January 4

Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs It's not elegant, but it packs well.
baked sweet potato

This morning I went straight from the gym to Seattle, so I have to pack my breakfast for the road. Eggs and potatoes are easily transportable and good post workout food. I really like the skins of baked sweet potatoes, so this was a fine breakfast for me.

Lunch:

Eating out while clean eating isn't impossible. I had a bacon spinach salad with no dressing or croutons. The hard boiled egg, avocado and tomatoes give enough flavor that dressing really wasn't missed. Anyway, it comes with a sickly sweet poppy seed dressing that had more ingredients than my last 5 days worth of eating. I know there was sugar in the bacon. I have yet to find bacon without sugar and I am sure the chain bakery isn't using fancy sugar-free bacon, but I can live with that while I am out in the world and really hungry. The youngest kid enjoyed spinach leaves wrapped around bacon, carrots and egg.



Before the drive home I grabbed some olives from the olive bar at a grocery store.

Snack:

Once home I went for some macadamia nuts, nut butter and carrots. This seems to be my afternoon snack now that I am paying attention. Some coconut flakes and other nuts were consumed along the way.

Dinner:

Chicken Korma

We forgot to get meat out of the freezer, so at about 4:30 it was decided my husband would make chicken korma. The recipe is from The Dance of Spices, Classic Indian Cooking for Today's Home Kitchen. My pantry is pretty stocked with Indian spices so all we needed to get at the store tonight was chicken and onions. If you didn't have all the spices on hand this would seem very daunting, but once you stock your pantry and become familiar with all the spices you end up using them a lot more.

A disheartening note on jarred ginger. I thought my jar of ginger was just minced ginger, alas there was added sugar. Better than the replacement jar my husband brought home that contained high fructose corn syrup as well as soy plus about 7 other ingredients. I was reminded to ALWAYS READ THE LABELS! Better yet, buy fresh ginger and skip not knowing what might have been slipped into that jar. Lesson learned and screw sugar's deceitful role in our food today.

Recipe for Chicken Korma (Murg Korma)

1.5 inch fresh ginger
5 large garlic cloves
2 T grapeseed oil
1.5 C. thinly sliced yellow onion
2 T. ghee or clarified butter
2 inch cinnamon stick
10 whole cloves
8 green cardamom pods
2 t ground coriander
1 t sweet paprika
1 scant teaspoon ground fennel
1/2 t cayenne
1/2 t turmeric
2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts of thighs
1 can diced tomatoes
1/4 C. roasted unsalted cashews
1 C coconut milk
1 t salt

1. Combine ginger and garlic with 3-4 T water in a blender. Blend to a smooth paste, set aside.

2. Heat oil in a heavy large saute pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook stirring ofter, until deep golden, 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the ghee to the pan and when hot add the ginger-garlic paste. Cook, stirring until the mixture is fragrant and light brown, 3-4 minutes. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom pods and stir for a few seconds. Add the coriander, sweet paprika, fennel, cayenne and turmeric and cook, stirring until the mixture takes on a beautiful orange-red color and becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and sear until light golden and no longer pink, about 3 minutes per side (or cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and cook until done about the same amount of time). Add the tomato with juices and stir occasionally until the tomato is very soft, 6-8 minutes.

3. While the tomatoes are cooking, combine the cashews with 2 tablespoons water in the blender and blend to a smooth paste. Add to the chicken. Stir in the coconut milk. Add the reserved onions and salt and mix well. Bring the a gently boil, cover and simmer until the chicken in tender, 20-25 minutes. With a slotted spoon transfer the chicken breasts to a warm serving dish, then ladle the sauce over it (or just spoon it all into a bowl and serve it).

Tonight's dish had boneless, skinless chicken thighs that were quite delicious and there was about 1.5 cups of coconut milk making it extra creamy. There is a hearty serving leftover and the three year old loved it. The one year old has decided sitting at the table for dinner time is too much to ask of him so he had a few bites then pushed away from the table in protest. Oh well, more for me.