, is "can you taste the spinach?"  The answer is no, not at all if you blend it thoroughly.  I do think the addition of peanut butter helps make the spinach work.  

Enjoy.  What are your smoothie recipes?  Please share in the comments.

Okay, now for some sharing.  I went to the pain doctor today since it has been 22 days since the most recent epidural injection.  I've gotten significant relief but the past 2 days, I have had more leg pain.  Last week, I hardly took any pain medications and the doc and I discussed that I don't seem to have any issues of dependency (whew).  I am so relieved that when I need to stop these, I won't have any problems.  I got some new prescriptions since I was absolutely, completely out of medicine.  I always fantasize that I won't need more and wait until I have none to get more.  

The doc just had to put his 13 year old wheaten down last weekend and I practically jumped to talk more about Orso (pictured with me above).  Orso passed on about 6 weeks ago and my heart aches for him daily still.  I tell Nate everyday, "I miss Orso."  That's all I can really say.  

I went to fill the prescriptions.  I used to be totally anonymous in this town.  After teaching for 4 years here, not so much anymore.  The pharmacy tech is a student teacher at the high school.  She knows what I take for medicine.  I am not invisible.  One of the meds requires a waiting period because they don't store it in the store.  I would have had to wait 2 days, but the nice student teacher offered to drop it off at the other CVS so I can pick it up tomorrow.  She didn't think I was a junkie.  She thought I needed help.  Sigh.  I was so caught up in feeling self conscious, I almost missed a human being being super kind to me.  

The pain doc thinks it's really promising that I got some relief.  It means it's not hopeless.  The nerve is not permanently damaged.  He generally thought I seemed much better overall after the fusion.  That seems like really good news and feedback, but it doesn't actually go all the way into my brain.  As long as there is pain in my leg, there is pain in my leg.  

The other day in school this woman that I have never met took out her pointer finger and pointed at me up and down and said, "You got really skinny.  You weren't heavy or anything, but you got really skinny."  I tried to decide if this was a complement, a complaint, a general statement.  I said, "Yes."  I am such a wackadoo sometimes.  What should I have said?  

So I am starting to consider this week's baking adventure.  I have this lemon yogurt cake in mind and my friend made it and said it was wonderful.  I've also been wanting to reproduce Bertucci's rolls.  And I want to try to make chocolate eclairs!