Thai Green Curry Soup

I love Thai food, let me say it again I LOVE Thai food, my DH not so much. I did get him to take me to a Thai restaurant for my birthday and he was shocked that the food is not what he thought it was. What did he think it was? I have no clue. Maybe Chinese.  Either way he ended up liking it.  He surprised me this summer when he planted Thai basil at our garden which I took as a sign.  I've had these ingredients at hand, but time was delaying me trying to make my favorite soup, green curry.... Thinking about it makes me salivate.  I typically will order it from a restaurant by my job, but at $9.50 for a small container, it's a splurge and not the norm. BTW, if you are ever in the Mount Vernon area of Baltimore, check out Thai Landing, their food is awesome. Simple and tasty.

 

I read up on some recipes and saw that even though there are various ways to make it, the base is almost always the same.  I decided to make my own version with these ingredients.

 

The green block in the small bowl is the Thai basil frozen to preserve the flavor. I added cilantro because I didn't have Kaffir leaves.

 

 

 

The process was simple; browned the chicken in hot wok, saute the onion and garlic, then add the fat from the coconut milk in with the curry paste and carrots. Let that cook for a bit (while the kids start coughing because of the spice LOL).  Add in the fish sauce, broth, rest of the coconut milk, basil and cilantro. Let it cook for a bit and you are done.

 

 Serve over a bed of rice. DH and DD loved it, DS was tired and wanted nothing but the chicken.  Overall, my version is a PASS.  I could not make it as spicy as I would like since the kids had to eat from it, next batch will be strictly for me. 
 

Monkey Bread

So today at church, my family was to provide refreshments and I decided I will make semi-homemade monkey bread. Everything went well except when dealing with two toddlers, plans gets derailed. Instead of taking it out of the pan immediately, I did it about half hour later. Needless to say, the result was less than what I expected. There is a reason why they suggest to serve warm. The caramel crystallized in the pan and there was no way I can get it out of the pan without breaking it apart.

Immediately told my husband he will have to stop and pick something else on his way to church. Oh and I ended up missing church because my oldest is sick. Before hubby left he took a ziplock bag full to eat on the way.

So this was a fail in presentation, but a pass in flavour and process. Will definitely try it again.

Bok Choy Coucous and Tarragon Chicken

This was a quick meal that took less than an hour to put together.  I seasoned the chicken with tarragon and Adobo (found in the international food section).  As the chicken cooked, I basked it with the drippings.  I had a head of Bok Choy and decided to sauté it and add couscous for the starch.  Came out awesome. I didn't use any recipe guide, just had those items on hand and went for it.

 

Cooking Update

I have been bad, really bad... I have slacked off and haven't posted anything for 2012. It's not like I haven't been busy, I've just being lazy when it comes to actually posting.  I started this blog with the purpose of making breakfast easy for my family and soon realize that while breakfast became easy and smooth, dinner became hell.  I was always coming to to "what are we eating for dinner?" with nothing prepped or even thought of.  So what does a desperate mother do you ask??? I turned to my mommy list serve for help.  Those women have gotten me through some rough times as a mother.

I've joined a meal swap and bought a book for helps with keeping me in check with dinner. I am by no means close to where I "want" to be in organizing my life/schedule/day but by taking baby steps, I'm praying to get there and stop driving myself insane.

With that said and much pressure from friends that are asking me what I've been up to, I am uploading pictures and brief explanation of what each consist of.

I've focused on dinner preparation, so most of these pertain to that.  All of these meal are prepped the minute I get home from the store and stored in the freezer with labels.

Double baked potatoes 

Prep for chimichangas

Sauce for teriyaki steak. Add steak and freeze

  

Ground beef cooked with veggies and ready for tacos and other meals

Items for pizza rolls

Add salsa or spaghetti sauce

Roll and freeze. the kids love this

Lasagna was prepped and frozen after wards in two servings

Cooking chicken for shredded chicken and broth. Kill two birds with one chicken

Have to hide the veggies from the kids

Before the meat is cooked

Reheating directions for lasagna