They say you are what you eat. Who they are, I have no idea, but that is what they say.   If that was true, I might just be a bowl of ice cream.  I’ve been thinking about this and know that I do need to be better with what I eat. I’m not getting any younger. I am technically bordering on obese as far as weight charts go (shut up)  and most of all I am trying to be overall healthier in my lifestyle.

My goal right now is just to eat better. Although I am not a bad eater, I could and should be better. I have been eating Pescatarian for a while now. There is no specific date that I can point to as it was a gradual transition. My son came home from college earlier this year as one. So while cooking for the family, I began to cook more meals for the family or a separate for him. Cooking for one is hard, so usually by default I would eat what he ate.

Then during this whole pandemic there were stories on the news about meat packing plants and I saw some video footage that really got me thinking about what I was eating. I am only telling you this not to sway anyone, but as part of my story. I know several people who go out of their way to shame people to eating their way and that is not me. I find that really annoying. I readily cook meat for the meat eaters of my family. During this time, I also joined 2 local CSA’s for my fruits and veggies and have been trying to get away from processed foods.

But on this quest to eat pescatarian, I also had to learn to cook this way. This woman can not live on tofu and salad alone. I realized that when you can’t depend on meat to bring the wow factor to your meal, you have to expand your horizons a little So as we move forward, I will share some of my adventures in cooking.

Yesterday, I made Chickpea Sweet Potato Curry. I must emphasize that my foray into cooking Indian Food which I have been doing more of is that not only do I not have a high spice tolerance, but I have not really eaten or know much about it. Luckily there is not only the internet but I have friends willing to share their knowledge. When it comes to cooking though, I have never been afraid to try new things (ok, that’s a lie because macrons still scare me). This one reminded me of a stew and I will say that since I’ve since made a few curry dishes, I felt comfortable playing with the recipe to make it my own somewhat.

The first thing I realized when cooking the Indian dishes and vegetarian dishes as a whole….. the prep work. When cooking with fresh veggies there is lots of chopping. This recipe though was a nice mix of canned, frozen and only chopping was onions which always make be cry and the sweet potato’s. Since I did go rogue on this recipe, I also chopped plantains adding them shortly after the sweet potatoes began to soften.

Giving credit where credit is due…. this is the recipe I used as my base: http://Chickpea, Sweet Potato and Spinach Curry

 

Changes that I made….. As mentioned above, I added cut plantains once sweet potatoes softened and I doubled recipe except for chickpeas. I also used 2 cans of crushed tomatoes instead of chopped tomatoes because I didn’t have diced tomatoes. So this made it more stew to me. I also used mixture of creamed coconut and coconut milk. Again, I was going for more of creamy strew to go over my rice.

My family is obsessed with the Naan bread and I made a double batch. Even my son who does not eat the curry will eat the Naan because why not?

Then when it ready to eat, I put over some white rice and viola….. Easy peasy lemon squeezy (although there was no lemon).

What was nice about this is today after my 6 mile walk, I made a big bowl of this to replenish myself with and it was perfect. Much better and healthier option than what I might normally eat after a run. Plus can’t beat benefit of sweet potatos and spinach.