Healthy and yummy Indian food versus not so healthy but yummy pie

Donna is asking this morning for our fave healthy dinner to cook, and a not so healthy fave. I will start with not so healthy. Every year for my birthday (except this year, cuz I was sick and trying to eat better) Papa makes me a luscious lemon merangue (sp?) pie. For his birthday, I make him the thick rich one of a kind Atlas Cheesecake. The Girl likes an apple pie, and the Boy, chocolate cake. The neat thing is, these are the birthday person's special treats, and they don't have to share if they don't want to, though they usually do.

I am not sure I can narrow my healthy fun meals down to just one, but I will try. How 'bout Rogan Josh (a wonderfully spiced beef stew), Eggplant in a saffron cream sauce, Stuffed spiced okra, saffron rice, with homemade tomato onion raita, cucumber raita, lime pickle, and a mango lassi to go with the meal. A nice light lemon sherbet to cleanse the palate. Yum.

I have two Indian cookbooks. This one by Madhur Jaffrey, is my fave. I have made many of the dishes from many of the regions of India. If I want something very traditional, I reach for Jaffrey. All of her cookbooks are wonderful, but this one is nice for a sampling of regional fare, and the pictures are lovely.

The other book I have, which happens to have a really good Rogan Josh recipe, is called The Complete Book of Indian Cooking edited by Veronica Sperling and Christine McFadden. It is Indian recipes with more of an English flair- very basic recipes, good to springboard off of. Again, if I could only have one Indian cookbook, I'd choose Jaffrey, but the two work well together.

That's it for now, I am off to the tub for my morning listening soak, and then on to our day. Plans for today involve one last trip to In the Beginning, where the prices are now 75% off, or the whole bolt for $2.50 a yard; a short visit with Grandma, play rehearsal, and picking up the girls from the B family. We are watching them tonight, and the kids are very excited to get to play together. Schoolwork? Well, we will try to at least get latin, math, reading, and grammar in there today, and I think much of it will be car-schooling today.

TTFN,
LB