A Little of This

July 20th, 2009 | Posted by Alison in Dinner Time

So today… there was a little of this.

a_little_of_that

A little of that.

deck

We broke for lunch and I made a little hummus sandwich. And took a giant picture of it.

Toasted Ezekiel bread with mustard, garlic hummus, red leaf and tomato.

hummus_sammie

And pretended I was a little dinosaur eating giant steamed trees.

parm

And steamed clouds.

Sometime between lunch and dinner came cookie time. We busted out the Newman’s Own Organics Champion Chip Cookies.

Observe.

cookie_4 cookie_1
cookie_2 cookie_3

I think they were acceptable.

Product placement at it’s finest.

product_placement

One thumb up from Ava. I think it would have been two thumbs up, but the other hand had a cookie in it.

ava_says

And if you couldn’t tell from these pictures, no, not a whole lot of cleaning got done today. Let’s just call my house “lived in”, shall we?

Mama had something else in mind for her snack.

mamas_snack

Green lemonade rulez. Same concoction as yesterday’s. Minus the compost rummaging.

[Insert funny, interesting, witty, clever segue here]

Dinner!

Now I’ll give a little disclaimer here that my eyes usually glaze over when I see a recipe with a lot of ingredients, but this one is worth it. Many items in the list are just spices so don’t glaze over like a doughnut just yet.

Chana Masala

1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 large onion, diced
1 pepper minced (bell pepper or poblano for a little heat)
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp garam masala
salt to taste
28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup of water or vegetable broth
2 cups cooked chick peas (or 2, 15 oz cans, rinsed and drained)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (or half a squeezed lemon)

Saute onions, peppers, garlic and ginger in oil until soft. Add spices and stir until vegetables are nicely coated. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add chick peas and water or broth and bring to a boil, reducing to a simmer for 30 – 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and lemon juice the end of cooking, serve over cooked rice or spaghetti squash.

chana_masala_2

If you aren’t a fan of spicy food, leave out the cayenne and the hot pepper. It’s also worth noting that I only estimated with the spices here. In real life I’m pretty generous with the spices and I think I’m more reserved in the recipe here, so spice it up to your own taste. How many more times can I use the word spice in this paragraph? Spice. I guess I’m pretty generous with the word spice too.

chana_masala

What do you think? Is that picture over the top? I’d like to have you believe we are very cultured but truth be told I ran down to the basement to snag that picture off a shelf and wiped off the dust and cobwebs with the same dish towel I wiped up who knows what else with today.


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.

10 Responses

  • Libby says:

    Hi Alison,

    Looks like a great day was had by all. And that curry looks delicious – will definitely have to try that when I get home from vacation.

    Libby

  • justine says:

    Love the pic of your little one eating those cookies. My little one is 4. How bout yours? That Chana Masala looks great. I am the same with long recipes. I now look to see what I have on hand and what I dont. If theres a lot of stuff I dont have then the recipe gets pushed to the back of the list or might not make the cut :).

    ~Justine

  • that chana masala looks yum!!!

  • Robin says:

    I think garam masala is the only spice that I still don’t have after buying so many spices these past few months. I eat so much better now that I gave up meat.

    My girls did the exact same thing yesterday. We were on a play date though so my 4 year old is sad we don’t have a scooter.

  • The Chana Masala sounds wonderful! I’m glad you told us not to skip over it, because that’s exactly what I tend to do with long lists of ingredients too! haha…but you’re right, most of the ingredients are stuff I already have.

    Do you use canned chick peas when you make it? Do you notice any difference from the uncooked? I’m always taking the easy route and going for the canned versions of beans, but I’m wondering if I’m missing out on a lot by doing that! :)

    Love the cookie pictures! When cookies bring out smiles on kids, you know they’re going to be good! :)

  • hahahahaha…you are too dang funny and creative my dear. i LOVE LOVE LOVE indian, and you may have inspired me to make something of my OWN (instead of the usual takeout). drool.

    love lil’ maxi – too dang cute with those cookies :)

    p.s. i’ve started reading about food combining from the raw food detox – defo interesting. are you still going to do more of that in your eating? just wondering…i’m nosy :)