I am assuming most of you are like me: you make the same meals (or types of meals) over and over again. You might go through helpful periods of meal planning, but then you gradually slip back to your usual routine of not planning dinner until 4:59 and then trying to magically make something easy, yet tasty with whatever you have on hand–so basically, you’re back to your usuals.
I actually like cooking. I really do! However, I do not like cooking at 4:59 PM with three kids who all want to be held/entertained and are grumpy and hungry. (PS: Two things that have helped this: 1) we always go for a quick walk/bike ride after my almost-3 year old wakes up from his nap; 2) my kids can only watch one short show a day, and it’s only when I’m cooking dinner and ONLY after they have cleaned the entire house. They are extremely motivated to do so–it’s a win-win!)
Our usual go-to meals involve some type of Mexican meat for burritos and rice/qunioa bowls; pasta dishes (with easy butter sauces or a quick homemade marinara); home made pizza; big salads with croutons made with Costco ciabatta bread; some kind of baked chicken with rice; and a recent favorite: nachos.
About 1-2 times per week, I try to branch our from our go-tos and make something new. When I do so, most of my recipes come from two sources, because I don’t have time for the wormhole that is Pinterest: Our Best Bites (I own this book and this one), and Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (which Janssen introduced me to years ago, and I am forever indebted to her for it).
So, today I’d like to share Mel’s fantastic recipe of Indian Butter Chicken. I had almost everything on hand, and substituted other spices with whatever I was missing–however, the garam marsala spice can’t be subbed. Make sure you do have that one, because the very, very last thing you need is to run to a store at 5:30 to get a missing ingredient.
Also, I replaced half of the chicken with one big sweet potato that I diced, steamed in the microwave for 3-4 minutes (my microwave takes forever, so start lower), and then put into the pan at the same time as the chicken.
This really was a yummy dinner. My kids gobbled it up, especially my 8 month old.
Make this, and make it soon.
This looks amazing! I'll have to try subbing a sweet potato for chicken.
My girls are not very adventurous eaters (I usually let them have plain rice or noodles or chicken instead of whatever sauce/topping I've made but for whatever reason they LOVE this recipe. And so do I! Win-win!
I thought it tasted great, but the fact that Brad really liked it is really the true test. Let me know how it goes! And I only subbed half of the chicken with sweet potato…
How fun! I love it when we stumble across the same stuff. Are you starting to feel better?