Curry dinner with curried chicken and roasted curried cauliflower...curry

While having a friend over for a last minute dinner the other night, I suddenly had a craving for this roasted curried cauliflower recipe I had found on Weight Watchers. While my husband is pretty good with the majority of food that I make, he does not eat vegetables. No seriously, veggies, let alone raw veggies, never make it to his plate (ok, I exaggerate, he eats 5 veggies). With that in mind, I had to make sure that whatever I made, he would eat too. Queue the rice and chicken.

For this meal, I needed to go into my pantry and see what went with what. Also, it should be noted that although I found the recipe on Weight Watchers, as my friend is deathly allergic to nuts, I had to adjust the recipe and made it my own.

Ingredients (Chicken):
- 6 chicken thighs
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp  Yellow Curry Paste (I used Mae Ploy -  it has lemongrass, garlic, shallots, salt, galangal, dried red chilli, coriander seeds, kaffir lime peel, cuminmcinnamon, mace, tumeric and cardamom)
- 1x 400mL can of Light coconut milk

Cauliflower conconction:
- 1 Cauliflower head, fresh, washed and cut into 1" florets
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp curry powder
- 2 tsp of salt
- 1x 540 mL can of chickpeas, rinsed and dried
- Tumeric
- Cayenne spice
- 4 Tbsp of hot Mango Chutney
- 4 Tbsp water
- 1 bunch of green onions (shallots), chopped

Directions:

Start by preparing the cauliflower, as this takes the longest.

Preheat oven 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, toss the cauliflower florets with olive oil, curry powder and salt. Spread evenly on baking sheet and cook for about an hour, or until the cauliflower is well browned. With about 30 minutes remaining, ona seperate sheet, spray cooking spray and spread chickpeas. Lightly sprinkle the tumeric and cayenne spices over, to add a little flavor. Place in the oven. When the time is up, combine the cauliflower, chickpeas and green onions in a large bowl. Whisk together chutney and warm water, and pour over cauliflower. Toss and serve.

To prepare the chicken
In a large skillet or frying pan (I used a wok), on medium high, fry curry paste in olive oil for 2 minutes. Add coconut milk and stir for another two minutes. Add chicken. Once liquid in pan starts to boil, turn down heat and let chicken cook through.

Serve over basmati rice.

**The Cauliflower can be a meal all it's own. I added a bit of cottage cheese to my leftovers for a richer, ceramier taste.

ENJOY!

Soba noodle stir-fry

This concoction is my quick and easy flavor changer. It literally takes 5 minutes to make. All you need is:

- the leaves of an entire baby bok choy
- a single serving of soba noodles ( I used these sweet potato and buckwheat ones from King Soba-delish!)
- sesame seed oil
- gluten free soy sauce ( or reg. If you aren't gluten-free )
- spicy chilli concoction (mine is made with diced fresh chillis, crushed garlic, honey and white rice  vinegar)

Boil water; add noodles and bok choy together. Cook until noodles are ready and then mix in the oil, soy sauce and chilli concoction. 

Voilà!  Enough to satisfy your hunger!

Mushroom risotto

This delicious dish comes straight from allrecipes.com. Here is the link.

Side note, make sure the broth is gluten-free, as well as the arborio rice (yes I know rice is normally gluten-free but sometimes you can find wheat in there somehow).

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/85389/gourmet-mushroom-risotto/

Veggie stir fry

During a meal at Scores, we realized there wasn't much option for a gluten-free meal. That said, I made a makeshift stir-fry and since then, I'm always craving this.

Ingredients:

Pack of fresh whole green beans, ends cut off
Pack of white mushrooms, washed, ends cut off and cut into quarters
Half a large red onion, quartered, layers seperate
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Instructions :
* This is so easy my husband made it.

Heat oil over medium heat in a wok or fry pan. Cook chicken, then set aside.

Meanwhile, put onion in and sauté.  Add mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes.  Add greens beans. Add chicken and balsamic vinegar to taste.

And there you have it.....mmmmmmmm

Simply delicious pesto spaghetti squash and balsamic chicken

So this is my quick go to meal. It's healthy, quick to make (max 10 mins), gluten-free, low fat AND delicious. Perfect for anyone with crazy digestive issues. Soooooo. ..

Ingredients:
Spaghetti Squash
Pesto (homemade or store bought)
Parmesan  (optional)
Chicken breast
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Instructions:

Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds. Place the squash in a microwave safe dish, face down, with half an inch of water. Put in microwave on high for 5 minutes  (or until squash is easily scraped into spaghetti*).

Meanwhile, cut up chicken into bite size pieces. Heat oil in pan on medium heat. Place chicken in pan and coat in oil. Once chicken is cooked through, pour balsamic vinegar (to taste). Marinate for 2 minutes. Place aside.

Squash should be cooked and cooled down a bit. Scrape it out, mix with pesto (I use 1 1/2 tbsp per half) and parmesan cheese.

Voilà !

Coconut Curry Cream of Cauliflower

This soup is SOOOOOOO delicious and extremely easy to make. However, with the price of cauliflower, I would suggest making it when it's onsale :)

This recipe is from our local grocery store (IGA). Their website has tons of delicious recipes. I highly suggest checking them out!

Ingredients: 

30 ml (2 tbsp.) vegetable oil
1 chopped medium onion
2 chopped garlic cloves
30 ml (2 tbsp.) grated fresh ginger
10 ml (2 tsp.) curry powder (I like curry so I added another teaspoon)
To taste, salt and pepper
1 head cauliflower, cut into large pieces
500 ml (2 cups) chicken broth (I use a low sodium broth)
500 ml (2 cups) coconut milk (I used a light coconut mil)
250 ml (1 cup) peeled potatoes, cut into pieces
1 lime's zest and juice

As a garnish, I used Terra Brand Mediterranean Exotic Vegetable Chips.

In a large saucepan, heat vegetable oil. Sauté onion and garlic on medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add ginger and curry and mix well. Salt and pepper to taste.
Add remaining ingredients to saucepan and bring to boil. Cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes or until cauliflower is well cooked.
Purée in blender until smooth.

A challenge to a healthier life

I keep promising myself that I will post to this blog at least once a week, and have been extremely unsuccessful. That said, I'm not making any promises, but I wanted to post about a new challenge that I am setting for myself, and I'm going to try to share every recipe along the way.

This blog is to share recipes and tricks for people with food intolerances, like I have. It's been maybe 10 years now that I have been struggling with digestive issues. It was eventually determined that I had severe IBS and would have to make huge cuts in my diet. No more red meats or dairy. Being careful about foods packed with insoluble fibres. Watching my portions. Avoiding fatty foods (although I do cheat on occasion, but pay the price). 

All of this has done me well, until maybe a year ago. A year ago, I was going through a stressful time. I was tired all the time, no matter how much I slept. My stomach was always upset. I would get dizzy spells and started developing psoriasis.

This has been going on for a year, and has only gotten worse. During that time, I started gaining a lot of weight, and it seems I have new symptoms that are beginning to concern me.

With the weight gain, this summer, I tried a 2 week green smoothie diet. It essentially was 3 green smoothies a day, nuts, hard boiled eggs and raw fruits and veggies. I did it as a detox for my system (but the weight loss was very welcome and I kept it off for at least 6 months). At the end of the 2 weeks, I felt amazing. My stomach wasn't upset and I wasn't drained. I weened myself back onto regular food, and it wasn't long that I started to feel ill again (maybe 2 months after).

It hasn't been until now, today even, that I even realized it. I am stuck at home with a wicked stomach flu, which has given me time to look at my health and read up on some things. After a few articles, I believe I may have an intolerance to gluten.

I should note that this has been thought at the beginning stages of my diagnosis of IBS, but I don't think we were extremely careful in making sure I had NOTHING that contained gluten. Just avoided pastas and bread. 

So I have decided to challenge myself into eating gluten-free for one month and try to see if anything gets better. I will be starting this as soon as my stomach bug is over (I am currently living off of saltines and broth). I will try to share my progress and recipes during this process, but again, no promises.

Hopefully, if it is an intolerance, I can learn how to live a healthier happier life, and all my ailments dissipate. I guess time will truly tell!