Recipe Pick: Curried Chickpeas with Spinach from Budget Bytes

This weekend, my boyfriend and I are either going to host a few of our friends at our place or we're going to find a good BYOB place near us. Either way we're going to be having Indian food.

Raise your hand if you like Indian food. I know, me too. If for some reason your life is sad and you have never really tried Indian food then I urge you to go to an Indian buffet near you and try everything. I bet you will like the naan, samosas, and chicken tikka masala at the very least.

Anyway, if we're hosting friends at our place this recipe for Curried Chickpeas with Spinach is definitely in the mix as one of the dishes I might make for them. It sounds insanely easy and it's from one of my favorite recipe websites, Budget Bytes. Even if I don't make it this weekend, I will be making this in the very near future.

Click here for the recipe!

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil $0.32
• 1 small onion $0.47
• 2 cloves garlic $0.16
• 1 inch fresh ginger $0.16
• 1½ Tbsp curry powder $0.45
• 8 oz spinach (fresh or frozen) $1.36
• 1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce $0.59
• 1 (29 oz.) can chickpeas $1.89
• 1/2 cup coconut milk or to taste (HealthySimpleSmart's recommendation)

Update: I finally made this recipe and it turned out so good! I added more curry powder to taste (because I wanted mine extra curry-ish and added about 1/2 c.- 1 c. coconut milk. The coconut milk really set it off! I highly recommend! I've added it on to the recipe.

Easy & Delicious: Cheddar & Green Apple Paninis

Do you enjoy cheese plates? I LOVE a good cheese plate. You know some of my other favorite things are grilled cheese, tomato soup, and super easy and delicious dinners (I get hangry and impatient quite quickly). Well, these cheddar and green apple paninis are like all of those things in ONE sandwich!

Balsamic Winter Vegetable Bowls

Sorry about the picture quality, I'm working with an Iphone :)

The other night my boyfriend and I went grocery shopping which resulted in us having lots of yummy vegetables around the house. I was feeling inspired, so I threw a bunch of stuff in a pan and it came out delicious! Here's the recipe:

Beating a Cold

I knew I was getting sick last week and I spent this past weekend and yesterday recovering (except for staying out late at a Halloween party Saturday night...I'm not perfect). But I did a bunch or research (read: looked over a few online articles) about some of the best and worst foods for fighting colds. Here are some of the foods I ate this weekend and why they were good or bad for my cold. Maybe you can learn from my mistakes/good choices.

Do Drink:
1. Cold-Pressed Fresh Juice (aka the ones that are like $6-9 a bottle)
Cold-pressed juice ensures that all of the fruit's nutrients remain intact unlike heated pasteurization which robs the fruit of most of it's nutrients. Drink juice in moderation when you're sick and try to stick to a green juice that will be less sweet than say an apple juice.

Evolution's Super Green Smoothie is delicious and even has a snip of
wheatgrass in it which gives it an extra cold-kicking punch! 

Super Power Pancakes

Sunday is my lazy day. All week long I take pride in scheduling out my week with meetings, workouts, hangouts, and chores, but when Sunday comes around I want to do nothing but sleep in, watch tv, and do anything else that makes me happy. One of those things is eating a big breakfast. There's nothing like brunch to make your day feel lazy and decadent (in a good way.) While I love eating a giant breakfast of eggs, sausage, waffles, and hashbrowns, I don't like how greasy and unproductive I feel for the rest of the day. Enter: these pancakes.

One Week Vegetarian

Yesterday, my boyfriend suggested that we go vegetarian for a week. We both have been feeling sluggish and unhappy with our food choices. It's not that we eat poorly all the time, but eating meat certainly allows us to make poorer choices with food. Going vegetarian for a week is our way to reset our bodies and focus on getting plenty of fruits and vegetables. We both have made the mistake of making meat the center (and sometimes the only thing) in our meals, so starting Monday (yesterday) we decided to skip the meat.

My Current Health Obsession: Salads

My lunch at work last week

Is anyone else loving salads right now? I am! I like to think of myself as a salad master. Somehow I always find interesting and yummy things from my kitchen to throw into my salad (sorry for the humblebrag). As the weather gets colder though, it's harder for me to crave salads because instead I start to crave warm, comforting foods (read: mac and cheese, lasagna, anything with cheese and pasta!). Luckily, my boss and I have started a salad co-op. We each bring in some fixings for salads like nuts, cheese, fruits, and other veggies and then we pull our resources together and make epic salads, like the one above. Having someone else bringing new things and eating salads with me has really helped me stay on track and get excited for lunch every day!