Zucchini Fail

So this weekend, after an awesome Friday night out on the town with one of my best friends, I decided to be a total homebody. I'm naturally very introverted, so with the exception of very few people, I need some alone time after being social with anyone for a day/evening, even if it's just hanging out with friends.

Anyway, on Sunday, I finally made it into the kitchen to whip a batch of gluten-free zucchini muffins. I followed this recipe to a T, replacing the 2 eggs with 2 tbsp of flax seeds nuked with 6 tbsps of water. And, since the baking part of our oven is out of commission (we get a brand new one on Thursday!), I opted to use my mum's fancy toaster oven. Now, it's hard to judge what exactly went wrong, but these babies just didn't bind well. They were moist, spiced beautifully, and the cranberries and pistachios (instead of ginger) were delicious add-ins. However, due to a combo of an unven baking pan for the toaster oven and using the foil cupcake liners because I didn't have a cupcake pan small enough to fit in the toaster oven, magic was not made. I'm looking forward to trying these again in a real oven with a cupcake pan. And I'm still trying to decide whether to use the flax eggs again or egg replacer in the next batch. Hopefully I get more zucchini in my CSA box this week! Once I bake a prettier version, I'll definitely post them here.

My Sunday kitchen exploits were not a total fail. I also whipped up a deliciously spicy dahl, with enough leftovers for lunch everyday this week!

I modified this recipe to include a bunch of veggies I needed to use up.

Quick & Easy Spicy Dahl
5-6 hearty servings if eaten alone, or even more servings if eaten with bread or rice!

8 oz red lentils
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons vindaloo curry paste
400g (14-15 oz) can diced tomatoes
400ml (14-15 oz) can coconut milk
4-5 cups assorted diced veggies (I used mushrooms, potatoes, zucchini and yellow squash)

1. Cook your lentils according to directions. Meanwhile, steam your potatoes first, and then your squash until tender. (I steamed the potatoes for about 12 minutes, and the squash for about 5 minutes).

2. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat, and add chopped onions and garlic. Saute until the onions start to soften.

3. Stir in pre-steamed veggies and mushrooms, then add in vindaloo curry paste. Stir for a minute.

4. Add can of tomatoes and cooked lentils, and make sure everything is well incorporated.

5. Add coconut milk to create your desired consistency, and heat through. I added the entire can and once it started boiling, I let the mix simmer for 15 minutes. Then I took it off the heat, and the whole dish thickened up after cooling for about 30 minutes. However, if you only add a little coconut milk, you can skip the simmering and cooling steps.

Enjoy alone, or serve with your favorite Indian bread and rice!

Hanging out in the kitchen was an enjoyable way to spend my Sunday. I'm so used to throwing a hearty salad together for dinner, or just mixing some veggies and beans with quinoa, that it was refreshing to dedicate more than a few minutes and a glancing thought to food.