best tuesday night dinner ever

If any of you know me at all, you are already familiar with the "routine". For those of you who don't, in brief, dinner at our place goes like this:

Monday: spinach salad w/ cottage cheese*
Tuesday: carb night**
Wednesday: spinach w/ cottage cheese
Thursday: omelet night***
Friday: varies, but often salad****
Saturday: varies****
Sunday: varies, but seems to be evolving to pizza night****

*This is mainly a Paul thing. I'll have a scoop of cottage cheese every few weeks, but his salad is always doused with dressing and cottage cheese. I don't do dressing.

**The carb changes. Can be a pasta, a stir fry, a pilaf, a risotto. Must be carb heavy.

***I'm pretty touch and go with eggs, so for me Thurday is often left-overs from Tuesday, but for Paul it is always a massive omelet.

****Weekends vary depending on whether Paul is racing. If he is, normally a huge pot of spaghetti is his pre-race dinner, with a meat sauce for him and a veggie sauce for me. We try to really treat ourselves one weekend night and get some great cheese and good wine and whip up something gourmet. This weekend past saw fresh sheets of homemade pasta turned into tortellini with spinach, pumpkin, pumpkin seeds and asiago inside. Yum.

Anyhoo. When Paul and I first moved in with each other I found the routine to be a little much. I didn't want to eat salad just because it was Wednesday! I wanted food to be exciting with new stuff happening all the time. Time went by, and little by little, I adopted the routine. Now if you were to call me on a Wednesday and invite me out for sushi you'd get a reply that sounded something like, "For god's sake, don't you know it's salad night? I can't eat sushi tonight! Try me on a Tuesday, or a Friday!"

I admit that the routine is neurotic and crazy, but I love it. Why? Limited thinking, and thus limited tendency to stray from the plan. It has made it easy for me to maintain my 30lb weight loss for over 2 years with no journalling!

The salads are most often the same, with the odd twist thrown in. Paul's omelet is ALWAYS the same. Weekends are fun and exciting and we often try new things. Tuesdays are fun because there are so many different carbs to play with.

Tonight I had a recipe in mind for Curried Coconut Pumpkin Stew. I think I got it from Martha Stewart. I have this 22lb pumpkin I've been trying to use up (most of it is in the freezer in puree form) so the recipe fit the bill. Unfortunately, when I set out to start cooking I realized I was missing some essential ingredients. I went for a bit of a dig around my cupboards, and then across the street to Sambal and Ginger where I grabbed a bag of split mung beans, and then the magic began!


Katie's Curried Coconut Pumpkin Mung Stew:

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp curry powder
2 cups pumpkin, cubed
1/2 cup split mung beans
1 can coconut milk
1 can water
1 large head broccoli, chopped
salt to taste

To make: In a large heavy bottomed pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute 1 min. Add ginger, cumin, curry and pumpkin and split mung beans, and saute for 1 min more. Add coconut milk and water, and bring to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for 15 min, stirring occasionally. Add broccoli florets and cook uncovered until just tender. Salt to taste. Serve over brown rice.

This was freaking delicious. Paul said, and I quote, BEST TUESDAY NIGHT DINNER EVER!!!

While at Sambal and Ginger I discovered a new (to me) ingredient I want to play with. Stay tuned for next Tuesday's dinner!