Day 6 - Rainy Days and Sundays

Cirque du Soleil Totem was amazing!! If you're in Charlotte, you must go see it! It still boggles my mind how they come up with some of the feats they master. And all with such ease. I would fear for my life every time I made the jump, every show, every night. I feared for THEIR lives sitting in the audience. But regardless, amazing show...to go along with an amazing weekend.

Slept in today, listened to jazz, sang at the top of my lungs, went to deep stretch yoga at my favorite yoga studio, and cooked like I had a party coming over and yet, there was no party.

I title this photograph, "All in a day's work play"

So starting at the top that is homemade pizza with a pepper, garlic and oregano crust - one side with spinach, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese and balsamic glaze...the other side with your standard fare of peppers and onions.

Next on the left is dal (split pigeon pea Indian style soup), Gujarati style.

To the right of that a slow cooked enchilada casserole with carrots, red cabbage, black beans and pinto beans with a homemade enchilada sauce.

In the middle bowl there is a red cabbage & carrot salad (recipe to follow).

Then next down we have makkai na rotla (corn flour flatbread) compliments of Charmi's recipe.

Last we have an ol' southern fave...collard greens...done Indian style with channa nu lot (chick pea flour). 

So I spent all day cooking, listening to the rain and to heartwarming music. The house smells incredible. And surprisingly despite all the cooking, I did not pig out. But I am prepared for the coming week's dinners (and probably some take-along lunches as well). Planning ahead when you are trying to eat well is important. It's easy to fall into the trap of being tired from work, coming home not knowing what you are going to have for dinner, and ultimately popping a frozen meal in the microwave or getting food from a restaurant or fast food place. Here are some ideas that can help you avoid spending the extra money and eating food that may not be as good for you:

Make a weekly schedule of your meals and buy the groceries for the week on the same day of the week (weekend?). That way you don't let produce go bad in the fridge and you can map out if you've had enough fruits and vegetables over the span of the week.

Prepare items that can get makeovers: black bean soup turned into tacos or tostadas when cooked a little more and thickened up; salads that turn into sandwich toppers, rice that turns into a rice and beans mix. That way you can make a little extra and it helps you for two different meals. Use your creativity to change up the dish you already made for one night's dinner so that you don't feel like you're eating the same thing every night.

When you've got out the cutting board and knife for one meal, just keep chopping. You're more likely to prepare a meal if the onions and tomatoes are in the fridge, chopped and ready to go. Just store things in separate containers and the next day you'll feel like one of the chefs on tv where all your ingredients are prepped and ready to go!

That's all for today. Gotta get to bed early so your recipe as promised...

Recipe of the Day: Red Cabbage and Carrot Salad (made up recipe from 8 hours ago)

So the salad can really be made of anything you have around the kitchen but today I used:

Grated carrots
Shredded red cabbage
Green mango
(I just love the colors in the salad by the way)
Black beans (canned)
Sprouted skinned chick peas (kala channa)
Cilantro
Dried cranberries

The dressing was lemon juice, a little bit of agave nectar, salt, cumin, red chili powder, a touch of garam masala.

Mix together in a bowl and there you go! I bet the flavors will marinate really well overnight, but I can let you know about that tomorrow. For now, I sleep!

Goodnight! Swet