What's Your Curry?

I thought today I would try to curry favor with you (ba-dum ching!) by sharing a super easy and yummy recipe.  I think a little curry is just what this weekend needs.  It doesn't hurt that it's a nice warm meal, and here in Jersey we are suffering through a mini-ice-age, ugh!

I like Indian curry ok, but I really prefer Thai curry.  I have NO idea if I am making authentic Thai curry here, I just added coconut oil, and some coconut milk, and it tasted like Thai curry to me. 

You will need:

Brown rice, cooked
Canned veggies of your choosing (I picked tomatoes, corn, and green beans)
Tofu (I like this brand, companion, because it is braised, yum!)
chopped onion
curry powder (follow the instructions on your container)
coconut oil (3 heaping tbs)
and coconut milk (just put it in a bit at a time, until the color looks good to you)


This recipe is SO easy.
Just toss the onion and coconut oil in a pan, and let it saute' a little.  Then throw in the rest of your veggies, all drained except for the tomatoes.  Add the curry/water mixture.  Let it cook down a bit, then add some coconut milk, and serve over brown rice.  YUM.

The finished product should look a little something like this:

This is the perfect winter evening meal.  Hot, filling, and actually quite nutritious.  Doesn't hurt that it only takes about a half an hour to make from start to finish, too.  The quicker you can finsish cooking, the quicker you can get back on the couch under a warm blanket, in my opinion! :) Stay warm folks, and happy cooking! 

The Cookie Story

This past weekend I had an interesting vegan baking experience.  Kind of an emergency baking experience, if you will.  I don't know if my readers are familiar with church services, but my church has a segment each week called Children's Story.  This is a part of the service where the children come up to the front for a special time geared towards them and their interests.  Every week there is a volunteer who gives the story.  This past weekend, that volunteer was me! 

Now this isn't too big of a deal.  I have given the story on many occasions and enjoy it.  The challenge this week was that I had just had foot surgery the week before.  Not too big of a deal I guess (You don't really need your foot to tell a story...), but the problem was that I always bring the children a prize and I was unable to drive or shop because of my foot.

Well, I really didn't want to disappoint the kids, so I tried to figure out what I could make them at home, that would also tie into a story.  That's when I remembered the Cookie Story!!  I love this story, so I will share it with you here:

The Cookie Story

A young lady was waiting for her flight in the boarding room of a big airport. Her plane wasn’t leaving for a long time, so she decided to buy a book and a bag of cookies to pass the time.
She sat down in a chair in the waiting room to rest and read while enjoying her snack. Beside the armchair where the packet of cookies lay, a man sat down in the next seat, opened his magazine and started reading. When the lady took her first cookie, the man took one also.

The lady felt annoyed, but said nothing. She just thought, "Wow, this man has a lot of nerve! If I was bigger, I would punch him in the nose for that!" As mad as she was, the man didn’t seem to notice.  In fact for every cookie the lady took, the man took a cookie too! The lady was so mad she could barely keep quiet, but she didn't want to cause a scene in the airport. Finally, when only one cookie remained, she thought: "Ah ha! What's this terrible man going to do now?"

The man silently picked up the last cookie, broke it in half and handed the lady one of the pieces. That was too much! The lady was much too angry now! In a huff, she snatched up her book and purse and stormed off to board the plane. When the lady was finally settled down in her seat inside the plane, she looked in her purse to get her glasses, and, to her surprise, what do you think she found in her purse? There was her package of cookies untouched and unopened.

Now the ladies anger melted away.  Instead she now felt so ashamed. She had been wrong about the man. The whole time she had forgotten that she had put her cookies in her purse. The man had not been terrible at all; he had been being kind to her.  He had shared his cookies with her without saying a word, getting angry or mean, he didn’t even sigh or roll his eyes....while the whole time she had been very angry. The lady felt very sad now, because it was too late to explain to the man why she took his cookies, or to say she was sorry.

Do you know why I shared this story with you children?  I am sharing it because it is very easy to get angry at people, and sometimes pretty difficult to be kind.  Sometimes it’s even harder to share, especially something yummy like cookies.  In every situation it’s important to remember that we might not know the whole story, and that Jesus wants us to always be kind, no matter what!

I don't know who the original author is, and I don't want to infringe on anyone, so just know the original author is NOT me, lol!  But anyway, the kids loved the story, but they loved these even better:

I was a little worried that some of the kids wouldn't like vegan cookies, but I used one of Claire Gosse's recipes from "Are you sure that's vegan?" so you really couldn't tell! I won't post the recipe out of respect for her and her book, but you can purchase it here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1453648135/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
You NEED this book if you love vegan goodies! :)
The only change I made from her recipe is two tbs of ground flax and a little water instead of egg replacer.  SO yummy, the kids were thrilled.