Nik's Chicken Tikka Masala

MMMMMM, Indian cuisine. It is so aromatic and flavorful. So many interesting spices and combinations of spices put together to make unique and tasty dishes.

My friend, woowoomama, recommended a chicken tikka masala recipe that she had tried and raved about. I thought "Ah yes, chicken tikka masala - that should be fairly simple" and the recipe seemed pretty easy (the photos were wonderful, too!). But when I read how much butter and heavy cream was in it, I became hesitant. Hmmmmm, wonder if I could make it more low-cal? Maybe use less heavy cream or none at all? A new challenge was ahead of me.

Since the original recipe post is very well explained and shown, I won't attempt to re-create the entire wheel (just the fatty parts). So click here, to see the original recipe and then if you want to make it lower calorie (and a few other modifications), follow these steps:

• Instead of butter for sauteeing the onions, I used a couple drizzles of olive oil.
  
• I used my food processor to chop the onions and then also the garlic and ginger.


• Instead of 1.5C of heavy cream I put in 2 TBL butter, about 1 C of plain lowfat yogurt, and a few splashes of regular milk. I also added 2 more TBL of suagr (three total) to sweeten it up a bit more since I wasn't using real cream.
  
• I made jasmine rice with saffron and whole cloves. I used about 2 TBL of butter in it and salt to taste.

The Verdict:

WOW, incredibly tasty! My husband and I both loved it and agreed that it is one of the best dishes I've ever made. Maybe better than the restaurants?!?! The kids weren't fans of the sauce (they're picky) but they did enjoy the chicken (I put some aside for them without sauce). Speaking of the chicken - the chicken broiled just by itself was wonderful. If you didn't want to make the sauce you could just simply enjoy the chicken with some rice and veggies.

So that's it. Please comment if you make it.

Sidenote: If you're ever in the Boston area, take a little jaunt a bit north to Arlington. There you must dine at Punjab - wonderful Indian food!

Nik's Made Up Pizza

So I have come up with a yummy pizza that I have to share. Get some pizza dough (confession: this is store bought already made). Next, I took some radish leaf pesto that I had left from the last batch that I made.


Then I took sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and proscuitto (about 2 or 3 oz cut into strips) and layered it all on top of the radish leaf pesto.

Next, I put it in the oven until the cheese melted and the rest looked crispy.

Finally, I served it with baked Kale Chips (which were surprisingly yummy - except you have to be careful not to burn them. Once they start turning brown they taste gross).

That was it. Hope you try it. Comment if you do.

Ciao for now.

Sausage Soup Review

The sausage soup was a hit. Here's a picture of it. Substitute kale or spinach if you don't have escarole. BTW, escarole is very bitter if you eat it raw. I served it as a side salad with the soup and I didn't like it. But I loved it in the soup. Ok, now go make it. Ciao for now.

"Sausage" Soup On A Rainy Day

I have a million other things I want to post about but I need to actually spend some time doing it and I really only have a minute right now. So real quick.....my in-laws are coming over tonight for dinner and I have some remaining veggies left from last week's share. Here's what I've come up with for dinner tonight.

Sausage, Escarole and White Bean Soup - This calls for turkey sausage but I have pork and lamb sausages left in my meat share. This is what I'll use along with the escarole from the farm share and I'm adding the rest of my kale. I'll use garlic scapes instead of garlic cloves because I have them and they are SO awesome.

I'm serving crusty bread with Radish Leaf Pesto (yes you read that correctly and SERIOUSLY, you MUST try it...divine) and some of the small escarole leaves I'll use as a salad with radishes and Lemon Sage Vinegarette.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Strawberry, White Chocolate & Oatmeal Cookies

Oh yeah baby! These are a keeper. The sweetness of the strawberries and white chocolate chips is a winning combo. The oatmeal gives the cookie tons of texture. And they're fairly lo-cal...at least for a cookie.


Here's the link: White Chocolate, Strawberry & Oatmeal Cookies

Here's the batter
Here are the cookies

A few things to note, change or try next time:

• Cut the cooking time down a little bit, maybe 10 minutes (at least in my oven) - I like my cookies a little on the gooey side.
• Add more liquid - probably add some agave nectar (and cut out some of the brown sugar).
• I used freeze dried strawberries this time. They work but next time I will get the actual dried strawberries.
• Using regular chocolate chips would be yummy.
• Maybe add some almond meal to the mix for a litle added protein?

Feel free to comment if you make them!

Ciao for now.