Curry Couscous with Garbanzo Beans

My friend Eileen suggested in the comments of an older post that I check out Cate's World Kitchen .
THANK YOU EILEEN!!!! I love that blog and I have already tried a couple of her recipes.
Here's one that we really enjoyed.

Curry Couscous with Garbanzo Beans

serves 4

7 PointsPlus per serving

Spice mix:
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (This was a good amount of heat for us. You might use less if you don't like too spicy)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix together in a small bowl and set aside.

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
a handful of green beans, thinly sliced (you should have about a half cup of the little slices)
I didn't have any green beans so I skipped them.
1 small zucchini, diced
1 small yellow summer squash, diced
1 medium carrot diced
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup couscous
3 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Bring the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan.
(My carrots weren't quite cooked well enough in the end result. Next time I make it I will toss the diced carrots into the broth while it simmers or chop or shred the carrots instead of dicing.)
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the onions and cook, stirring until translucent and slightly browned.
Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring for one minute.
Stir in the green beans, zucchini, squash, and carrots, salt, and spice mix and cook for 5 minutes, or until vegetables are crisp-tender.
Stir in the garbanzo beans.
Add the couscous and mix until evenly distributed.
Stir in the broth.
Turn off the heat, cover the pan and wait 10 minutes.
Fluff with a fork, sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

One serving is 2 generous cups full. Which is kind of a lot, really.
I served it with homemade pita bread, cilantro mint chutney and peach chutney. All totally optional, but delicious. ;)

What we thought~
Roger said it was really good. No complaints about the lack of meat. That's saying something!
I loved this. I loved that it's basically a one pot meal and it was ready to serve in about 20 minutes. And the leftovers have been just as good, maybe better.
Kenzie wasn't home for dinner that night.
Emily says she didn't love it and didn't hate it. Which...is saying something considering what a picky eater she is.
Jaxon ate pita bread.

Meal Plan

I've RENEWED my commitment to staying within the food budget. We overspent from the food budget for New Year's Eve which leaves me having to exercise my creativity for the meal plan this week. Other than milk and eggs, there's no grocery shopping this week. In spite of that, I pulled together a good looking meal plan using what we have on hand. Here's what we're having.

Sat~Chicken Lo Mein
Sun~Turkey Noodle Soup with homemade noodles
Mon~Yogurt Chicken, Sindhi Curried spinach, Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Tue~ The kids and I will wing it. Roger has a business dinner.
Wed~Crockpot Ham and Beans
Thu~ Date night! Spaghetti for the kids
Fri~ Homemade Pizza

We did have a co-op pickup yesterday so lots of fresh fruit and veggies on hand.

Friends

I got a little surprise at the front door last Sunday.
An anonymous gift, delivered under cloak of darkness.
Wanna see?

It came with a little note that said

"There ain't no troubles we can't rise above

With a handful of faith and a heartful of love."

I do love me some Tim McGraw
I've been a little blue lately and it looks like someone wanted to help a little.
But who????
For about ten minutes I wondered and wondered.
And then I just decided to stop wondering and feel the love.
Thank you my anonymous friend.
Carry on indeed.

Eighteen - And one day.

She is...
Smart, sensible, reasonable, responsible, beautiful, easy going.
Possibly Jaxon's favorite sister.
On her way to college soon.
Nervous and worried over that. But hopefully excited and hopeful too.
Gonna be a GREAT Nurse midwife some day.

We love her so very much. So excited to see where the future takes her because if the last 18 years are any indication, it's going to be a JOY to watch.

Love you, Kenzie! Have a nice day! Have a nice good day!

*photo by Janae Cooper Photography

PHEW!!!

Yesterday I joined in on a challenge with some of my blogging buddies to blog every day.
And then I went all frugalistic CRAZY today with about 10 different things and 40 pounds of chicken and now it's after 9pm and I haven't blogged yet today!
Oh wait! I just did!
ZZZZZ........
Goodnight! I forgot how tiring it can be to max out one's frugalness.

Living my WOTY

Renew:

to begin or take up again

Life was what it was when I was 15 and I made the choice then to drop out of high school and start a family. I have had no regrets at all. It was absolutely the right thing for ME at the time. Since then I've taken a few college classes. But now is the right time for me to get my high school diploma. So I'm going back to school! Maybe helping Emily with her math homework will be a little easier now. ;)

Renew:

to restore or replenish

A couple of years ago my confidence level had fallen so low that I had to say no to an opportunity I was offered. But yesterday I finally gathered up some courage and went for it! I was a nervous wreck beforehand, but going through with it helped restore a little self confidence.
Big thanks to my friends who offered their encouragement.

Renew:

to revive; reestablish

My renewed commitment to WW is going well so far. A quick peek at the scale this morning shows that I'm a little lower than before Christmas. Although my official weigh in isn't till Sunday.
It's almost like the holiday indulgences never even happened!
6-8 pounds to go to reestablish my ability to wear my skinny jeans. ;)

Meal Plan and a couple of "recipes"

Roger and I have worked out a new way to meal plan.
He wasn't loving the 4 vegetarian/3 meat way we've been doing thigs for the past year or so.
We've decided on 2 meat/2 seafood/3 vegetarian dinners per week.
Here's this week's meal plan:

~Grilled Veggie Sandwiches, Hot Cabbage Salad. (Cabbage on New Year's day for prosperity in the coming year. Roger insists every year and I go along because it can't hurt, right? LOL)
~Stuffed green peppers, leftover broccoli
~Black Bean Vegetable Soup, rolls
~Thai Chicken Fettuccine, sides provided by others. We have changed our weekly family dinners to Tuesday nights.
~Curry Couscous with Garbanzo Beans. Maybe some homemade flat bread.
~Lazy Salmon Supper, veggie to be determined
~Citrus Balsamic Glazed Salmon, Rice and Veggie to be determined

 (Obviously Santa did not bring us a great new camera fr Christmas. *sigh* Maybe cupid will pick up the slack in February.)

I made the Grilled veggie Sandwiches and Cabbage salad tonight.
I saw the meal prepared on some late night cooking show but then couldn't find the recipes online. So I made it up as I went along.
It's similar to the Roasted Veggie and Pesto Sandwiches that we already know and love. The guy on the cooking show made these with pesto too. But we have some spinach and artichoke dip  leftover from our New Year's Eve festivities and I figured that would be just as good. It was great! It'll be great with pesto too I'm sure.
I haven't figured out the WW points+ for it. I'll get around to it eventually.


Grilled Veggie Sandwiches
a loaf of ciabatta bread
one eggplant, sliced in 1/2 inch slices.
one zucchini, cut in half and then each half into 1/2 inch slices lengthwise. (Does that make sense?)
one yellow squash, cut in half and then each half into 1/2 inch slices lengthwise
one small red onion, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
one red pepper, quartered, seeds removed
pesto or some other yummy thing that seems like it would be a delicious sandwich spread
olive oil
Toss the veggies into a bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper.
Heat a grill pan over medium heat.
When hot, add the veggies in a single layer. Grill until well marked, turn and grill the other side until well marked and softened.
Remove veggies and set aside. But leave the grill pan on the heat.
Cut ciabatta bread open lengthwise, like a giant hamburger bun. (Make sense? This is why I don't write recipe books.)
Drizzle cut side of both halves of bread with a little olive oil.
Place cut side down on grill pan and press down lightly.
When bread is well marked, remove from grill pan.
Spread some pesto (or whatever) on the bottom half of grilled bread.
Layer on the grilled veggies, salt and pepper, and then the top half of the bread. Slice sandwich into serving sized portions.

Cabbage Salad
one medium sized head of napa cabbage, sliced VERY thin
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
one package of precooked bacon
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
1/2 cup or so of light honey mustard salad dressing ( I used Newman's Own)
olive oil
salt and pepper

Put sliced cabbage in a large bowl and toss in the blue cheese crumbles. Set aside.
In a skillet, over medium high heat,  heat a bit of olive oil. Add mushrooms and cook until they begin to sweat and then beyond that until they begin to brown nicely.
Chop up the bacon and throw it in.
Cook and stir a minute or two until the bacon is warmed.
Add the dressing and cook and stir a minute or two until the dressing is hot.
Pour the hot dressing mixture on top of the cabbage, add some salt and pepper, toss to coat evenly with the dressing.

What we thought~
Roger and I LOVED both of these recipes.
Kenzie wasn't home for dinner but I'm sure she would have liked them too.
Emily ate her sandwich but only a couple of bites of the salad.
Jaxon said, "I don't like my sandwich. I don't like the salad either. It's kind of yucky."
Ha ha! Can't please all the people all the time. That's what peanut butter sandwiches are for.