Hey all......I am a struggling social work student from Maryland who has a love for food and the different ways each ingredient can be combined to make something absolutely special. Being that I am a student I have no money even though I work two jobs it seems like I cannot  work enough. I enjoy cooking and have a boyfriend who is the best at cooking meat and making his own barbecue sauce from scratch. When I say its good I mean....lick your lips and plate good! I need to make cheap meals which will feed me and my boyfriend that will also be healthy but taste good. my boyfriend seems to think if it is healthy it wont be good, but I always try to make him see it my way.He has been exposed to good healthy food and he seems to enjoy it. I have a bad habit though..I make the same damn things for dinner. 


        Part of the purpose of this blog is to make myself branch out and expose myself to different ingredients and different flavors. I love to watch Anthony Bourdain and want to be him or like a version of him that gets to travel the world and experience new and different flavors and tastes. The things I usually make are healthy but mainly consist of two meals. I make the extremely healthy ground white meat turkey penne with red sauce, or I make Ground Turkey or Chicken chili (whichever meat is on sale). You will notice the lack of red meat I use. I am not anti-red meat but try to limit it in my diet. My challenge for myself is to make different yet still healthy and inexpensive meals. Also maybe ones that will last for leftovers during the week. Maybe meals I can freeze as well.

     So my first try at doing something different came a few days ago. No pictures of it because we ate it all already before I did this post. But I made a Thai green chicken curry. It was very tasty. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs mainly because they are much cheaper usually than breasts, but also because the thighs have more flavor, moistness, and they seem just to be more rustic in curries than breasts. Breasts  have a tendency to be dry and no one wants dry chicken. So here is the recipe I used:

Thai Green Chicken Curry

-2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
-1 can light coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
-2-3 tablespoons light brown sugar
-1/3 to 1/2 cup chicken stock (low sodium)
-3 good tablespoons of a green curry paste (or more depending     on your taste)-a good seasoning of sea salt (to bring out the curry flavor  more)     - 1 lb carrots-1 1/2 lbs. potatoes (I used yukons, but any that are cheap will work)-1 large sweet/vidalia onion (chopped rustically)

-Brown rice/Jasmine rice to serve with curry

Preparation:

What I did may seem weird to some but it worked for me the night I had to make this

I pre-boiled the potatoes and carrots just enough to start them off just so they can still soak up some nice sauce but not be too mushy in the curry. Just test them so that they are not hard anymore...you are just trying to make your life easier so everything cooks evenly...(i also used the wrong sized pan when I did this so it kinda was a space saver. 

In LARGE frying pan/ dutch oven cook onions on low heat to make sure not to burn them... 5 mins.
add the can of coconut milk, fish sauce and green curry paste so all marries together 5-10 mins.... make sure not to hot (med/low heat)


cut chicken thighs in rustic 1 inch pieces and simmer in mixture for about 20 mins or until chicken mostly cooked

once mostly cooked add chicken stock, salt, brown sugar, and pre-boiled carrots and potatoes. simmer together on low/med heat until the potatoes and carrots absorb the good curry mixture. I would let stand before you serve so everything comes together a bit.

My mission is to make this again so I can get good pics!!