Nom-Nom-Nom...Survivorman!

I love quick food. There are so many days when I come home and cooking seems impossible/undesirable and takeout is a rather new concept to me... So there have been times when I've just thrown in the towel and had another bowl of cereal for dinner and called it quits. Granted, that's not the best way to go about it, but it suffices when it's just me. But now that Jack's here too, things are a little different. Since we both work, and we both do school, weeknight meals get a little interesting... Last night though was a whole different story!

All I can say is, thank goodness for Costco! They had a three pack of Patak's curry sauces and last night we cracked one open and stirred in some purple cauliflower, peas, and tofu. All of that over some brown rice made for delicious quick food that amazingly wasn't cereal! Jack and I had made naan the other day and toasted up some leftovers to accompany the dish. Oh, and seriously, purple cauliflower is Ah-May-Zing! Had never eaten it before, but recently I came across some stats regarding the unbelievably beautiful veg. Cauliflower in general is high in fiber, folates, and vitamin C. The cabbage-cousin also contains phytochemicals such as sulforaphane, carotenoids, indole-3-carbinol (the super-confab that assists in DNA repair, assists in hormone regulation, and appears to slow the growth of cancer cells), and a bunch of other awesomeness!

Seriously, cauliflower is apparently the super-veggie. The different colour variants also offer variations on the nutritional kick-assery. Purple cauliflower though, contains significant amounts of anthocyanins, antioxidants that are thought to assist in free-radical defense. When consumed as food, the health benefits of anthocyanins aren't as fantastical as one would hope because the body tends to excrete more than keep the little buggers, but eat'n 'em certainly can't hurt! I've always been a fan of cauliflower in general, so I'm hoping to start incorporating all of the colourful varieties into my diet a bit more (don't get me started on the beauty of orange cauliflower!). Taste wise, it worked SO well in this application! I personally think that the purple variety has a bit of a sweeter taste to it, which melded well with the masala.

Yum! We noshed on that while watching Les Stroud's Beyond Survival. Jack and I really get a kick out of watching survival shows and this one is a bit different in the sense that it highlights the survival techniques of peoples who live on the edges of the world. It tickles my anthropological brain. It's so obvious that Stroud isn't doing this from a scientific evaluation, but he still manages to treat their practices with respect and sensitivity. I've only seen 2 episodes of the show, and there is certainly a hefty amount of cheese associated with the framing of each episode, but I think I like it!

So, the point to the story is that apparently I need to learn to make Indian curry from scratch! I found some great recipes online that will be on next week's menu and hopefully I will be sharing them afterwards. I'm thinking of doing an evening of korma curry and a follow up of tikka masala. I have a few supplies to pick up though because I'm lacking the cardamom to make garam masala powder... Times like these make the Boise Co-Op so convenient! The spices and herbs they carry are of pretty legit quality.

And so I leave now with this last little nugget of awesome that blew my mind the other day:

The Higgs Boson Explained from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

And yeah, it's real, so - even though I don't actually understand even most of this, I am unbelievably excited for Dr. Higgs and the CERN crew. I want to make a bunch of Hadron/Hardon jokes now... 

Beautiful minds, beautiful food... Yeah, it's been a good week so far!