What I really love about blogs is that every time you read a blog post, it's like you're reading a story, a slice of someone's day, or their thoughts. It's much more comprehensive than a Twitter update or a Facebook status update, and personally, I find it to be much more engaging and waaay more interesting. It's also a great way to keep up with what's happening in your friends' lives if they live far away, and you guys don't get to talk very often. I'm personally quite awful at keeping in touch, but through the blogsphere, I have been able to keep up with what's happening in a couple of my friends' lives, and I absolutely love being able to do so. It would be so amazing if every single one of my friends kept blogs! *hint hint* ;)
Anyway, a couple of days ago, one of my friends from undergrad, Kalen, posted about eating healthier/going vegetarian/pescetarian, and also talked about this documentary called "Forks over Knives". I was intrigued, especially since I had just gotten off of my detox, and what they were advocating sounded very similar to the diet I was on during detox. So last weekend, David and I popped ourselves down with a bowl of homemade curry for dinner, and watched it.
Wow. What an interesting documentary! It's about eating a plant based diet, and how much that can change our feeling of well-being and our health for the better. A couple of doctors used only the plant-based diet (no meat, modified sugars, or starches) to treat patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, hyper tension, and even cancer, and surprisingly, they had a lot of success in treating, and even curing, these diseases with only the change in diet (no pills, no shots,,,). What I found to be really fascinating was that their diet was basically my detox diet, but that they do it for years and years, and they don't have the big slab of ribs to look forward to at the end of 2-3 weeks like I did... I do feel much better when I do detox, and that's why I keep going back to it once in awhile, but I'm not sure that I can do that every day of my life, for the rest of my life... you know? the meat (ribs, burgers, Bulgogi, Korean bbq...yumm) it just tastes so good...! But the documentary definitely got me thinking, and though David, my skeptical scientist, was definitely more reserved about their ideas than I was, we're are going to try to go 'mostly' vegan/vegetarian from now on.
As I was thinking about different things you could eat while you were on this plant-based (vegan) diet, I realized that what we had for dinner could very easily be turned into a vegan dish! Just take out the shrimp, and add either more vegetables, beans, or some tofu, and there you have it! Perfectly healthy, yummy, and so easy. We're going to be making the vegan version soon =)
Easy Curry Recipe! (also vegan option)
Ingredients
2 Tbs Sesame oil
1/2 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp curry powder
3 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbs turmeric
1 Tbs red pepper powder
1 Tbs peanut butter
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
1/2 cup cashews
1 cup frozen vegetables
1-2 stalks of green onions, chopped.
1 pound of shrimp, or chicken, or cubed tofu (and add 1 more cup of your favorite kind of beans if going vegan)
Let's begin throwing things into the skillet!
1. Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat, then add onions and garlic to cook for a few minutes. If you are adding raw shrimp -like I did- or cut up chicken, add them to the skillet after a couple of minutes (if going vegan and using tofu or more veggies, you can wait to add them until later).
2. While the meat and the onion/garlic mixture is cooking on low-medium heat, mix together all of the spices (salt, ground ginger, chili powder, cumin, turmeric, and red pepper powder) in a small bowl.
3. Once the meat is done, add the spices mixture and mix, mix, over low heat.
4. Add the can of diced tomatoes, the coconut milk, peanut butter, and cashews to the skillet, and simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. If you like the curry a bit thicker, you can add some flour or corn starch to thicken it up a bit!
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| at this point we added some more red pepper powder and some more cumin because we wanted it spicier |
5. After simmering it for 10-15 minutes, throw in the frozen veggies and the green onions! (oh, and if you're doing the tofu version, add that now as well.) Simmer for a few more minutes.
6. Tada! the finished product. So much curry--perfect for left overs.
7. Enjoy with your family or friends (or by yourself. more for you, right?), over hot rice, while watching that documentary. And if you made the vegan version, you can feel extra awesome while watching that movie!! ;)
Happy eating!
--Janny
update::
I made the vegan version with extra beans and roasted veggies, and it was AMAZING!
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