Thursday, September 23, 2010

Tempeh, Mushrooms and Veggies in Tomato Cashew Curry

Thursday … Not my Favorite Day this Week

Getting up at 4:45 in the morning is not on my list of fun things to do. I am not a morning person but this was ridiculous. The sun came up almost 2 hours after I got up. The full moon was beautiful this morning but I wasn’t actually conscious enough to really enjoy it. I tried to take some pictures of it but none of them were “perfect”.

After Dan left for the airport to make his 6:50am flight to Florida I tried to start my day. Heavy emphasis on tried. I got on the scale to find out the damage from so much eating out and it went up 2.4 pounds in one day. Needless to say I got on twice to confirm this since I knew there was no way I overate by 8,400 calories yesterday (3,500 times 2.4). Heck that is about what I eat in a week.

Even though I know the increase on the scale was probably water weight due to consuming more sodium than usual (since my normal is almost none)l it didn’t exactly give me an appetite for breakfast this morning. Also I knew I wasn’t going to be very active (based on the yawning that I have been doing all day) so I waited until mid-day to grab some lunch and skipped breakfast today. I was also just too tired to get myself anything beyond water and iced green tea.


Lunch was one of my huge salads which consisted of: 1 head of romaine, ¼ cup salsa, ½ cucumber thinly sliced, ½ carrot thinly sliced, 4 Roma tomatoes and a good sized dollop of cheezy white bean dip. I am really loving the cheezy white bean. This is going to be making regular appearances at my house. Who knows it may become as popular as the baked falafel. ;-)

I finally ended up getting a nap in that I intended to be an hour or an hour and half and it ended up being 3 hours. Clearly I was physically exhausted this morning.


For my afternoon snack I had a banana and 6 walnut halves. As always I added the nuts to make certain that I absorb any fat soluble vitamins and to make the snack more satisfying.


To accompany the banana I decided a cup of frozen grapes would be good. As you probably noticed I eat a lot of frozen grapes.

Dan called as he was getting to the airport to find out if the flight was on time since he was running later than he wanted and of course it was on time. However he got to the gate with a few minutes to spare so everything was good on that front. I am happy to have my hubby back home. Even though he was only gone today like being downtown it still seemed worse since I knew he was thousands of miles away. I like having him close by I suppose. ;-)


Once I found out Dan didn’t have dinner before getting on the plane I knew I needed to have something ready for him to eat once he got home. I shifted into chef mode and started thinking about what would be good for him tonight. There was a piece of tempeh in the refrigerator that I thought would be nice to use. Here is what I made tonight:

Tempeh, Mushrooms and Veggies in Tomato Cashew Curry
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 large yellow onions, cut into bite sized chunks (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
1 inch fresh ginger, finely minced or grated
4 carrots, cut into bite sized chunks
approximately 3 cups fresh tomatoes, pureed
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
1 ½ teaspoon black mustard seed
¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
1 pinch ajowan seeds or substitute thyme the flavor is very similar
1 pinch red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 ounces three grain tempeh cut into small bite sized pieces
¼ pound fresh shitake mushrooms (stems removed), cut into bites sized pieces
zest of 1 lime
½ cup raw cashews pureed with the juice of one lime and water enough to make it process
cooked grain to serve as the bed for the dish (I used brown basmati)

Directions:

Combine the onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, tomato puree and spices and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tempeh and mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the lime zest to pan with the veggies. Process the cashews and lime juice, add enough water so that you get a smooth puree. Add the cashew crème to the pan and stir to thoroughly combine. Simmer until everything is heated through.

Serve over a cooked grain or baked sweet potatoes. If desired garnish the dish with sliced almonds, cilantro or crispy onions. Tonight’s dish had a few sliced almonds for crunch.

Nutritional Information (not including the grain or garnish):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 308.08
Calories From Fat (34%) - 105.27

Total Fat - 12.57g
Saturated Fat - 2.36g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 76.33mg
Potassium - 1135.96mg
Total Carbohydrates - 39.24g
Fiber-  7.58g
Sugar - 13.03g
Protein - 16.94g

Comments:

This is a quick dinner but one with nice Indian flavor. I make variations of this dish quite often because we like it so much.  I am sure this isn't traditional since I am Italian, not Indian, but we like the flavors so it works for us.


To accompany the curried dish we had a green salad on the side that consisted of romaine, diced Roma tomato, thinly sliced cucumber and carrot, topped with marinated mushrooms and roasted red peppers.

Signing out:

That is going to be if for me today. I must say it feels good to be caught up on my posts. Tomorrow will be my usual whirlwind of errands and checking on the parents. However with a little luck there will be time to spend in the kitchen tomorrow afternoon. I hope you had a great Thursday and have fun plans for the weekend. Talk to you again tomorrow.

20 comments:

  1. As usual, your food looks really tasty! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good Morning Angel,

    Thanks! It was good and easy, my favorite combination. ;-)

    Happy Friday!
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! You have been a busy girl! I am glad Dan is back from Florida and your routine will go back to normal! The pictures are amazing as usual! I am going to comment on your previous blog too. I loved the restaurant in Baltimore, wow, that was beautiful. All of the food you have eaten, made me salivate....no joke!
    I am wonderin how tough the Jillian Michaels video is going to be...she is a tough cookie!
    I am loking forward to you making a mozzerella type cheese spread!
    Have a good day, B

    ReplyDelete
  4. Funny that we both did a curry dish. Yours sounds fantastic and I must try it out! Can you believe I've still not tried frozen grapes???? And it's fairly typical for weight to fluctuate up to 3 lb in a day even so I don't think you have anything to worry about - unless you eat like that every day LOL

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your tempeh curry sounds really good. I'm not Indian either, but once you buy some spices it's fun to try different things to use them up. In my house, we're big fans of homemade Thai-style peanut sauce, and this sounds like good variation and sure hit.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good Morning Brandi,

    I have been busy that is for sure. Yesterday was a bit of a blur since I was doing my impersonation of a zombie for half of it, LOL. It was nice to have Dan home last night. I really don't like it when he has to go out of town. =(

    Glad you liked the food pictures. Even Phil and Jeff were getting into the act on those. LOL

    I have other Jillian Micheals videos and they aren't too tough. In fact on her video 30 day shred I only use the highest level and somewhat heavy dumbbells to make it tough enough. Since this version uses weight I am hoping it will be tougher but it may be the opposite. We will see. ;-)

    If I can work in making some white beans today or tomorrow the mozzarella is the next spread up. I am looking forward to that too. ;-) My plan is to the use similar flavorings to those I put in the nut based version.

    talk to you later,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jessica,

    My best friend all through college was from Madras, India. I ate a lot of Indian food those 4 years and really learned to love it. It is still one of my favorite cuisines though I don't make it authentic any longer to cut back on the fat. Plus over the years I adapted to my cooking style, but I think the flavors are close. I hope you enjoy my version as much as we do.

    I love Thai food too, particularly with peanut sauce. Sounds like I need to make some of that soon. ;-) Thanks for the inspiration.

    Happy Friday!
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  8. Heather,

    I thought the same thing when I saw your dish, LOL.

    You still haven't tried frozen grapes? Even my omni friend Louis has gotten on the frozen grape bandwagon. LOL

    My weight doesn't typically fluctuate more than 0.2 to 0.4 lb per day unless there is a hormonal reason. That was why I was so surprised. Hopefully today will be more in line with my expectations. *fingers crossed*

    Happy Friday,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  9. I will definitely be adding this to my bookmarks to try soon!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Stephanie,

    I hope you like it as much as we did. ;-)

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hope today is a better day for you than yesterday!

    Do the benefits of drinking freshly brewed green tea remain if the green tea is iced? I'd like to try using iced green tea in my morning smoothies but I wondered whether the anticancer compounds were still effective.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good Morning Mom,

    Today has started out much beter than yesterday. That was a rough one, LOL. Thanks for asking. ;-)

    From what I have read the important thing is to drink the green tea as soon after making it as possible to retain the maximum antioxidants and EGCG. If you send me an email to remind me I can pass along some tea studies I have saved once I get home.

    Happy Friday to you!
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Ali,
    Glad you got that nap in. I know what you mean-the frustrations of the scale! The curry sounds so good. Have a nice afternoon, Aimee

    ReplyDelete
  14. Aimee,

    I really needed the nap, LOL. Today is much better since I got plenty of sleep last night. And the scale was back where it should be so all is well on that front. ;-)

    The curry was very tasty, we both enjoyed it quite a bit.

    hope you have a good afternoon too,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  15. Tehehe--welcome to my world of getting up early, lol :-) I am sorry it was too early for you! I hope you got to sleep in to your "normal" time this morning :-)

    I ate frozen grapes last night too!

    Courtney

    ReplyDelete
  16. Courtney,

    I can't imagine getting up that early on a regular basis. Today was much better I was back to my normal schedule of a 6 am wake up. ;-)

    Frozen grapes are one of my favorite things. I bet I eat them 4 or 5 times a week. They are so good.

    talk to you later,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  17. omgosh 4:45 ????

    and HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY TO DAN!!!!! im so sorry i didnt get on that the day of. all this food looks great, i need to try that cheeze/bean dip. i really love the color of it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Michelle,

    Can you imagine me getting up at 4:45 on purpose? Sometimes I am still awake at 4:45 but not waking up, LOL. *rolls eyes*

    You know us we celebrate b'day week at a minimum so you had plenty of time for a b'day wish. Dan said thank you. ;-)

    With the way you like nooch you will love the cheezy bean dip. I am a bit addicted already.

    have a great weekend,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  19. I know this is an old post...but I'm making it tonight!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Stephanie,

    I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

    Ali

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails