I love Sundays Off!

I do love Indian Food.  I love the aroma of the seeds toasted, I love how that intensifies their flavors, I love the different textures, and I love the variety of cooking methods and techniques that complex dishes require.  I especially love the intensity of the heat.  Indian food is not for wimpy palettes!  If you find Asian food or true Mexican food (Taco Bell does not count as real food, sorry), I would advise staying far away from cooking and preparing Indian food until you have learned the kinds of heat and how to control it.  It is not even the chilies, for example the veggie dish also required 8 cloves of garlic and a 3 ½” piece of ginger.  These have heat factors that when combined with cayenne pepper only accentuates the number on the heat scale.  Great flavor, but be prepared.  Army’s mouth is still on fire.

And controlling the heat is not only factor to consider.  I served the intensely heat laden foods with the cooling cucumber yogurt and mint sauce, a jarred chutney, and naan.  Each of these essential components balances the meal.  Not a cuisine for people who like to keep everything separate on their plates.

I had planned to do fresh fruit for dessert, but was so full of veggies and kebab that the thought of more food was overwhelming.  So if this was all veggies and only a small amount of meat (approximately 5 oz, including the almond flour and chopped hot peppers and onions) why was it a Sundays Off meal and not a regular WW Points Plus weeknight meal?  Because the lovely Ruby Red sweet potatoes were boiled whole, cooled, sliced and then fried in a wok in about 3” of oil…eeks!   Oh, and then the cauliflower followed it.  Then it was added to the toasted mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and fennel seeds along with cayenne, coriander, turmeric, fire roasted tomatoes (Hunt’s makes a fabulous canned product), carrots and peas.  So not really a weeknight friendly meal. I had forgotten that the sweet potatoes were peeled, losing that beautiful color.   

It was a wonderful meal…but it’s Monday, back at for the week.   I definitely need to focus on more activity; I would like to lose my 2lbs this week!

Be healthy, happy, and safe today.