Curry and More – a partially-homemade lunch or dinner

I like a hot meal for lunch. My current favorite is Curry and More. I just don’t get tired of it!  It’s delicious and, of course, very healthy.  And, since I rely on some packaged frozen food, it takes no time at all to pack lunches for the entire week – which I put into the freezer so I can grab one anytime.

BASIC INGREDIENTS – use each of these ingredients

• Tandoor Chef Dal Rajastani

• Available in the frozen food section of Whole Foods and other grocery stores.

• Tandoor Chef Chicken Curry

• Available in the frozen food section of Whole Foods and other grocery stores.

• Turmeric

• Freshly ground black pepper

• Monamifood Cilantro Sauce

OTHER INGREDIENTS – choose those that you like best

• Frozen organic spinach

• Monamifood Roasted cauliflower

• Frozen peas

• Monamifood Lemony Dal

• Baked sweet potato, cut into thick rounds

• Quinoa

• Cooked brown Basmati rice

Directions

Defrost the Dal Rajastani: Plop it out of the plastic tray it was frozen in and put it into a glass container; heat it in the microwave until it’s soft enough to spoon out.

To the defrosted Dal, add plenty of turmeric (don’t worry, keep adding and tasting until you get the right amount) and freshly ground black pepper, to taste; mix well.

Spoon one-third of the Dal into each of three glass containers. (For example,  I use a container that’s 7 x 5 x 1.5 inches.)

Now defrost the Chicken Curry in the same manner as you defrosted the Dal. If you like, you can add some turmeric and black pepper to the Curry too!

Spoon one-third of the Curry into each of three glass containers.

Place one frozen Cilantro Sauce flavor cube into the glass container.

Then fill the rest of the container with your choice of ingredients from the “Other Ingredients” list above – lots of veggies and some quinoa, rice, or sweet potato, too.

Put a lid on each container and put them in the freezer. Now you have a healthy frozen meal — ready and waiting.

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

SPINACH AND ONION CRUSTLESS QUICHES

After creating the recipes for Egg White Puffs and for Carmelized Onions and Roasted Spinach, it suddenly dawned on me that I could combine the two recipes and make Spinach and Onion Egg Puffs – now fondly known as Spinach and Onion Crustless Quiches.  Wow! They turned out great and my family and I have been enjoying them for breakfast, lunch, light dinners, and snacks ever since!

SPINACH AND ONION CRUSTLESS QUICHES ( aka SPINACH AND ONION EGG PUFFS)

Makes 6 crustless quiches (each one the size of a muffin)

If you would like to see a video showing how this recipe is made, just click on this link for the YouTube video that I made with the help of my friend Ludo Van Vooren, who served as my director and film editor, and my husband, Charles Nazare, who cheered me on. Also a big thanks to my friends Shelley and Fred and cousin David who looked this video over and told me it was good enough to share. I had my doubts, but I’ve swallowed my pride and learned to live with the fact that I don’t look as young as I used to when I made my other videos…and I’m out of practice, besides. But making this video was fun, so I plan to do more of them for this blog in the future. I hope you enjoy viewing the video.

Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil (for greasing the inside of each muffin cup)
• 6 tablespoons caramelized onions, prepared according to the post, Monamifood Caramelized Onions & Roasted Spinach
• 6 tablespoons roasted spinach, prepared according to the post, Monamifood Caramelized Onions & Roasted Spinach
• About 1½ teaspoons ground turmeric
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  
• Aleppo pepper or any mild red pepper, such as paprika (not the hot variety). The purpose of the red pepper is to give the quiche a nice warm color.
• fresh thyme leaves (or dried thyme leaves or dried oregano – or a mixture of these), to taste
• 1, 16-ounce container of liquid egg whites
• 1 tablespoon shredded or grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Equipment Prep Step

• If you are going to cook these quiches in a microwave oven, you will need a 100% food-grade silicone muffin pan (for regular, not mini size muffins).
• Unfortunately, in a microwave oven, the food in a muffin pan does not cook evenly. (The food closer to the walls of the oven cooks faster than the food farther from the walls of the oven.)  So using a pair of kitchen shears, I cut my silicone muffin pan into 6 muffin cups as you see below. Now I can arrange the muffin cups in a circle for even cooking.
  

My silcone muffin pan after surgery to separate the muffin cups

Directions (Microwave cooking)

Note: Oven cooking directions are given below the microwave cooking directions.

• Using a pastry brush and olive oil, lightly grease the inside of each silicone muffin cup with olive. (You may not need to grease these muffin cups. If you find that your little quiches slide out of their cups without greasing the muffin cups, that’s great; just skip this step.)

• If you can, remove the glass “go round” inside your microwave oven and place it on your kitchen counter. (If you can’t remove the glass “go round” from your microwave, then just use a large round microwaveable platter.) Arrange the 6  individual greased silicone muffin cups in a circle on the glass “go round” or round platter. Try to make sure that each of the cups is about the same distance from the outer edge of the glass “go round” or platter.
• Put 1 tablespoon of caramelized red onions inside each of the muffin cups.
• Put 1 tablespoon of roasted spinach inside each of the muffin cups.
• Sprinkle a scant ¼ teaspoon of ground turmeric into each of the muffin cups.
• Sprinkle a little freshly ground black pepper into each of the muffin cups.
• Sprinkle a little Aleppo pepper into each of the muffin cups.
• Add as much fresh thyme as you like to each of the muffin cups
  
• Shake the container of egg whites (as it says on the carton). Pour the liquid egg whites into the partially filled muffin cups, filling each cup almost up to the top. You will use – or almost use – the entire container of egg whites.
• Using a small spoon, gently mix the contents of each muffin cup to distribute the veggies more evenly.
• Place the “go round” or platter with the filled muffin cups into the microwave oven.
  
• Cook on high for 3– 4 minutes or until outer half of each of the mini quiches is starting to look slightly cooked (not so runny).
  
• Carefully rotate the each muffin cup 180 degrees so that the inner edge becomes the outer edge.
• Cook on high for another 2-3 minutes or until there is no more liquid remaining on the top of each quiche. In the final minute or so as they cook, you see them puff up high above the top edges of the muffin cups and then drop back down when they’re done. It’s dramatic and fun to watch!
• If desired, top each little quiche with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, and heat for another 10-15 seconds to melt the cheese.

• When the muffin cups are cool enough to handle comfortably, remove them from the oven.

One muffin cup with a Spinach and Onion Crustless Quiche inside

• Invert each muffin cup and the little quiche should slide right out. When you turn the quiches  right side up they look beautiful — and, I think you will agree, taste GREAT!

Directions (Oven cooking)

• To cook these mini quiches in a regular (not microwave) oven, follow the directions given above, but bake at 350 degree F — either in a silicone muffin pan or in regular metal muffin pan. I made three little quiches in my toaster oven (using cut-up silicone muffin cups) and they were ready after baking for about 20 minutes. It should take around that long to cook these in a metal muffin pan, too.
  

Notes

• After posting this recipe (and that was after making it at least 25 times), I discovered that adding fresh thyme made the little quiches even more delicious. And, since thyme is an anti-cancer food in its own right, (as explained in my earlier post, Roasted Grape Tomatoes and Thyme), go ahead and add plenty of thyme. Just buy (or grow) fresh thyme, wash it, dry it, and store it in your freezer. Storing in your freezer will make it easy to remove the leaves from the stems (as explained in the Roasted Grape Tomatoes post) and it will still taste fresh.
• If you are out of fresh thyme, no problem. Use dried thyme or dried oregano leaves. Oregano and thyme (as well as rosemary, basil, and mint) are members of the terpene family and have anti-cancer properties.
• These Crustless Quiches do not freeze well. But you can store them in your refrigerator for a few days.
• By using a silicone mini muffin pan (cut up into individual cups), you can make mini quiches. (And, if you don’t want to cut up all your silicone bakeware, use the pan as is and take out the cooked mini quiches and return the pan to the microwave to cook the rest.) I served these mini quiches at a party not long ago and they disappeared!
• I learned the hard way that if I follow the manufacturer’s direction that came with my silicone muffin pan: “do not place in the dishwasher,” then the muffin cups remain non-stick and I do not need to to grease the muffin cups.
  +++++++++++++++++++++++

And here’s another Crustless Mini Quiche recipe from Monamifood: Updated Crustless Mini Quiches. The newer version does not require silicone muffin pans. And it is easier to make. However, it does not include turmeric. I now use turmeric (including fresh turmeric) in a lot of other foods I cook, so I don’t mind not having some for breakfast.

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

BROWN RICE: Golden Rice

Why brown rice?

It’s a lot better for you than regular white rice! “…ordinary white rice should be avoided and replaced by brown or white basmati rice, for which the glycemic index is lower.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 63)

This doesn’t mean you should eat LOTS of brown rice. As Dr. Servan-Schreiber says, “Above all it’s much better … to eat vegetables and legumes (beans, peas, lentils). Not only are their glycemic indexes low, but their potent phytochemicals fight cancer growth every inch of the way.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 63)

GOLDEN RICE

In order to make brown rice rich in the “potent phytochemicals that fight cancer growth,” I now add turmeric and black pepper to every pot of rice I cook. And the result is a gorgeous golden rice!

For example, when we had friends over for dinner one night, I made two stir fry dishes – an Asian stir fry and Indian stir-fry (like a biriyani) — and both were made with Golden Rice, (but in the Asian stir-fry, I used less turmeric than in the Indian stir-fry).

Ingredients

Brown rice

• Previously on this page, I mentioned that I like to use a variety of brown rice called Sweet Brown Rice or Korean Sweet Brown Rice – available in the Asian supermarkets and by mail order. The word “sweet” in the name of this rice is misleading. It’s not sweet; it’s just sticky. It’s a short grain rice that clumps together when cooked so it has a very chewy texture. Well….now I’ve learned that sweet sticky rice has a higher glycemic index than the more common rice varieties. So now I use brown Basmati rice — for Indian foods — and regular brown rice for other foods.

Filtered water

Turmeric and freshly ground black pepper

• Turmeric and black pepper are a potent anti-cancer combo, as discussed in an earlier post, Turmeric and Black Pepper . In addition, new research indicates that turmeric and black pepper are especially effective against breast cancer (stem cells). For a summary of this new research, see Dr. Servan-Schreiber’s blog.

• How much turmeric and black pepper should you use when making rice? It’s up to you. Experiment; start with a little turmeric and add more next time until you get the proportion of turmeric to rice that works for you. But here’s a rough guide based on my experience:

1. For a light golden color and a slightly but not noticeably earthy taste, I add about a teaspoon of turmeric and a few grinds of fresh black pepper to two cups of raw brown rice.
2. When I want the earthy spicy flavor of turmeric and black pepper, I add about 1 tablespoon turmeric and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper to two cups of raw brown rice.

Note: I will measure carefully and report more exact proportions here soon.

Directions (rice cooker, my preferred way to cook rice)

• Rinse the rice under cold running water until it’s no longer cloudy (about 3 rinses).

• Place the rinsed rice into the bowl of the rice cooker. Add the water according to the directions for your particular kind of rice. Someone once told me that the water level should be about one knuckle above the rice and this works pretty well for me (I have small hands, though).

• Add turmeric and black pepper, according to your taste.

• Press the button for cooking and wait until it’s done. That’s it!

Directions (stove top)

• See the Purcell Mountain Farms for stove top (and rice cooker) directions for preparing many different varieties of brown rice.

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni