Tonight's Dinner: February 21, 2014

Tonight for dinner I wanted to make an easy meal since I was finally preparing for a friend’s baby shower that I have been planning for weeks.  It had been a really busy day at the office and I also had to go to Sprouts to do the rest of my shopping for the shower.  Thankfully, I knew that I had a jar of Indian curry sauce in my pantry.  I quickly chopped up a bunch of veggies and cubed chicken breast.  I put it all in a pot with some vegetable stock to make the sauce go a little further and let it cook while I prepped some of the veggies for the shower’s taco bar. I also still had the crock pot rice from the night before so we ate the Indian over that.  It was really tasty, easy, and afforded us with a lot of leftovers, which means to me that it could easily feed a family of four.  The veggies I added to the mix were Chinese eggplants, cauliflower, and red bell peppers.   I don’t like regular eggplant very much, but for some reason the texture of the Chinese eggplant doesn’t bother me.  

The texture is still spongy like a regular eggplant, but less gritty in my opinion.

I believe the Indian sauce runs around $4.50-$5.00 for a small jar, but it is so worth it.  There is a ton of flavor and it makes dinners quick and easy.  You can pretty much put it on any meat protein or vegetable.  I think the strong flavors would overpower fish, but I guess it could be done.  I think it’s a pretty good deal too since it uses so many spices that I wouldn’t normally keep around the house to make something similar from scratch.  I’ve also come to terms with the fact that I’m a jar hoarder.  I love the little jars the sauce comes in.  They are the perfect size for shaking up balsamic-garlic vinaigrette or to wrap in scrapbook paper to use as a pencil holder.  I definitely think that I get my money’s worth with this product and will continue to purchase. 

Two chicken breasts with half a red onion.

Eggplant, red bell, califlower, green onion, and cilantro ready to go in the pot.

 

Chicken and vegetable curry

2 chicken breasts, cubed

½ red onion, diced

1 head cauliflower, chopped

2 red bell peppers, cubed

2 Chinese eggplants, cubed

1 jar Madras Curry

1 c vegetable stock

3 tbsp cilantro, minced

1 bunch green onion, sliced

Directions:

In a large pot over medium high heat, brown chicken with red onion.  Add cauliflower, red bell, eggplant, Madras Curry, and vegetable stock.   Cover and bring to a boil stirring frequently.  Let vegetables cook to desired doneness.  Add cilantro and green onion.  Cook for another 5 minutes.  Serve over rice.