Sweet & Spicy Potato & Kale Curry

After a week and a half of eating vegetarian I came up with this lil' beaut of a meal. It's meals like this that make me think I could skip the meat altogether on a longer term basis (but then I sniff bacon and remember that's never gonna happen!)

Anyway, it's awesome. Try it. I'm calling it my PPK Curry...

Ingredients (Serves 3-4)

• 1 medium yellow onion (finely chopped)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1" piece fresh ginger (finely chopped)
• 1 jalapeño
• 2 Tbsp Curry powder
• 1 tsp Tumeric
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cayenne (this is what makes it hot, so adjust for your heat tolerance!)
• 4-5 leaves kale (chopped and minus the coarse stems)
• 1 medium tomato (chopped)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 large potatoes (chopped into bite sized chunks)
• 1 cup pineapple chunks (fresh is best)
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp dried basil
• Coconut Oil

Directions

1. Heat coconut oil in pan, add onions and sauté until softened.
2. Add garlic, ginger, jalapeño and sauté for another couple of minutes until softened
3. Add spices (curry power, turmeric, cinnamon & cayenne) and stir in
4. Add kale and stir until wilted (you may want to add in batches)
5. Add tomato and water, stir in and reduce to low heat
6. Add potatoes, coconut milk, pineapple and dried basil, stir in and bring to a simmer on a medium heat
7. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for another 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are cooked
8. Stir, serve and enjoy!

Tips

• I added a cup of leftover roasted sweet potatoes chunks to mine which added to the sweet taste - I highly recommend it!
• Add extra water if your curry gets too dry - just a little at a time!

What's On....

Loved this list of “what’s on your…” that Ali Edwards posted this week. I have done my 'currently' list several times these last few months, but somehow I struggle with them. I thought this was a great twist on the same idea, and was so much easier to complete!

Here’s what’s on my…

VANITY | I don't have one - I keep everything beside the sink in the ensuite bathroom - I have Vaseline Intensive care body lotion, sure roll-on deodorant (that has to be brought to me by my UK visitors!), Bath & Body Works Body Mist, Clarins Hydra-Matte Face Moisturiser, and a Molton Brown hand soap & lotion, and my perfume

PERENNIAL TO DO LIST | Build bookshelves, Make a headboard for the spare room, Create some art for our bedroom, Update my website  

REFRIGERATOR SHELVES | Almond Milk, Bananas, Baby Spinach, Ginger, Dubliner Cheddar Cheese, Banana Peppers 

ITINERARY | 2 Half marathons on back-to-back weekends at the end of May and beginning of June. Plus Tough Mudder in Whistler in June, plus FitBloggin'13 in Portland also in June (June is a crazy month!)

FANTASY ITINERARY | Machu Picchu, Nepal (Everest Base Camp), Japan, Australia & New Zealand

PLAYLIST | Lots of random new / chart songs on the radio

NIGHTSTAND | Lots of books I'm planning on reading, BBW handcream, lip balm, alarm clock

WORKOUT PLAN | Mornings before work: 3 runs a week - double digits for my long run on the weekends. Plus Strength training with P90X videos 3-4 times per week.

IPHONE | Instagram, Feedly, Facebook, Pinterest

TOP 5 LIST | Watching Meli bounce ahead of me excitedly on our walks, Planning surprises, the arrival of spring, driving with the top down on the car, lululemon pants

BUCKET LIST | Travel & Adventures with the one I love

MIND | Food - always food! Running (and the events in Boston), improving my time management, my diet

BLOGROLL | Elise Blaha, Positively Positive, Shut Up and Run, InSpiral Coaching, Greatist

WALLS OF YOUR FAVOURITE ROOM IN YOUR HOUSE | A picture shelf in my craft room with photos of my family, plus a bunch of my own art creations; a mixed media art collage, a Yarn 'H', and a Mirror that I created in a Tim Holtz class at CKU

LIQUOR SHELF | Not a lot. We robbed all the half empty bottles to drain out to use for bottling our Kefir and Kombucha. But still got some Gold Rum and Tequila

LAST CREDIT CARD STATEMENT | Groceries, Flight to NY for Chris, Insurance for the street bike, Lift Tickets & ski rentals at Silver Star, Lululemon pants

TV EVERY NIGHT | Breaking Bad or Weeds

COMPUTER DESKTOP | our New Years Family Photo

'Wakey Wakey' Orange Juice

It was only a few months ago that I actually decided liked sweet potatoes. Now I love them, and realise just how versatile they can be! And with the added bonus of being better for you than regular white potatoes. We're subbing them more and more these days, for mash on the top of a shepherds pie, as chippy potatoes, and for our favourite 'can't think of anything else meal' - Baked potatoes. But none of those are really 'recipe' worthy....

So I came up with this.....a delicious orange juice! We're big fans of our new juicer which we got this past Christmas. And usually we just throw anything and everything into it and end up with a browny green sludgey  concoction. Which to be fair doesn't really look that appetising, but I love that I know how darn good it is for me! But I've been wanting to make an actual, real recipe for a while. And this is a perfect replacement to my trusty Tropicana OJ (which, as I learn more and more about eating well, isn't quite as perfect as I thought).....anyway, the recipe.....

Ingredients (makes 2 servings)

3 Oranges

1 medium sweet potato

4-5 carrots

1" cube ginger

That's it! - chuck it all in the juicer and BAM! An extremely delicious, refreshing juice, great for any time of day, but I loved it first thing - I think the orange colour just screams 'wakey wakey!!' And that zing of ginger - oh yes, you'll be awake!

I'm linking up again this month to the Healthy Recipes Blog Carnival over at InSpiral Coaching. This month's featured ingredient was Sweet Potatoes. 

5 by the 5th Challenge - April run

So we're into month 4 of the 5 by the 5th Virtual Run Series  that Laura is hosting and I must say I haven't exactly been a perfect runner these last few months (I call it seasonal runner disorder!) but signing up for her challenge has definitely kept me accountable  And some months, getting this run in has pretty much been the only run I achieved all month!

A few of my earlier runs this year I did with my new running companion - Miss Meli. And as it stands right now she's not the best running buddy - I only hope we figure things out along the way - for both our sakes! She's a Vizsla and they love to run but now she's still young but we've got a lot to learn about running along on a leash...and she'll always need to be leashed since most of my runs are done on roads with no side-walks  I don't think either of us is enjoying it much right now and I was even getting to the point where I didn't want to run. I finally realised that it wasn't that I didn't want to run, but more that I didn't want to run with her. So since I've given myself permission to stop trying to push this too much right now I'm off on my own again - and honestly - much happier. For now! I'm also relieved that these last couple of runs without Little Miss Meli my paces are back to what I would expect (since running with her my paces had been waaaay off - and it might have been winter and all, but still...!)

But excuse-time is all over for me. With the old running companion issue figured out, temperatures in the early 20's this week here in Canada, and sunshine galore (and the snow cover being a thankful distant memory!) it's time I knuckled down to business. And this month's 5 by the 5th run got my month off to an awesome start!

I also did my first early get-up before work run this week to celebrate a new month and being able to see daylight before 7am!! April's 5 by the 5th run was a sweet 5 miler, at a pace I'm happy with, and it felt gooooood!

Thanks Laura!

Currently: April

• Currently enjoying - The way I feel for the rest of the day after a early morning run
• Currently needing - A lottery win to pay our taxes!! Yikes!
• Currently wanting - to be able to transfer our money out of our soon-to-be-defunct Cyprus bank account
• Current Book - Eat & Run by Scott Jurek (still...!)
• Current Drink - Home 'brewed' Keffir water and Kombucha - favourite flavour add-in is ginger and lemon
• Current Excitement - New bike in the house!
• Current fashion trend - Leather jeans, jacket and a Arai helmet!
• Current Favorite Blog/Website - Feedly (since the announcement that Google reader is on it's way out I went in search of an alternative and am very happy with Feedly on both my PC and my iPhone)
• Current Food - Sweet potatoes (and I always thought I didn't like them)
• Current Song - Scream & Shout by will.i.am featuring Britney Spears - it's playing a lot on the radio right now and I keep getting it stuck in my head
• Current Indulgence - Organic dried cherries and blueberries from the first farmers market of the season
• Currently Pondering - property decisions -  rent or sell?!
• Current New Find - I've just switched internet browsers on my PC to Google Chrome - it's working out well (necessity due to running the Feedly plug-in but it's a good change with or without Feedly)
• Currently wearing - Lululemon Astro pants (new as a treat for our anniversary getaway!)
• Current Weather - Light drizzle (but it's been awesome high teens for the last week till today so I don't mind!)
• Current Peeve -Taxes
• Current Triumph - 2013 Street Triple...;-)
• Current TV Show - Breaking Bad - currently on Season 3
• Currently Listening -  Sun FM 99.9 after our old favourite radio station seemed to switch up it's demographic and playlist overnight to 60's, 70's and 80's we re-tuned the dial to this!
• Currently delaying -Updating my skills set information on my business website
• Currently planting - Kale, Arugula, Spinach & lettuce mixes
• Currently planning - Chris's study trip to NY next month!
• Currently feeling - satisfied with a good 5 miler run this morning
• Currently loving - my gorgeous husband of 11 years today!
• Currently looking - forward to receiving my Team Tough Chik running shirt
• Currently finding - satisfaction in a new job I have just started
• Currently savouring - the lighter evenings
• Currently dreaming - of helping Chris build a successful business and making money!