Going Veggie - Chickpea Curry aka Chana Masala

I've been making this curry for about 3 years now. The recipe comes adopted way of 'The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook' from Bay Books.

It's spicy (but not too hot), low-fat, and has protein from the lovely chickpeas (or garbanzo beans - whatever ya wanna call them).

Note: a half cup of chickpeas has 170 calories and 10 grams of protein - not too shabby!

Anyway, I made this last night for a good friend and there were compliments galore :-) Try for yourself - it's super easy!

You'll need:

2 onions
4 cloves garlic
1 TBSP oil
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 TBSP ground cumin
1 TBSP ground coriander
2 14 oz cans of chickpeas, drained
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp garam masala

•  Slice onions finely.
• Crush garlic.
• Saute with oil over medium heat til soft.
• Add chili powder, salt, turmeric, paprika, cumin, and coriander - stir for 1 minute.
• Add chickpeas and undrained tomatoes. Stir until combined.
• Simmer, covered, over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Stir in garam masala.
• Simmer, covered for 10 more minutes.

Serve naan, pita, (sometimes I'll use tortillas in a pinch), or brown rice.

Another note: garam masala is a blend of Indian spices and can be found in large supermarkets and specialty food stores.

On with the photos! (My favorite part :-)

Enjoy!

'New York, New York - A Wonderful Town'

I have to admit (and in case you haven't noticed) I've been a bit down on New York lately. When a person lives here, it can be unforgiving. But there are many amazing sights and things to do despite it's unforgivingness.

In honor of 9/11, The Classic Movie Channel dedicated all films to New York on Sunday. I just so happened to catch 'On the Town', a 1949 musical with Gene Kelley and Frank Sinatra (*swoon*).  Musicals were part of our childhood growing up, so it was with much nostalgia that I watched this classic.

'On the Town'

'New York, New York'  (for some reason, I couldn't embed the videos from Youtube, so here are the links)

In the movie 3 sailors have exactly 24 hours of shore leave in the Big Apple. They explore the city hitting sites such as, The Empire State Building and Coney Island, all while looking for girls to spend their day with. Anyway, their excitement is totally contagious and gives those of us that live here renewed longing to enjoy the city, and perhaps even be a tourist for a day or two!

Here's a little taste of the Big City:

Old meets modern - Manhattan

 The Empire State Building

Ah, the famous yellow taxi

Statue of Liberty from Governor's Island

From Governor's Island

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Heights

With my friend, Amanda, in Times Square - '08

Vintage Coney Island

Well, I believe this about does for Coney Island. It's probably getting a bit redundant for you, so thought I'd liven things up with doing a vintage touch-up to the photos.

Enjoy!

Not sure why I was so enthralled with this - perhaps the amount of bad-assity contained on one street corner. Notice the guy on the bike to the far left.

We were like kids in a candy shop, lol ;-)

A favorite!

We ended the evening at a local pub :-)

With Our Hearts in Our Hands

Well on yet another sleepless night, I pose a question - why is it there are those of us who are attracted to all of the wrong people?

Although, maybe 'wrong' is not the correct word. Perhaps 'unavailable' is better; more politically correct. Unavailable in one form or another. Unavailable physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally - it could be just one from that list or all of the above. Whatever the case, it seems we have this powerful magnetism to all the people who are just not right for us.

It doesn't seem to matter how many times we get hurt or allow ourselves to get hurt, we just keep going back for more. Maybe we feel that our love is strong enough to help or change the person. Maybe we think that if we could just say or do something, the loved one will eventually have a revelation and then finally love us in return. After all, that's all we really want - their love.

This pattern could be all we know, having grown up in some sort of abusive environment. Perhaps one parent was always striving for the other's attention and love, but only to be met with unfaithfulness, harsh words, and at times, physical and emotional abuse.

So now all that is left, is a recollection of the so-called "love" that was shown, and a warped image of what we think love should be that has been glossed over by TV shows, movies, and music. Yes, maybe these are some of things that have molded our way of thinking and taught us to believe that we really do need someone who could never care for us as much as we love and care for them.

And so there we stand with our hearts in our hands offering them everything we have, but somehow it's just not enough. And here is the clincher, it's not enough, but they still want it and still take it. And we like the fools we are, keep giving and trying, thinking one day, just maybe one day it will change.

But the reality is - we are only hurting ourselves. There is an old saying, 'You get what you take'. And it's true. The only ones that can stop this way of thinking and behavior is ourselves. So I guess the next question would be, 'Are we strong enough?'

Coney Island .. continued

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Here are a few other photos worthy of sharing from our little excursion last week.

We've fallen in love with Coney Island and have decided to set up a little shop there next summer.

Hope you enjoy!

Beach essentials

The latest trend - feathers in your hair (in case you're wondering). Trying to convince her to put one in mine!

Getting our caricatures done! We attracted quite the crowd :-)

Fun with Photoshop

Take it from me - not for those afraid of heights!

Ode to Summer - Coney Island Adventure

In a farewell to summer, my friend, Jenny, and I packed our bags and headed down to Coney Island last weekend. It was all we had expected and more as you'll see from the photos. :-)



The Boardwalk and Jenny :-)





Not in a million years!




Fried oreos sounded strangely good



Miss Jennifer

Love this!



Yours truly :-)



Mr. 'Hot Stuff' lol... love people watching!



These guys were intriguing

 To be continued...

Going Veggie - Quick "Fried" Rice

This is something I just came up with yesterday. In hurry to make it to the gym, I wanted something fast and was tired of the same 'ol granola bars and plain hard-boiled eggs.

Brown rice (leftover is great for this - just make sure to heat it through well, otherwise it's rather hard and chewy), hard-boiled egg, any kind of frozen or steamed vegetable (i used peas), and low-sodium soy sauce. No oil or frying involved! :-)

For a single serving:

• 3/4 brown rice (usually has about 150 calories and 4 grams of protein)
• 1 hard boiled egg, chopped (70 calories and 6 grams of protein)
• 2/3 c steamed veggies (peas - 70 calories and 5 grams of protein)
• 1 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce (10-15 calories)

Heat everything through and enjoy! You'll get only 300 calories and 15 grams of protein.