Curry for Champions

     It's a dangerous thing to Google the calories in the food you're craving. I learned this the hard way after my hankering for Thai chicken curry led me to question if it would make me feel guilty later or not. Coconut milk, rice, potatoes... that's not good. But there's veggies and chicken...? I won't even bother telling you the caloric intake. I'm not usually one to count calories and I truly believe whole foods are the nourishment your body needs so screw monitoring everything I eat. Being gluten-free requires enough monitoring for this gal. Alas, the Olympics are on and it's gotten me into some sort of health kick, so I'm going to ride this wave as long as I can.

     Craving still lingering, I took stock of what I had in the fridge from our recent CSA box. Green peppers, mango, zucchini, onions up the yin-yang. No meat...Quinoa...ok. I got the rest of what I needed from Safeway and started cooking. To be a little "healthier" I made quinoa instead of jasmine rice, easy substitution packed with protein. Brown rice annoys me anyway so forget it. My Olympic-inspired health kick made me buy low fat coconut milk but I told myself it was ok since it had no extra ingredients. (Remember my definition of healthy = no additives or weird man-made ingredients) You can really alter this easy curry recipe to your tastes and what is in your fridge. I highly recommend adding a juicy fruit to curry, whether it's mango, pineapple, or any type of peach/nectarine variety. It adds a sweetness to the spice of the cayenne. Curry recipes usually call for brown sugar but no need since you added fruit. If you need more spice, add some chilies.

Curry for Champions
Step 1: get that quinoa going while the chicken is cooking in a little bit of olive oil and a toss of onion
Step 2: 1 sliced green bell pepper
     1 sliced onion
     1 diced mango (it was a gamble but soooo good)
     1 sliced zucchini
     Saute these with a little olive oil, toss in some chopped garlic
Step 3: Add some curry and cayenne to the chicken and the veggies
Step 4: Slowly add the whole can of coconut milk to veggies and add as much curry as you want, taste as you go, and don't let it boil too much
Step 5: Serve it all up!

*I didn't cook the chicken all the way through so I tossed some navy beans into my curry and OMG it was an amazingly good accident. Cooking well should be easy and full of substitutions. Enjoy!