Some people are just sheer genius. Who was the first person was that said to themselves, “Hmm… maybe I can replace all the oil, water and eggs in a pre-packaged cake or brownie mix with a can of pop and see what happens.”? I want to know who it was so I can give them a big shiny medal! I don’t know why it works, but it does. It works well.
It really isn’t too much of a surprise, though. I’ve made other tasty things with a box of cake mix and a can of somethingoranother like Pineapple Bundt Cake and Pumpkin Spice Cookies, but when I saw that you could make brownies with a boxed mix and a can of diet coke, my mouth literally dropped open. It was like a sign from heaven.
You see, there are many things that I love about my fiancee. Two of them are her obsessive love for diet coke and her sweet tooth that usually only craves brownies (or kit kats). So, DIET COKE BROWNIES??!?!? A-freaking-mazing. Two of her favorite things in one! Of course, it was a requirement that I test them out. And I did. And they were oh-so-tasty. But the best part? Only 130 calories/4 PP each. An indulgent dessert without actually indulging. Oh happy day :)
Click here for this Dr. Pepper Brownies recipe by “The Novice Chef Blog”!
Diet Coke Brownies (as shown on Eat Yourself Skinny)
Servings: 18
PointsPlus Per Serving: 4 (although EYS says they’re 3, but I put mine through the WW recipe builder)
Calories Per Serving: 130 (but EYS says 115. It really just depends on the mix you’re using)
Ingredients
- 1 box brownie mix, 70 PP
- 1 12-oz can of diet coke (or whatever pop you’ve got since it doesn’t make a difference in points!)
Directions
1. Follow directions on box as far as what temperature to set the oven to.
2. Combine brownie mix and pop in a bowl until completely mixed. Spray a baking dish with Pam and then pour in the batter.
3. Follow directions on the box as far as how long to cook PLUS 5-10 more minutes. Just make sure the check that they are cooked to your liking (anywhere from 38-50 minutes). Take out and enjoy!
Now, the combinations don’t stop at diet coke and brownie mix. If you want to keep things all natural and organic, try a can of diet Zevia and some organic brownie mix. Or maybe you want a little more depth of flavor? Then try diet or regular cherry coke. You can even do the same thing with cake mixes! I’ve heard of people using confetti cake mix and a can of sprite or selzer water. Maybe a can of coconut or lime flavored selzer and a white cake mix? Or some root beer and chocolate cake mix? There are just so many combinations you can try! I LOVE it when that happens!
Click here for this Wild Blueberry Shake recipe by “Colorful Palate”!
I’ve been on a smoothie rampage lately. Well, by rampage I mean that I have at least 1-2 per day… and not really for the purpose of losing weight, but because they are damn tasty! If I can have something that tastes like ice cream without all the guilt for any meal of the day AND it takes less than 5 minutes to make from start to finish why would I NOT have 1-2 a day? They satisfy my massive sweet tooth and since I put protein powder in every one, they fill me up. It’s a win-win.
Click here for this Juicy Pear Smoothie recipe by “The Healthy Foodie”!
My history with making shakes and smoothies has not been a great one, though. Until my mom showed me how to properly make one last month, I ended up disappointed in most of my smoothie attempts. I’d already packed the blender up for our move (which is next weekend) because I didn’t see the point in keeping it out! Oh, silly silly me. Mimsy (my nickname for my mom) brought over some Weight Watcher Protein Smoothie packets, bought some frozen fruit and went to work.
First off, let me tell you the difference between a SMOOTHIE and a SHAKE. I had to do my own research on this just to figure it out. A smoothie is typically made with fruit – frozen fruit, fruit juice, fresh fruit, etc. It’s not a dairy affair. It’s a fruit party. A shake (“milkshake” being the source of the word), on the other hand, is a dairy-based treat usually made with ice cream, milk or both. The thickness of either does not change the name; as long as you can suck it up through a straw, it’s either a smoothie or a shake. When you start to need a spoon, then it becomes an ice cream or a sorbet.
After you figure out if you’re making a smoothie or a shake, you then want to decide how thick you want it to be. Do you want to easily drink it or do you want it thicker so that you feel more like you’re “eating” something rather than “drinking” it? The breakdown:
Click here for this Blood Orange Smoothie recipe by “Bittersweet”!
- Start each shake/smoothie with no more than 1 cup of a liquid, whether that’s water, fruit juice or some kind of milk (soy, almond, coconut, regular, etc).
- If you want a treat you can DRINK, you can either skip the frozen stuff all together (like ice cream or frozen fruit) and just put in fresh fruit like berries and bananas (or even spinach or avocado!) or you can put in frozen items that are UP TO OR EQUAL to the amount of liquid you’re using. If it’s too liquidy, blend in something frozen like ice or fruit.
- If you want a treat you can EAT, you can put in frozen items that are EQUAL OR UP TO TWICE the amount of the liquid you’re using. You could also use half the amount of liquid and sub the other half with tofu, yogurt, avocado or cottage cheese. Any more than that and your blender won’t blend it properly and you’ll end of with icy chunks of fruit covered in what resembles a smoothie texture. If it’s too thick for you, add some more liquid.
Click here for this Lemon Apple Honey Smoothie by “The Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife”!
- If you want a treat you NEED TO EAT WITH A SPOON, you’ll want to use 2 parts frozen stuff to 1 part liquid. Maybe a liiiiiiittle bit more, but not too much. Or you can use about 2 tbsp liquid, up to one cup of tofu, cottage cheese, yogurt or avocado and then add your sweetener and frozen ingredients.
- THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: you want to make sure you eat/drink your treats right away. Smoothies and shakes lose their wonderful consistency within about 30 minutes. So, don’t make it until you’re ready to consume it.
Click here for this Papaya Strawberry Avocado Shake recipe from “Family Fresh Cooking”!
Now you know how to make it work. So all that’s left is some delicious recipes, right? Well, you can certainly click on any of the pictures I’ve posted to go to those recipes on different blogs or you can try some of these simple and delicious combos listed below! Just put in the wet ingredients first, then the protein powder (if using) and sweetener and THEN the frozen items. Blend and enjoy! You may need to use a spoon to re-position the fruit so that it blends properly. Once you see the top of the mixture seamlessly swirling towards the center, your treat is ready to be devoured!
Chocoberry Protein Shake (4 PP)
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk, 2 PP
- 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 2 PP
- 2 cups frozen mixed berries
Click here for this Carrot Cake Smoothie recipe by “Pursuit of Hippieness”!
Tropical Breeze Protein Shake (4 PP)
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk, 1 PP
- 1 tbsp agave nectar, 1 PP
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 2 PP
- 1 1/2 cups frozen tropical fruit medley
Peaches and Cream Shake (4 PP)
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk, 2 PP
- 1 1/2 cups frozen peaches
- 1/2 cup low-fat vanilla ice cream, 2 PP
Simple Strawberry Smoothie (1 PP)
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
- 2 tbsp truvia, 1 PP
Chocolate PB Banana Shake (5 PP)
- 1 cup skim milk, 1 PP
- 1 tsp peanut butter, 2 PP
- 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 2 PP
- 1 1/2 cups frozen banana
Watermelon Explosion Sorbet (1 PP)
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups frozen watermelon chunks
- 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp truvia, 1 PP
These orange basil cookies will be a winner every time. They are the high ranking food in my house right now.
While the cookies are a lovely addition to a tea tray or brunch spread, if left too convenient to a student bogged down with studies, then they will be gobbled down as a meal replacement. I noticed Tall Dark and Handsome had not come out for a meal in quite a while.
Welcome to my first Protein Powder review! First off, I have to give a big shout out to my good friend, Jenna from the CorgiPants blog. She started doing protein powder reviews on her blog this year and it led me in the right direction when I first decided to shop for some protein powder. Her reviews are VERY helpful, so check them out! I can honestly say that I never thought I’d be doing the protein powder thing. I was convinced it was just a fad that all men and crazy women went through to pump up the muscle gain and fat burn despite whether it actually worked or not.
Imagine my surprise when my mom called me one day and said she tried a Weight Watchers protein smoothie mix with some frozen berries and milk and that it had the texture of ice cream and tasted amazing. I was shocked. My MOTHER is doing the protein powder thing? Okay, I had to try it. So, when she came to visit, she bought a pack of the chocolate ones and we made chocoberry ice cream to eat while watching a movie. It was so yummy! I got almost 2 cups of protein “ice cream” for only 2 PP! I was in heaven. I went out and bought about 8 lbs of frozen berries and 2 tubs of protein powder the next day.
Photo Courtesy of: Jenna from the CorgiPants blog! Click it to go directly to her review of About Time Whey.
Today’s review is for About Time Whey.
About Time Whey got great reviews from Jenna; a 9 out of 10! And you know what? I think I’d have to give it that too. It’s all natural and uses stevia as it’s sweetener. There’s no sugar or HFCS anywhere in site! The ingredient list isn’t ridiculously long and complicated too, which is nice. The texture is smoother, partly due to the fact that it’s actually in “powdered” form, rather than having the texture of white whole wheat flour. In order to figure out which flavor I would order a 2 lb tub of, I decided to order a few trial packs from them first. You can get 2 one scoop samples for 3.99 and they’ll pay for shipping! Here are the first four flavors I tried:
Chocolate: This is the third chocolate flavored protein powder I’ve had and I would place it 2nd… after the Weight Watchers Protein Powder! That stuff is gooood. This is less chalky than the WW stuff, but it’s not as chocolatey-sweet. When using 1% milk, I put in about a 1/2 tsp truvia, but when I used my vanilla almond milk, no sweetener was necessary.
Vanilla: I liked this one better than Designer Whey French Vanilla (but DW is cheaper at Meijer!). This flavor is a really nice vanilla without any chalky flavor at all. It’s just a nice, pure vanilla flavor that serves as a fantastic base for protein smoothies and ice cream.
Banana: Do you remember eating Runts candy when you were a kid? Yeah, this flavor tastes exactly like the bananas. If you haven’t had Runts, I can describe it as “fake” banana. Jess didn’t really like the flavor, but I didn’t mind it that much. It would probably be really good with frozen strawberries or some unsweetened cocoa and frozen bananas.
Strawberry: This one was actually tasty! I, of course, blended some tropical frozen fruit into it, but it had a delicious flavor. Still slightly “fake”, but with the fruit mixed in, it started tasting more like a daquiri than fake strawberry candy, so that was good.
I have two more sample flavors on their way to me right now – cinnamon swirl and chocolate peanut butter. I’m excited to see how these ones will taste. I also ordered a 2 lb tub of the vanilla because I liked it so much! Okay, so time for the breakdown.
About Time Whey
Calories per Scoop: ~103
PointsPlus per Scoop: 2
Texture: 5/5
Flavor: 4/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Click here for this Ginger Grapefruit Curd Recipe from "101 Cookbooks"!
Let me start off by saying that normally I do NOT like citrus-flavored baked goods. I used to get terrible migraines and horrible car sickness as a kid and I was always taking orange-flavored dramamine pills (which never worked). I’d get physically sick eventually, and because of the dramamine, fake citrus flavored were ruined. No lemon bars, no fruit pizzas, not even plain cheesecake with a “hint” of lemon juice. No orange pop, no lemon tarts…. the only time I could enjoy citrusy sweets was when they were SOUR.
I CAN eat a lemon raw. I DO love lemonheads! I can’t get enough of edy’s all-natural lime fruit bar popsicles. That sh*t is ahhhhhhmaaaazing. So when I wanted to make an egg white frittata a couple weekends ago, I remembered reading a recipe in my Cooking Light magazine for Lemon Curd and Mixed Berry Parfaits and I decided I needed to put those egg yolks to good use, even if I wouldn’t like it (I knew the rest of the people at work would appreciate it!).
Click here for this Coconut Curd recipe from "Country Cleaver"!
Well, the lemon curd didn’t make it to the office. It didn’t make it 24 hours. Why? Because I ate it… one delicious spoonful at a time. Oh, the treachery!! A lifetime of saying “NO!” to lemony baked goods and here I was, standing in front of the fridge for the 5th time, dipping Trader Joe’s Coconut Thins into the curd a few times before going back to eating it plain with my spoon. I felt like a traitor to myself. But I couldn’t deny how delicious this curd was.
It was sour, but perfectly sweet. It had no “fake” lemon flavor because I used real lemons and oranges. I used light buttery spread to cut down the points by just a little. It was just…. perfect. I ate all 32 of those WWPP from that little tub of curd in 24 hours and realized that I have a new weakness: Lemon curd. Curd in general.
I CURSE THE CURD!
But I am most definitely sharing the recipe with you. Because I love you all and you deserve to taste such deliciousness. But I’m warning you…. make it to SHARE it or you will eat it all yourself. Or try one of the other curds that I linked to because they all look outstanding.
Lemon Curd (from Cooking Light)
Servings: 8 (about 1/4 cup each)
PointsPlus Per Serving: 4
Click here for this Blood Orange Curd + Bars recipe from "Local Kitchen"!
Ingredients
- 6 egg yolks, 9 PP
- 2/3 cup sugar, 14 PP
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, 1 PP
- 1/4 cup fresh orange juice, 1 PP
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 3 tbsp Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread, 4 PP (Cooking Light used regular light butter)
Directions
1. Heat the egg yolks, sugar, juices and sea salt in a small sauce pan over medium heat for 6 minutes (it will become slightly thickened). Add in the butter and stir until completely melted and blended in.
2. Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Put it into the fridge until cooled throughout and set. Take out a spoon and fall in love.
You might have read it on my FB page, but Jess and I are doing our own round of The Game On! Diet. We’ve only got 174 days until we get married! And that means we’ve only got 174 days to shed some more weight to look even more dazzling in our outfits. Plus, we made the deal extra sweet. The total number of points we could get combined is 6800. If we score at least 6650 points combined, we’re getting an iPad! AND if we get 6775 points combined, we’re getting a speaker system for it. We’re totally gonna win this thing!
It’s only day two, but I already feel the benefits of eating smaller meals five times a day. I have more control. Weight Watchers always keeps me on track with points, but I’d been finding myself eating all of much lunch food and most of my snacks in one sitting rather than stretching it out throughout the work day. With this plan, I am drinking 3 liters of water each day, exercising at least 20 minutes every day, not snacking at ALL every day, and even working on some new and old habits. Like last time, I decided that my old habit to break would be playing games on my phone once I lay down to go to sleep. No more of that! And my new habit this time is to straighten up the apartment or pack boxes (since we’re moving to a new place next month) for at least 20 minutes a day. I’m even starting to prepare more of my meals in the evenings to save on time in the mornings.
Last night, I cooked a fancy schmancy dinner in less than 20 minutes: Grilled Balsamic Marinated Tri-Tip Steak (balsamic dressing and steak in a bag in the fridge for 2 days which I grilled on a cast iron grill pan), Roasted Asparagus (sprayed with canola spray and sprinkled with salt and pepper), and Baked Red Potatoes (which I cooked in the microwave on the baked potato setting). It was perfect and within the constraints of the plan! After relaxing for a bit, Jess mentioned that she still had one more meal left to eat for the day and she was in the mood for my Chinese Noodle Soup with Chicken. So we made that together! Instead of rice noodles, we used soba noodles which are made with buckwheat, salt and water. They are actually really good! We also put in chicken, carrots, scallions and rabini. I didn’t get any last night since I had already eaten all my meals, but I have some today for one of my meals and I’m looking forward to it!
I also hardboiled a dozen eggs for meals and made us each some Spicy Tuna Veggie Salad. And that is the recipe I’ll be sharing with you today. It’s inspired by a recipe that I saw in the Game On! Diet book, but I changed so many things in it that I feel comfortable calling it my own recipe. It’s a new twist on tuna salad without the pickle relish and mayo. Instead, this is chocked full of veggies and the dressing is made from two different mustards and some olive oil. It’s full of flavor and it fills me up! I like to eat it over a bed of romaine lettuce, but you can also eat it without anything else or with some wheat crackers. And if you want to change up the veggies that are in it, you can do that too. That’s how I came up with my combination! Jess’ was a little different than mine (I left the onions out of hers and put more dijon and less spicy mustard).
Spicy Tuna Veggie Salad (inspired by Bill’s Spicy Tuna Salad from The Game On! Diet book)
Servings: 1
PointsPlus Per Serving: 7 (since all the veggies are fresh, I don’t count the extra 2 PP that the WW Recipe Builder would add on for them)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup diced carrots
- 1/2 small tomato, diced
- 1/4 cup diced onion
- 1 medium sweet red pepper, diced
- 1 can water-packed tuna, regular or white, 5 PP
- 1/4 cup kidney beans, 1 PP (or a different bean of your choice)
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp spicy mustard
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp olive oil, 1 PP
Directions
1. Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir with a spoon. Serve it whenever you’re hungry! It should keep in the fridge for up to one week.
I have made quite a lot of dishes in my time, so when I realized that I’d never made enchiladas, I smacked myself in the face. How could I have waited this long to make them? It’s pretty much the easiest mexican dish you could ever make. Enchiladas to Mexican cuisine is like lasagna to Italian cuisine. You put whatever filling you want inside the carb and top it all with whatever sauce you want and sprinkle on your cheese of choice.
Even my pickiest of pickiest-eater friends love to eat and make enchiladas. They just don’t add much spice and cover it in cheese. As delicious as that can be, it wreaks havoc on my tummy with all that dairy, so I wanted to fill my enchiladas with lots of different flavors and ingredients that wouldn’t make me a personal methane gas distributor.
When I took these out of the oven and gave some to Jess, she started singing praises by the second bite! That’s usually a sure sign of success around here :) So, cook these up, eat em, and let me know how much you love them!
Some for now, some for later!
Chicken and Corn Enchiladas
Servings: 5 (or 10 if you count each enchilada separately)
PointsPlus Per Serving: 9 (or 4 if you count them individually)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups red enchilada sauce, 4 PP (I used Trader Joe’s Enchilada Sauce)
- 10 four-inch corn tortillas, 8 PP (I used La Tortilla Extra Thin ones that are 40 calories each)
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels, 4 PP
- 1/2 cup black beans, 2 PP
- 1/4 medium onion, diced
- 2 small red peppers, diced
- 1 medium jalapeno, diced
- 7 oz reduced-fat colby cheese, 15 PP
- 1 chicken breast, 6 PP
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander (or 1 tbsp fresh cilantro)
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)
- 2 tsp olive oil, 2 PP
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375. Slice the chicken into 1/2 inch thick slices, put into a bag or bowl and cover with all the spices from cumin through black pepper and one tsp of olive oil. Mix it all up and let it marinate while you get the veggies ready.
2. Next, heat a medium sized skillet over medium heat with the other tsp of olive oil. Cut up the red peppers, jalapeno and onion and put into a mixing bowl with the corn. Pour into pan and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until veggies are just barely tender. Put back into the bowl and mix in black beans. Add a little salt and pepper and the cilantro if you are using it. Mix up.
3. Now, cook up the chicken slices in the same pan until thoroughly cooked (around 5 minutes). Dice up and pour into the bowl with the veggies. Stir everything up.
4. Take a 9×13 glass dish, coat with cooking spray and set to the side. Get out the enchilada sauce and pour about half of it into that same skillet along with around 1-2 tbsp water. Mix it in. Then, take each tortilla and dip it into the sauce so that both sides are coated. Then, put it in the pan, put in around 1 tbsp cheese and 2 tbsp chicken/veggie mix. Roll up and position it with the overlapped edges on the bottom. Repeat with other 9 tortillas.
5. Pour any remaining mixture into the sides of the dish, then pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over top of the whole pan. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the enchiladas. Bake for 30 minutes and enjoy!
I did something fishy. And I don’t mean mysterious or questionable… I mean tasty! When Jess and I were in Ohio a couple weekends ago, we made sure to stop at Trader Joe’s to fill up on all the grocery items we can’t get locally – nicely priced organic fruits and veggies, better cheeses, organic frozen meals, coconut cookie thins, etc. As we were about to check out, Jess turned to me and said,
“Don’t you want to get some frozen fish steaks?” I said, “YEAH!”, because in fact, I did. If there was a Whole Foods around, we’d be getting fresh ones, but the second best option is frozen, so I picked out a pair of beautiful albacore tuna steaks.
Then we got home and I looked around for a recipe that sounded both succulent and satisfying for my taste buds, but not too crazy for Jess’. The packaging contained a recipe for lemon-pepper breaded steaks, but I’m not so fond of that combination. It’s overdone with fish. And there was a recipe I found in one of my cookbooks for sesame teriyaki tuna steaks, but I knew I wanted some panko breading on there. Conclusion? Make up my own recipe! So I did. And it was wonderful.
I’d never had albacore tuna in any other form than chunked and packed in a can with water (and if you’re curious about the difference between albacore tuna and regular tuna, click here). These steaks looked too beautiful to pass up. I marinated them in an Island Teriyaki sauce for an hour and then breaded them with panko bread crumbs and asian spices, but the best part was pan-frying them in just a couple teaspoons of sesame oil! It really brought the flavors together. It’s a beautifully flavored dish that doesn’t overpower the palate with too much spice or too much fish. And it’s just as good when it’s reheated!
Pan-fried perfection
Asian Breaded Albacore
Servings: 2-4
PointsPlus Per Serving: 7 PP for 2, 5 PP for 3, 3 PP for 4
Ingredients
- 13 oz fresh albacore tuna steaks, 8 PP (I bought a pack of two from the frozen section of Trader Joes)
- 2 tbsp teriyaki sauce, 1 PP
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs, 2 PP
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp sesame oil, 2 PP
Directions
1. First thing you want to do is put your fish in a glass dish and pour the teriyaki sauce over top to marinate it in the fridge for about an hour.
2. While it’s marinating, combine all the ingredients from the bread crumbs through ground coriander in another glass dish.
3. Once your fish is done marinating, take it out of the fridge and set it on the counter. Warm up the sesame oil in a skillet on medium heat. Bread all sides of the fish with the panko bread crumbs and then place into the hot skillet.
4. Cook each side for 2-3 minutes, 2 minutes for rare, 3 minutes for medium-rare. Rare should be slightly pink in the center. Once done, serve and enjoy!
If you want to pair it with a tasty dipping sauce, mix together 2 tbsp light mayo, 1 tbsp sriracha sauce and 1/2 tbsp lemon juice. It’s the perfect combination of flavors!
Life has been busy! I apologize for the lack of blogging. I’ll be getting back on that now. Today I’m sharing a recipe that I tried in the colder months, but figured I’d share with you now before it’s WAY too hot for a stew! Later this week – another frittata, protein smoothies and other tasty goodness.
This recipe comes from The Best Ever Indian Cookbook, just like most of my other Indian recipes. Jess and I both really enjoyed this, especially since it actually DOES have a kick to it! The flavors just blend really well together. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Topped off with a little chobani and we're good to go!
Spicy Lamb and Potato Stew
Servings: 3
PointsPlus Per Serving: 7
Ingredients
- 8 oz lamb leg or loin, cubed, 6 PP
- 1 tbsp oil, 4 PP
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 fresh green chile, seeded and finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 2 1/2 cups chicken stock, 1 PP
- 2 1/2 cups raw potato, cut in large chunks, 7 PP
- chopped fresh cilantro to garnish
Directions
1. Remove any visible fat from the lab and cut the meat into neat 1-inch cubes.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy pan and fry the onion, bay leaves, chile and garlic for 5 minutes.
3. Add the meat and cook for about 6-8 minutes, until lightly browned.
4. Add the ground coriander, round cumin, ground turmeric, chili powder, and salt and cook the spices for 3-4 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent the spices from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
5. Add the tomatoes and stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
6. Add the bitesized chunks of potato to the simmering mixture, stir in, and cook for another 30-40 minutes, or until the meat is tender and much of the excess juices have been absorbed, leaving a thick, but minimal sauce. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and serve piping hot.
