Scalloped Coconut Curry Potatoes

These are super delicious! Taunalee and I made up the recipe in a fit of creativity last night, and it turned out really good!

You'll need:

10 small-mediumish yukon gold potatoes

1 medium onion

1-2 cups fresh spinach leaves

2 parts salt: 1 part yellow curry powder, to taste

1 can coconut milk

¼ cup soy milk

1/3 cup flour

unsweetened coconut flakes

Slice the potatoes and mince the onion. Grease a 9x13 pan and layer half the potatoes, half the onion, and half the spinach leaves. Sprinkle half the flour and half the seasonings on top. Repeat with remaining potatoes, onions, spinach leaves, flour, and seasonings. Pour the milk over top of the entire dish, and sprinkle with coconut flakes. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for an hour. Remove cover and bake for 15 more minutes.

Taunalee says they're so creamy you can't even tell there's no dairy in them.

Red Lentil Soup with Curry and Coconut Milk

I love this soup--so yummy!

3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 cup red lentils
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 14-oz can coconut milk
1 bay leaf
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, minced
1 Tbsp red curry paste
½ cup cilantro, chopped

In medium saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp oil over medium heat. Add onions, and cook, stirring often, until onions start to brown, about 10 minutes. Add 4 cups water, lentils, carrots, coconut milk, 1 tsp salt, and bay leaf. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until lentils are tender, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, heat remaining 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, curry, and cilantro. Cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add to soup.

Remove bay leaf, salt to taste, and serve and enjoy!

So Excited!

Well hello there! So my sister, Tiffany, created a recipe blog and my other sister, Taunalee, recently posted recipes to her blog and it got me thinking. Why not do a sister recipe blog?! We're always sharing recipes with each other anyway, so why not create a blog to do it! I'm excited and hope my sisters are excited too! We all do the kitchen thing a little differently, and I think this will be a fun way to share ideas and insight.

I recently have been making some huge dietary changes in my life. I found out I was mildly allergic to dairy, and have since cut dairy out of my diet. I stopped eating meat at the same time to see if I felt better. My energy levels have been off the charts! Not only do I have more energy, but I sleep better, no longer have food cravings, my skin has cleared up, my digestion is better, and I've lost some weight (an added bonus). :) I think everyone's body digests and functions differently and by no means think everyone should embrace a vegetarian diet or stop eating dairy, but making those changes has revolutionized my life and my relationship with food. I feel amazing-like I have a new lease on life, and I'm excited about cooking again! So sharing recipes sounds fun. :)

Here's one I made a few weeks ago. I got this recipe from eatingwell.com, though I did make some alterations from their original recipe. This recipe makes about 4 servings of 1 1/2 cups each, though I found that 1 1/2 cups was way too much, and I got about 6-8 servings out of it. It took me about an hour to make, and was worth it! We grew up eating red curry, and this was a little different-more mild-but I loved it!

Red Curry with Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons canola oil, divided
• 1 14-ounce package extra-firm tofu, rinsed, patted dry and cut into 1-inch cubes (Make sure this is really dry or it's nasty! I squish mine between paper towels multiple times to get it as dry as I can before I cut it. Oh, and I rinse it off first too.)
  
• 1 pound sweet potato, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 14-ounce can lite coconut milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth (or reduced-sodium chicken broth)
• 1-2 teaspoons red Thai curry paste (I couldn't find the stuff Dad gets, so I used curry paste out of a bottle, which was still yummy, but a little different. I want to try this recipe with Dad's curry paste to see if it's any better.)
  
• 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 lime, quartered (I did this, but it's just garnish-it doesn't really add anything to the taste, but it's nice for presentation.)
  

Preparation:

1. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu and cook, stirring every 2 or 3 minutes, until browned, 6 to 8 minutes total. Transfer to a plate.
2. Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil over medium-high heat. Add sweet potato and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 4 to 5 minutes. (At this point I transferred everything to a soup pot because my pan was too small. If you have a wok, it would probably work better.) Add coconut milk, broth and curry paste to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the sweet potato is just tender, about 4 minutes. Add the tofu, green beans and brown sugar; return to a simmer and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the green beans are tender-crisp, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in lime juice and salt. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

   

YUMMY!!!