Simple Veggie Curry

Last night I made one of my absolute favorite dishes...vegetable curry.  The beautiful thing about this is how simple it is, plus you get tons of leftovers!

Things you'll need:

• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 large yellow squash
• 12 oz. cooked chick peas
• 1 large red onion
• Garlic
• Red curry paste or your favorite curry spice blend
• Thai basil or cilantro
• Brown basmati rice
• Bouillon cubes

Start by cooking down some garlic with the red onion (thinly sliced) in some oil (I prefer coconut oil).  After a minute or so throw in enough curry paste to coat the onions.  Note: the more spice you use here will give you a richer curry flavor, so that's your judgement.

Once that has cooked for several minutes the remaining ingredients can be thrown in the pan.  I tend to keep the pieces of produce rather large, but it doesn't really matter.  Just keep them consistent so everything cooks at the same rate.  After you have combined everything and smooth out the coconut milk, top the curry off with water so everything is covered.  Make sure to add one bouillon cube per cup of water added so the flavor doesn't thin out.

Meanwhile, cook whatever you want to top the curry with.  I recommend brown basmati rice or quinoa.  Once the curry sauce has reduced to a thicker consistency and the potatoes are tender it is ready.  Top with chopped basil or cilantro.  Some lemon zest adds a nice touch as well.

Magical Crock Pots

Anyone who says they can't cook is full of shit.  Period.

If you are one of those hopeless kitchen people, the ones who burn everything, can't figure out how to boil water, or are forever attached to grab and go food or salads...get a crock pot!  Seriously.

I generally use mine for making large batches of chili, soups, etc.  They are also a must for keeping large quantities of food up to temp for parties and whatnot.  But, I tried something new (for me) yesterday.  Before I left for work, I put some extra pork shoulder I had from a New Years party in the pot, left it on low, and headed out for work.  Its amazing how something so minimal in terms of ingredients can come out so tasty.  The only things I put on the shoulder were salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne pepper.  By the time I got home the entire apartment smelled of wonderful, succulent pork and it was fall off the bone tender.  This would work with any large cut of meat.

And if you don't eat meat, throw in all of your favorite veggies, some liquid and some seasoning and I'm willing to bet something appetizing will come out of it.  Haven't tried it yet but you can bet your ass I will be soon.  Happy eating!

New year goals and motivation

I cannot believe it is already 2013!  The last month has been a blur of family, holidays, and what naturally comes along with that...tons of junk food.  I felt like Thanksgiving through the New Year was nothing but rich, comfort food and an exorbitant amount of desserts.  While I do love that time of year, my stomach is glad to be over it.

With another new year being well on its way means that everyone is also making resolutions.  I have never been too fond of making resolutions to keep, I have always believed that if you want to change something do it right away.  No need to wait for an arbitrary time to make beneficial changes in your life.  With that said, there is something I am starting to change in my life and it just so happens to be with the start of 2013.  I need to be more proactive about taking responsibility with things I need to get done.  However, this doesn't apply to anything major I am trying to accomplish, just the little things that will make my life much easier and far less stressful.

A great example of this would be getting back to what I was so good at last summer when I was chest deep in Ironman training.  Although I was incredibly busy with work, staying on top of my training and maintaining what little personal life I had; making sure I had food prepared ahead of time and workout gear was in order made everything so much easier.  I know it sounds silly (and like I said, small changes), but I need to get back to doing that.  I am just now coming out of my "off-season" and I'm hoping that these changes will naturally occur.

The biggest thing that is hindering me right now is this damn WI winter!  The days are short, nights are long, and the cold is here to stay.  I absolutely love sleeping, so when I try to get up at 5am for group cycling, it becomes very easy to hit snooze and tell myself I'll go to the night class instead.  This is fine I suppose, but I prefer getting stuff done right away.  This is where the small changes need to take place.  If I know I have my food ready for the day and my bags are packed, I have little else to get ready for the day and getting out the door becomes so much easier, even if it is 5 degrees outside.

Enough of my ramblings...with that I am happy to say I am pumped for this year.  As mentioned in previous posts I am with a new team, Wattie Ink Team Elite, and am very excited about it.  The right column of this blog should now have click-able links for all of our team sponsors.  I have decided I am going to target 3 70.3 distance races this year: Racine 70.3, and the Rev3 WI Dells & Anderson (South Carolina) events.  I will also be racing a lot of shorter stuff as well as some running races.

Lastly, the Packers looked great last week and I hope they keep this momentum going as they take on San Fran this coming Saturday!  Go Pack!

Woodson looked far from old and slow.  He is still a force to be reckoned with!