Salmon To Watch Over Me

Hello all...it's been a while, I know, but it's been an eventful and very busy week this week, and yes, my blog fell by the wayside...I really do enjoy writing it and I do have faithful readers, thanks guys, so I'll try to do better...


Tonight's recipe, which we had for dinner, is...

Salmon To Watch Over Me
Salmon with spaghetti squash and mango salsa

Serves 2

Salmon...
1 spaghetti squash
handful baby spinach leaves
1 salmon steak
Minced garlic, 2 cloves
lemon juice
salt and pepper
1 tsp butter per person

Prick the spaghetti squash all over with a knife and place it in a shallow baking dish containing an inch of water. Bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees and then let rest until cool enough to handle. This can be done the day before.  You can also microwave it for 14 minutes but it's not as nice...

While that's going, make your  mango salsa, see below.

For the salmon,  get a pan good and hot and put about 1 tbsp of olive oil and the minced garlic in.  When the garlic starts to brown, lay the salmon over the garlic and squeeze lemon juice over it, with salt and pepper.  When you can see the edges start to brown on the salmon, turn the fish over and squeeze more lemon juice over it, and add salt and pepper on the top side.  Turn the heat down to between medium and low.

Cut the squash in half and take out the seeds and stringy inner fibres.  Using a dinner fork, dig out the insides of the squash, it will separate into strands.  Lay these strands around the salmon in the pan, and put the baby spinach leaves on top.  Cover and let cook on the lower heat until the spinach wilts and the fish is done.

Serve half of the salmon steak onto each plate and lay the squash and spinach leaves alongside.  Top the salmon with the mango salsa, below, and top the squash with salt and pepper, and a tsp of butter.

Enjoy! It's awesome, awesome, awesome...

Mango Salsa

2 mangoes, diced into 1/2" cubes
2 green onions, diced
2 tbsp of red onion, finely chopped
1 thai chili, chopped fine
juice of 2 limes
1/4c coarsely chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all and let it sit for at least 20 mins before serving. It's nice if it's good and cold...

And that's it...it's very pretty, it's Clean, it's good for you...in case you're wondering about the salt, I typically have rock bottom blood pressure so yes, I do eat a reasonable amount of salt to keep it up in normal ranges.  If you're on a low sodium diet then just lay off the salt a bit...

Enjoy....

A Grill's Best Friend...It Ain't Diamonds!

Hello all!!

Well, after a long and fruitful day at work, Day 4 of the Cooler 1 plan, I went to the grocery store on the way home and picked up some bits and pieces...the cart was entirely loaded with healthy stuff except for a few items, which were for the kidlet...he's a salad eater and loves raw veg, doesn't eat a lot of crap...we haven't had white bread in the house for who knows how long, he eats the 12 grain and flaxseed and all of that, no problem..

But he does like a lot of the things every kid likes...he likes to make himself Kraft Dinner sometimes, maybe once every couple of weeks. He has a thing for Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Tonight he had Bagel Bites ( those little mini pizzas) for dinner...with cut up green and red peppers mind you...  so at what point do I say to him, Hey, kid...we're a Clean Eating household, so you can't have those Pepperidge Farm Goldfish or crescent rolls, you'll have to have this healthier version? Or do I continue to keep on the way I am?  Like for lunch today, he had turkey breast ( actual, not deli meat..left over from Turkey-ish Delight ) on 12 grain bread with romaine lettuce, celery sticks, 2 100% juice drink boxes, a banana, a cheese string and some multigrain vegetable thins...for breakfast he had 2 poached eggs on a slice of 12 grain bread, a glass of orange juice and a yogurt...so if the kid wants bagel bites for dinner, is it a big deal? 

You know what the annoying thing is? He does eat well, granted...but he also eats things I can't, sometimes...and he has six pack abs, awesome calves and a bicep like half a tennis ball..and he's 13!  I sincerely hope for his sake that his metabolism or whatever's working for him stays in gear the way it is until he's at least 98...

As far as I'm concerned, it's still Cooler 1! I left a jobsite today and left my cooler there..DOH! So I was on the road when my alarm went off ( I have daily alarms set on my Blackberry to go off when it's time to stuff my face...every 3 hours or so...) and I wasn't going to get back to it for a while, so I popped into a grocery store and got lebanese cucumbers, a pear, a rotisserie chicken breast, a bottle of water and a fork. lol Had my wierd grocery store lunch in the parking lot...took the skin off of the chicken of course...

Tonight we used the barbeque again, since there isn't 2 feet of snow on it anymore, everything tastes better on the barbeque!  I grilled a couple of little steaks, gorgeous little things that were on sale tonight when I stopped in to Metro ) and made a grill pan of veg....the veg is tonight's very basic, nothing fancy recipe...

A Grill's Best Friend...

2 small zuchinnis
1 small onion
8 white mushrooms,, halved
1 red pepper, chunked
sea salt and pepper to taste
garden seasoning ( I got it at a flea market years ago, I'm almost out and I don't know what I'll do without it!! It's fine and green and awesome....but you could add your own...)
1 tbsp olive oil

Get the grill pan hot and add the olive oil, then the onions. Once the onions start to brown, add the other veggies and seasonings. Keep them moving, til you have nice grill marks and crispy edges...

For a really nice flavour combination, try putting a dollop of Astro Balkan Style plain yogurt on top when you serve it...realllly nice combo, you wouldn't think so but I'm serious!



Good night all, thanks for reading!

Amy

Full Metal Packet

Hi all!  Busy day today, but it's our day off from the gym today, and tomorrow we step up the workouts...WHOO!  I'm pretty excited...but for tonight it's paperwork and work stuff, and just being...home. Which is nice, sometimes, when it's Ontario, and cold and miserable out..

Tonight's dinner, pork tenderloin with no visible fat, and veg...see below....

For the tenderloin, I preheated the barbeque on high on both sides, and when it was hot, I put the pork tenderloin on one side, rubbed all over with spices, turned down to medium...

On the other side, I put the following ( This makes enough for 2... )

Full Metal Packet

Lay out 2 sheets of tinfoil and spray with cooking spray.

Thinly slice half of a red onion and put half on each sheet
Chunk a small green zuchinni for each and lay it on the onions
Add 8 or 10 grape tomatoes or 5 cherry tomatoes, we used the grape tomatoes, whole
Pile fresh baby spinach leaves over top of it all, a good handful

Put some sea salt and coarse black pepper, and a little drizzle of olive oil over it all, then fold the two short edges together and roll them and then crunch the ends together to seal it all up. Bend up the ends a bit so that the liquid, if any, stays inside.  Poke a very small hole in each side to let steam out and put them on LOW on the other side of the barbeque.

Keep the tenderloin turning, so it cooks evenly. When the tenderloin is cooked, simply bring it all inside, give each plate a packet and slices of the tenderloin...the steam coming from the packet is very aromatic and the spinach imparts a wonderful flavour...doing this on the barbeque somehow makes it taste more awesome also...how, I do not know... it's one of life's mysteries...

If you make this I hope you enjoy it!!

Have a great night, stay warm and cozy, and it's only 13 days til Groundhog Day! 

Amy!

Turkey-ish Delight!

Helloooo! *gobble gobble gobble*
Turkey-ish Delight

One turkey breast, skin on
Butter flavoured cooking spray
Finely minced garlic
Sage
Parsely
Sea Salt
Coarse black pepper
Sweet potatoes/yams, peeled and cut into very thick slices or big chunks

Preheat the oven to the hottest it will go. 
Spray the turkey breast lightly with the cooking spray and rub in the garlic, parsely, sage, light sprinkle of sea salt, and black pepper, Give it another light shot with the cooking spray.

Put the turkey breast ON A RACK in your roasting pan ( a metal one, or it could crack! ) and surround it with the sweet potatoes. 

Put it in the oven and let it sear for about 10 to 12 minutes. Turn it down to 350 and cook it the rest of the way at the lower heat.

You'll never have a moister turkey breast in your life...the searing seals in the juices. It's delightful, truly...

Tomorrow we'll take leftover turkey for one of our meals,

See you tomorrow, g'night John-boy...

Amy

Trailmix Park Boys

Hey all, I missed a day! Argh! I have been feeling grossly under the weather and so I've been pretty much sleeping and working and sleeping, feeling pretty gross...

I felt pretty good this morning, up and at 'em, and then my first client of the day had THREE cats that I didn't know about til I got there, so although I left there at 12:30pm and it's now 11pm, I'm still sniffling and having trouble with my stupid asthma...argh! Normally if I know ahead of time that a client has a cat or cats, I'll take a Reactine before I go..

SO, anyhoo, I went to Bulk Barn and got the bits and pieces for another wierd trail mix...I like to take small bags of this on the road so if you get the munchies you can have this instead of being tempted to stop...a half a cup of this and an apple is a nice snack....it's different every time but this is the latest version...

Trailmix Park Boys  -  Version 1

1 c virginia peanuts
1 c cashew pieces
1 c pumpkin seeds
1 c south african golden raisins
2 c multigrain pretzel bites
4 c Kashi Go Lean Crunch
1/2 c. peanut butter chips, mini ones

Just mix it and go...you can make it out of anything you want, but we like to have nuts, something salty, something sweet, and something with a different texture ( raisins, currants, no sugar added Craisins, stuff like that.. )  the sweet goes with the salty and it all works together really well...and if you have a sweet craving, it satisfies it without eating a pile of sugar.

So that's it.....good night, faithful readers! I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow!  And Dad, if you're reading this, I hope your weather is better than ours, freezing rain and snow tomorrow, YUK!

Bye! Amy

The Yolk's On Me...

Wow, do I ever have egg on my face...well, not really...my son had a bug last week and guess what...the nurse always gets it! And I've got it...absolute energy drain...it's amazing, I can't seem to stay awake for more than 10 minutes at a time...

The thing is,  we're so used to feeling great ALL the time now, that when I am sick as I am today, and I feel dopey and lacking in energy, it's a really huge difference! I'm not sure that I would have even noticed this as much before

So, I did tons of research and material acquisition today, paperwork etc...between naps, that is, and ate bits and pieces but no actual meal to speak of...I'll give you my recipe for THE best scrambled eggs ever, as that's what I had for 'dinner' with a piece of whole grain toast and several cups of tea...it's not exactly culinary genius but they are good scrambled eggs...

Then, I'm off to bed with my hot water bottle, hopefully to feel better tomorrow...the kidlet was feeling gross for 2 days and this is my second day of feeling off so hopefully tomorrow I'll feel more up and at 'em!

Scramble High Score

Eggs, as many as desired, in a saucepan, NOT a frying pan.
1/2 tsp butter per egg
1/2 tsp milk per egg
salt and pepper to taste

Over medium heat, stir the eggs, milk, butter, salt and pepper together without beating the eggs.

Once the whites aren't clear, near the bottom of the pot, give it a stir every minute or so until you have a gorgeous fluffy mixture.  Remove from the heat BEFORE they seem quite ready, and do what you need to do with toast and tea, letting the eggs finish up in the pot, then serve...awesome, fluffy, soft, moist scrambled eggs...a personal favourite of the kidlet. True comfort food.

If you cook them too long over the heat, til they look like they're actually ready while still on the burner, they tend to overcook while resting for any time in the pot.

Simplest recipe on the planet but I have had so many simply horrid scrambled eggs! Especially in restaurants and once had them cooked for me in an aluminum pan. GRAY eggs...awful things...

Good night, all, my hot water bottle beckons....

Baby Bok, Baby Bok, Baby Bok....Choy!

No Chilis tonight...just a simple stir fry with ginger, garlic ( of course..) baby bok choy, julienned carrots, bits of steak and an orange ginger sauce...truthfully not the most flavourful thing I've ever put together but I was cooking for one and still trying to use up fridge-bits, so on that score it was successful!

Did NOT want to go to the gym earlier but I went anyways, worked hard, got sweaty and gross, and felt better for having gone...as it's very very VERY late I"m off to bed, had a lovely walk with the dogs today at the dog park and had a relatively successful day at work, so all told it was a good day!

Good night all, sweet dreams and I'll see you tomorrow...

The Pot Luck Club - Tortellini Brocolli Salad

Have a great evening, folks, see recipe below!

The Pot Luck Club - Tortellini Brocolli Salad

1/2 c. mayo ( non fat mayo-type dressing )
1/2 c. sugar ( or Splenda )
2 tsp. cider vinegar ( you reallly can't leave this out.... )
3 stalks of brocollli cut into tiny florets and blanced for 30 seconds max
20 oz/ frozen cheese tortellini cooked to al dente and rinsed in cold water
3 strips bacon or 3 pieces back bacon, cooked and chopped or crumbled
1 c. sunflower seeds
1 c. raisins or chopped dates
1/2 red onion chopped FINE

Mix it all and let it rest for 2 hours before taking it to your potluck, it's sooooo good....not exactly a diet salad so not for every day but also not bad, not like full fat potato and egg salad or sugary coleslaw...

Good night folks!!!
Amy

Banh Trang-Spotting

Good MORNING!! I didn't write last night as I got a little distracted but you'll have two recipes today, count'em, TWO!!

The first is what we made for dinner last night ( Well, I made...the boys enjoyed immensely... ) and the second is my contribution to the enormous family potluck tonight...

The first, is

Banh Trang-Spotting

Banh Trang is only ONE ingredient here, the rice paper wraps. We found them at T&T Supermarket but you could most likely find them at any Asian market or even bigger grocery stores...they are stiff, white and circular and very inexpensive.

The rolls themselves are called Goi Cuon, and when you see them on a restaurant menu those two words are followed by a variety of other words, depending on what's inside, meatwise...shrimp, pork, beef, chicken, just veggies, it's all good...I made beef ones because I had a gorgeous little piece of steak in the fridge...

Grill your meat ahead of time, and slice it super super thin....

Thinly slice cucumbers, julienne carrots, shred some lettuce, have some fresh mint, basil and/or cilantro on hand, and either make some rice vermicelli ( you won't need a lot ) or I made these with basmati rice since that's what I had.  You need to have all your stuffin's ready ahead of time so that you can just load them and roll them before the rice paper dries.  You don't have to have anything in there that can't be easily bitten through, as the rolls are a bit delicate and you want to be able to bite through it in one go or it will fall apart.

I make my peanut sauce ahead of time, too, the recipe is below

In a food processor or blender..

1/2 c water or broth

2 tbsp smooth or crunch peanut butter ( I prefer the crunchy )

2 tbsp Hoisin sauce

( you can add 2 tsp sugar but the Hoisin is sweet anyways )

chopped roasted peanuts for garnish

If you find the sauce too watery, just add a bit of peanut butter and Hoisin in equal parts until the thickness is something dippable...

Fill a flattish bowl with warm water, it has to be big enough to fit the rice paper sheet.  Dip ONE sheet at a time, if you put  more than 1 in, they will stick together and by the time you get to the second one it'll be gross. 

Dip the sheet in and feel it with your fingers as it's in there. You'll feel the texture on the sheet disappear and the sheet will become soft and very limp.  Remove the sheet and lay it out on a board, plastic or glass works better as it doesn't soak up the water.  Lay out a very small handful of rice or noodles along one side and fold the sheet over and tuck it under, then lay your meat and veggies, herbs and lettuce along the side.  Bring the sheet up and over, capturing everything inside.  Flip the sides up and over and then finish rolling. 

Look on YouTube for Salad Rolls or Goi Cuon and you'll find a wealth of videos showing you different ways of rolling them.

And that's it! They're served room temperature or cold, and the peanut sauce for dipping, it's awesome...

I'll post the potluck recipe when I decide what I'm making! Aaarrgghhh...everyone always wants to make sure their dish is emptied fast...

Enjoy your day!

Scone with the Wind...

Today I had some trouble getting started as I wasn't particularly looking forward to my tasks of the day...but I went, I did, I conquered, somewhat, and was very grateful to be home again, even though I didn't get here til 8pm...TIRED...

My son is not feeling well so I made him a batch of his very favourite thing in the world, fresh baking powder biscuits...he just loves them...while I was making his, with the white flour, I thought to myself, Hmm...those look good, I should make some whole wheat ones...so I did, as you'll see below, but I added some other stuff in there too, I'm having one now, they're very nice, not as fluffy and light as the white flour ones but the whole wheat things never are, really, are they?

So, a short one tonight but as I said I'm beat, but here you go, these would be awesome with either a cup of hot tea or a glass of peach iced tea on a warmer day than THIS one...brrr!!!


Scone with the Wind

2 to 2 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3-4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
small handful dried ( unsweetened!) apricots, chopped
small handful roasted unsalted almonds, pulverized a bit in the mini-processor
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
About a half a cup of vegetable shortening

Mix all, make a well in the middle and pour in 2/3c of buttermilk or 1% milk, make sure it's nice and cold...

If it's too dry, add a little more milk, but if you overwork your dough your scones will be like rocks so be gentle...

Pat it out into a 3/4" thick patty and cut. I cut mine in squares because I thought it looked nice and I didn't want to re-pat my scraps...

Place on baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes.


***Just a note...if you push straight down with a circular cutter, when making biscuits, scones, whatever, they will rise up nicely, straight and even.  If you push and twist on the downstroke, they will rise much higher on one side.  Sometimes that's the look you're going for, but not today! 

Enjoy!!

Legal Tender-loin

Hello all....
I'm feeling a little tired today...smoothie for breakfast, turkey salad on flatbread for lunch, an apple and some trail mix on the road, and then dinner, which was, I have to say, incredible...I wanted it to be different, and I wanted to include homey, comforting and memorable flavours that would go together....it should be ILLegal it was so good...I'm absolutely not bragging here, just so pleased, it's exactly what I wanted and it was a gamble all the way, most of my experiments are...
Legal Tender-loin

1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of any surface fat

Glaze:
2 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 c honey
2 pcs. candied ginger chopped fine, or 3/4" fresh garlic, grated. Don't use dry ginger, you'll appreciate the bits when you get one...
2 tsp. cornstarch
4 cloves garlic, minced fine
Zest and juice of one medium orange
Combine the soy sauce and honey, whisk until combined, and add everything else...heat on LOW, do not let this boil.... Give it a stir now and again and your kitchen will smell really nice....

Pork Filling:
1 apple peeled and finely chopped, then soaked in 2c. water with 2 tbsp. lemon juice
small handful of loose pack dates, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Drain the apples but leave them wet, mix with the dates and spices, and set aside. Make sure the spices are evenly distributed, there isn't much but you really wouldn't want any more...

Use a meat tenderizer or mallet to flatten out your tenderloin until it's about 1/2" thick and big enough to contain your apple stuffing.

Lay your apple mixture out in a line down the middle of your tenderloin and either bring up the sides to meet and slightly overlap, or roll it if you can...I used skewers to secure it but you could use hooks, string, whatever you would usually use...

Get your oven reallllly hot..over 500 degrees...

Put your tenderloin in ( on a rack, don't let it rest on the bottom of the pan, and make sure to use a metal pan, I broke a stoneware baking dish getting it that hot...) and let it sear for 10-13 minutes...remove it from the oven and turn the temperature down to 350 degrees... spoon sauce over it until it's covered, but be sure to reserve sauce for your second glazing coat during cooking, and about 1/2c for drizzling...it will reduce in volume as you let it sit on low heat while your meat cooks...the reduction is flavourful, glossy and smells amazing...

Cook it for about another half hour, glazing once more about 10 mins short of being done.

Slice it into coins almost an inch thick and drizzle the remainder of your sauce over it...the apples will be very tender and the dates will be soft, it looks like it's not healthy at ALL but it really is!

I served it with baby carrots and cauliflower, but it would have been very very nice with yams and something green and linear, green beans maybe, or asparagus...I had to go with what I had on hand..*sigh*


Have a good night and if you make this, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Amy

Yippee Cayenne Tex Mex Chili

Howdy, y'all!!


For lunch we grilled bison burgers and put onions on it, and made a green salad, and a gorgeous fruit salad for dessert ; pomelo ( our new citrus friend, which tastes like a cross between oranges and grapefruit), oranges, dragonfruit, cactus pear, apple and a bit of banana...very refreshing after the savoury flavours of our bison and salad..
Today's recipe:

Yippee Cayenne Tex Mex Chili!!

1 can black beans ( low or no sodium, rinsed and drained )
1 can kidney beans ( low or no sodium, rinsed and drained )
1 19oz can of corn, drained
2 med. white onions, coarsely chopped
3 cans diced plum tomatoes
1 1/2 lbs top sirloin, cubed small
3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 tsp cumin
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp dried chili flakes
pepper
1c. water
1 tsp. sea salt

( toast all the dry spices in a dry frying pan, until you can smell the aroma of the spice mixture and it's colour changes to a little darker...the flavours will be more complementary to the chili if you toaast them like this...don't let them burn, if you see any smoke at all get them off of there, and keep them moving as much as you're able while you do this... )
Add the spices to the cup of cold water and mix them before you add to the chili ingredients!!

In a little oil in a heavy saute pan, saute the onion chunks until they start to brown and go clear...add the beef and sear it, don't cook it all the way through...put the onion and beef in a crock pot and add your other ingredients...

Let it all perk away for a couple of hours at least before serving...the meat should be cooked through IN the crock pot, and the smell of awesome chili will fill your house...my 13 year old son came in and said "What smells good?" I showed him the contents of the crock pot and he said "I'll be eating a LOT of that...."

We're serving it with a little grated cheese on top ( not a thick greasy coating, just a sprinkle ) and I also made Super Simple Corn Muffins from Tosca Reno's Clean Eating Cookbook, page 280.  They're yummy and crunchy and a wonderful companion to the chili....I hope you enjoy it...

K, pardners, ah'm off tuh git mah vittles dished out tuh ma cowpoke...yeeeeeee haaaaah!!!

Bo Nuong Xa and Biceps!

Tonight? Bo Nuong Xa...Vietnamese Lemongrass Beef grilled on bamboo skewers and served on a little basmati and some romaine lettuce...Whoo!!!

I took the dogs to the dog park for a looooong walk, it's gorgeous there with all the fresh snow and the trees, there are long paths through the woods and everyone was all bundled up and loving the fresh air and sunshine, it was really nice...and Toby, the 6 month old puppy, never stopped running once, and is now asleep...very nice day..I didn't take Foxy along as she's only 8 pounds and would have been a pup-sicle a third of the way in...

Below is the recipe for our dinner, which I won't give a silly name since it already has a name I can't pronounce! The marinade smells soooooo good...and our new produce for this week, lemongrass!! What an amazing aroma from what looks like a giant piece of grass...yum!  And our fruit choice for something new, Pomelo...a massive ( the biggest, actually... ) citrus fruit going...we havent cut into it yet, we'll have it tonight probably...

So here is the recipe!

Bo Nuong Xa

2 teaspoons white sugar (or agave syrup or Splenda )
2 tablespoons soy sauce (we use the reduced sodium one )
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks lemon grass, minced
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
1 1/2 pounds sirloin tip, thinly sliced
skewers (dont' forget to soak them first! 30 minutes or so! )
12 leaves romaine lettuce
fresh cilantro for garnish
fresh basil for garnish
fresh mint for garnish
thinly sliced green onion for garnish

In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, soy sauce, pepper, garlic, lemon grass, and sesame seeds. Place the meat in the dish, and stir to coat. Cover, and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Preheat grill for high heat. Discard marinade, and thread meat onto skewers accordion style.

Brush grill grate with oil or spray it with cooking spray BEFORE you heat it up. Arrange skewers on the grill. Cook 5 minutes per side. Serve hot from skewers, or remove from skewers and serve on lettuce leaves. Garnish with cilantro, mint, basil, and sliced green onions.
You can also serve it over a little basmati or brown rice, which I like. 

There you have it!! Enjoy immensely...in the crock pot right now is a tex mex style chili which I will post the recipe for tomorrow, I want to make sure my spice proportions are right before I post and I won't know til it perks for a bit...it'll be called "Yippee Cayenne Tex Mex Chili"

Have a good night!!

 

Thai One On Chicken

This recipe can also be found on page 21 of Eat Clean Magazine, July/August 2010 edition, with a little picture of ME beside it! Whoo!

Thai One On Chicken

( Soak your bamboo skewers 30 mins before grilling, so put them in now! )

2 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless, cubed into skewer size pieces
1 can lite coconut milk
1 1/2 tbsp red curry paste ( it comes in an envelope at the grocery store.. )
1 bell pepper ( I used an orange one )
2 green zuchinnis,
10 or 12 white mushrooms
1 c. basmati rice

Bring the coconut milk to a boil and add the curry paste, whisk it in and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes until it thickens a bit...remove from the heat, let it cool a bit and then pour it over your chicken cubes, put all in the refrigerator and let it soak up the flavours...Oh, and keep some sauce in the pot to brush over your veggies and chicken while it cooks...

Make your basmati as your normally would, according to your package directions, I use the covered pot method so it's 1 3/4c water, brought to a boil, add 1 c. basmati rice and simmer 20 mins or so until the water is absorbed, I add 1 grind of sea salt from a sea salt grinder ( Costco! ) and I don't add any other seasonings if I'm putting something flavourful on it...

Cut your veggies into chunks the same size as your chicken chunks so it will grill evenly, and thread them onto the bamboo skewers with the chicken...I do about 1/3 chicken and 2/3 veggies on my skewers but that's totally up to you...

You can use a contact grill for this or an open grill, if you're actually barbequing, keep the heat moderate so the chicken doesn't burn before it cooks through....

Grill your skewers until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are tender-crisp, brushing sauce over it as it cooks...

I serve this over a shallow bed of basmati...its awesome and guilt free...

If you make this I hope you enjoy it....

Cheers!