Masaman Chicken Curry

Happy Sunday everyone!

I recently went to a Thai restaurant for lunch and had no clue what to do with myself. Masaman Curry was recommended to me by a coworker and I took a chance because I didn't know what else to do. That was about two weeks ago and I have been craving this stuff every day since. I had never had curry before much less knew what it was comprised of. Luckily I found this wonderful recipe from Favorite Family Recipes that was so easy - it looked exactly like what I'd had at the restaurant! You can imagine my excitement. My recipe is based off of this one with some extra veggies (obv) and some other little tweaks. It turned out awesome!! Please give it a try even if you're scared of curry because it will change your life and curry isn't scary. Spice level is completely adjustable and so is the protein. Enjoy!!

Serves: 4
Total cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients: 
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 lb raw chicken, sliced thin
- 1/2 can Masaman curry paste (pictured below, found easily at any asian grocery)
- 1 can coconut milk (I used light)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- juice from 1 quarter of a lime
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp chopped cilantro
- sriracha to taste (I used about 1 tsp)
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1/4 C peanuts
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
- 1 broccoli crown, cut into small pieces
- 1 onion, sliced thin
- 1 handful baby carrots, chopped thin
- 1 medium-sized zucchini

Brown rice for serving.
Avocado slices for serving, optional

Instructions:
- Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat
- Add your 1/2 can of curry paste to the hot oil, stir, and cook for 2-3 minutes
- Add half your can of coconut milk (full of healthy Omega 3 fats!!) and stir until well combined
- Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer
- As your sauce is simmering, stir in fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, cilantro, and ginger
- Add raw chicken, onion, bell pepper, broccoli, carrots, zucchini and bring to a boil again
- Turn down to a simmer and let your mixture cook until chicken is cooked through and veggies are soft, about 7-8 minutes
- Stir in the rest of your coconut milk, peanut butter, peanuts, and sriracha until combined and let simmer for 5 more minutes.
- Serve with brown rice (or whatever kind of rice you like), and avocado slices if you're feeling fancy

**Chicken can be subbed for tofu or potatoes (potatoes may need an extra few minutes to simmer
until they're soft)

(3 Ingredient!!) Skinny Sausage Gravy

Brunch-lovers listen up!!

Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal of the day. On the weekdays I usually eat oatmeal (make it with milk and put a banana and a couple dark chocolate chips in there, y'all, life will never be the same), but I love to make big brunches on the weekend and experiment with new recipes. Both of my parents are Yankees, therefore, I was sadly deprived of the glorious southern magic that is sausage gravy for 26 years of my life. Something about a gravy that isn't brown and doesn't have some kind of beef underneath has never really appealed to me. I have seen the light y'all and Hallelujah praise the Lord this sh*t is SO GOOD. This recipe is from the "Skinny Girl Standard" blog - it is to die for and SO easy you can't mess it up. Enjoy!!

Serves: 4
Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
- 1lb ground chicken or turkey sausage (pork sausage works too but will up the fat content)*
- 3 C milk (I use 1%)
- 1/3 C white whole wheat flour (or regular flour if you prefer)

Instructions:
- Brown your sausage in a large pan with a little olive oil over med-high heat and break up into small pieces as it cooks
- When sausage is cooked through, sprinkle on half the flour and let cook into the sausage for about 1 minute before adding the rest of the flour, cook for another minute once the rest of the flour is added
- Turn your heat down to medium, add the milk and stir gently
- Let your gravy simmer and thicken for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick to the pan
- Season with salt and pepper to taste (I like 1/2 tsp salt and about 1&1/2 tsp black pepper)
- Serve over hot biscuits**

* My favorite sausage is the ground chicken breakfast sausage made fresh at Sprouts in the fresh meat section. I've also used the hot italian ground chicken sausage from Sprouts and it's delicious.
**For the biscuits, I have used canned, bisquick, and homemade. See below for my favorite homemade recipe!

Ingredients:
- 3&1/2C white whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 C buttermilk
- 1/2 C butter or margarine, cut into 1 inch pieces

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400
- Add all dry ingredients to a food processor and pulse a few times to combine
- Add butter pieces to the dry ingredients in the food processor and pulse until pea-sized butter pieces remain in the mixture
- Add buttermilk and pulse a few more times until dough forms
- Sprinkle some flour on your work space and roll the dough out into a 2 inch sheet
- Use a biscuit cutter or a glass to cut biscuits and place on an un-greased cookie sheet
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until cooked through

Serve hot with gravy on top! Makes about 8 biscuits.

Here's what mine looked like:

Gingersnap Banana Pudding

Happy Superbowl Sunday, foodie friends!

Let's be honest, my favorite things about football is the tailgate. Football gatherings mean delicious food and a good excuse to have some afternoon cocktails. I have a lot of spirit - I'll wear the colors and call the Dawgs (WHO'S THAT COMING DOWN THE TRACK??), and cheer just as loud as the people who know what's going on. But do I know what's going on? Usually not. Oops! My dad is from Massachusetts which makes me a Patriots fan by blood (sorry, Atlanta), so today I will be wearing my red white and blue... yes, including red wine stains. This banana pudding recipe is perfect for all get-togethers involving football or otherwise. It's something that I dreamed up while trying to incorporate two of my boyfriend's favorite desserts for his birthday a couple years ago - gingersnap cookies and anything with bananas in it. The gingersnaps are a delicious cinnamon-y twist in an otherwise pretty standard banana pudding masterpiece. I get asked to make this on the regular and I think you will find that you do too (which is no problem because it's super easy)!

Ingredients:

- 4 large bananas, sliced into 1/4 inch pennies
- 1 large tub cool whip
- 2 large boxes of vanilla pudding
- 6 C milk
- 1 box vanilla wafers
- 1 box gingersnap cookies

1 large 9x13 pan- the deeper the better!

Instructions:

- Set out your cool whip to thaw
- Whisk both boxes of pudding with your milk for a couple of minutes until soft set
- Layer your cookies, alternating types, over the bottom of the pan in a single layer
- Spoon about 1/3 of your pudding over the cookie layer, making sure to cover each cookie
- Layer bananas side by side in a single layer over the pudding
- Spread a thin layer of cool whip over the bananas once it's thawed enough to spread
- Start again with your cookies and repeat layers until you've reached the top of the pan

*I usually use a foil pan so I can bring it and leave it at a party without worrying about my dishes. I like to get a large deep foil roasting pan to maximize layers. For this one, I fit in three full layers of everything except for the bananas. The last layer is just cookies, pudding and a top layer of cool whip. If you want it to be extra pretty and your pan is big enough, you could put a third layer of bananas on the top immediately before serving so they don't turn brown.

*This pudding is best made about 24 hours before serving so your cookies and get nice and soft.

Enjoy!!