Welcome Stefanie!

Date: 03/02/2011
Cook:  Stefanie
Menu: Chickpea Curry with Rice, Spinach Salad with Walnuts and Strawberries and Mango Coconut Fruit Salad

Jen and I extend a very warm welcome to Stefanie, who is giving mealgroup a whirl for the month to see if it is a good fit for her family!  Stefanie thoughtfully took the time to write up some of her thoughts about her initial experiences with us:

I'm happy to have joined this group. Its the end of my first week, and I'm totally psyched about cooking and being cooked for. First meal was Jen C's: spicy burgers, oven fries, succulent edamame succotash and satisfyingly rich choc-chip cookies. All of these treats were different for me, and fun. I especially enjoyed the burgers.  Then it was my turn to cook. Coming from a big family (but living as a twosome now), it felt good to cook for a group again. Preparing food for the group gives me incentive to make a proper meal and try new recipes.

Last week I got a new cookbook entitled Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi. It inspired me to make a chickpea curry. In the intro to beans, the author states that sprouting beans increases their vitamin, mineral and protein content. So I sprouted the chickpeas for a couple of days before cooking. I also prepared a spinach salad with strawberries and walnuts, topped with poppy seed dressing: 1/4 c each olive oil and Japanese "seasoned" vinegar, 3 teaspoons poppy seeds,  1/4 teaspoon each fresh grated ginger and garlic, pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper. Mix well into salad before serving. Dessert was mango coconut fruit salad: frozen blueberries, mango and cherries dressed in mango coconut milk yogurt with 1/2 c. shredded coconut.