Nora Eats Spicy Tibetan Noodles

We try to have family meals together at least three nights per week. This means preparing food that everyone can eat, at least in some form. I also try to make a new recipe at least once every week or two.

A couple of weeks ago, I chose a recipe for Tibetan-style noodle curry from my Passionate Vegetarian cookbook. It has noodles, chopped vegetables, tofu . . . lots of Nora's favorites. During the cooking process, I must have thrown in a little too much cayenne powder because it turned out spicier than I intended. But having worked hard to get everything together for a nice Sunday dinner, I figured we might as well try it anyway.

To my surprise, Nora loved it. She not only loved it for dinner that night, but she loved it for lunch for the next two days. She just kept shoveling it in. And I thought it was pretty good myself.

Garbanzo Beans with Spinach and Spices

One of my favorite quick-and-easy recipes -- very low-fat and nutritious!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 T canola oil
2 T ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or less if you don't like it spicy)
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 10-oz package frozen spinach
2 tsp garam masala (Indian spice blend)
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the canola oil over medium heat until translucent.
2. Stir in the cumin, coriander, tumeric, and cayenne and heat for one minute.
3. Add the tomatoes and simmer five minutes.
4. Add the garbanzo beans and simmer five minutes.
5. Add the spinach and simmer until fully thawed. Stir it in.
6. Add the garam masala and salt to taste. Simmer a few more minutes and taste to adjust seasonings.

Serve over brown rice cooked with a little tumeric in the water for yellow coloring.
Optional: If you make it spicy, serve with plain nonfat yogurt on the side.

Som Tam

One of my favorite foods while living in Thailand was "som tam" -- spicy raw papaya salad. I wasn't sure whether I'd ever be able to find it in the USA, but it turns out that it's sold at many Thai restaurants! Of course, it costs about 20 times as much as it did in our Peace Corps town.

I haven't wanted to eat much som tam while pregnant, though, because folk wisdom has it that raw papaya can cause contractions -- not something you want early in your pregnancy. Now that I've reached full-term, however, I feel safe eating it again! So on Saturday night we headed over to Uwajimaya - a local Asian grocery store - and picked out the ingredients. Robert made the som tam while I worked on a noodle curry. He did a great job -- it tasted perfect!

1 large unripe papaya, peeled and grated
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
2-4 small Thai chili peppers, finely chopped
1 cup green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 T soy sauce, or to taste
1 T sugar, or to taste (optional)
1/2 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped
juice of 1-2 limes

The fresh chilies give it a real kick, so you might want to start on the lower end and increase if you think it isn't spicy enough. Som tam is best eaten fresh, but can keep for about two days, covered, in the refrigerator.