Look What I Can Do!

Like the irascible Stuart Larkin character from MadTV, every now and then I like to show the world my meager talents. And in my quest to transition from hefty home-body to svelte social butterfly, there's nothing that needs more than an immediate overhaul than my diet.

Mmm...pizza! Alas, not so nutritious. Mmm...Chipotle! Again, there's all those calories and what-what. Hmm...I guess I could Cook. For. My. Self. I've heard about this "cooking" - can't be all bad, right?

I had a few random things sitting around yesterday: can of chickpeas, some new potatoes from three week's ago farmer's market, some spices, vegetable stock, um, olive oil. Nothing to wild and crazy, but just a few ingredients shy of a delightful curry!

Wait, what? What, exactly, is curry? According to the OED, curry is "a dish of meat, vegetables, etc., cooked in an Indian-style sauce of strong spices." Okay, great. Sounds delicious. Add some onions, another can of chickpeas, some stewed tomatoes, cumin, coriander and voila! Here's the start of the dish...


As all of this deliciousness simmers for about 40 min. (much thanks to Disgruntled Julie for the basis of the recipe - I made a few tweaks) over medium high heat, I steamed some brown rice in the microwave and prepared four Tupperware dishes for the week ahead.

If I were to, say, have excellent lighting and a professional photography studio in my apartment, the final result would have looked something like this stock photo:


Instead it looks like delightful, yet poorly lit spoonfuls of aromatic vegetables paired with short-grain brown rice - the perfect combo for refueling mid-day at the office. Mmm...did somebody say pizza? No thanks!