Saved by the Bell Pepper Curry

I have about five trillion (rough estimate) posts that need to happen stat, but I’m a lazy chick. What can I say? What I can say is:

Here’s a recipe for some curry when you’ve got a veggie drawer full of items threatening impending squishiness and imminent doom. Thus, “Saved by the Bell Pepper” Curry is born. Have a heart guys. Save your miscellanious veggies from the compost.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 can of coconut milk ( I use light coconut milk because that’s how I roll)

2 T yellow curry paste

1 T soy sauce

2 T brown sugar

1/3 C veggie broth

Use whichever veggies you have laying around but I used:

1 red bell pepper

1 Japanese eggplant

1/4 cup bamboo shoots

1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms

1 cup kale

4 oz. tofu cut into cubes

1/4 cup basil

Directions

• In a large saucepan, simmer the coconut milk with yellow curry paste over medium heat for 5 minutes.
• Add soy sauce, brown sugar, eggplant, bell pepper, bamboo shoots and mushrooms and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add kale and tofu and simmer 5 more minutes.
• Finally, stir in the basil until wilted.

It’s that easy and I’m obsessed.

And Jessie Spano says “Don’t take pills?”

Dinner Party & Game Night

The cold rainy weather here in L.A. is forcing everyone into warm cocoons of blankets and mountains of DVD’s. I think everyone was getting tired of holing up every night, so we decided it was time to break out of the rut and host a dinner party/board game night!

Luckily I had a ton of groceries sitting around begging to be used, so I improvised with what I had.

First was the mustard encrusted tofu over stir-fried kale and onions:

I sliced some silken extra-firm tofu, pressed it with paper towels to dry, slathered it in a mixture of spicy brown mustard, sesame seeds, and cornstarch and pan fried it on the stove. For the kale, I chopped up two garlic cloves and an onion and sauteed them until slightly brown. Then I added the kale and about 1/3 cup of water and sauteed until the onions were carmelized and the kale got soft. This recipe got rave reviews (hooray!) from my dining mates. The tofu was crispy and spicy on the outside and soft inside – perfect with the slight crunch of the kale and onions.

Next! Butternut squash fries! Love of my life!

I could seriously eat an entire squash in one sitting prepared this way. Ok, maybe I already have … In any case, these disappeared completely in about five minutes! My boyfriend especially loved them (you will notice that I couldn’t even get his hand out of the way to take a picture). I sprinkled them with about a tablespoon of olive oil and a dash of salt and roasted them in the oven at 450 degrees until crispy – about 30 minutes – flipping them over halfway through. Sooooo much healthier than french-fries and I swear they taste better too.

Dessert was Blueberry ‘Splosion Muffins following this recipe .

I made the strawberry version a year ago and about every month get a request to make them again! They’re so delicious. Sweet fruit bubbling out of the inside and the cinnamon struesel topping? Are you kidding me? Amazing. I made 12 and only had one left this morning for breakfast!

My favorite part:

Watching everyone dig in! This meal fueled us for a grueling game of Trivial Pursuit and a youtube viewing of the Democratic debates. Mmmmm brain food.