tikka masala yum!

i'm getting ready to go to seattle thursday early morning by cooking snacks and meals for tomorrow, while cory is away at his aunt's house. sienna keeps ringing the bell on the back door to signal she needs to go outside, but she THINKS it means "feed me". the house is clean and organized and i feel so at peace-crazy what a difference clutter makes. 

we got our fall textbooks today and for my 14 books, it only cost $246! and cory's 3, yes 3, books cost $10. i think it's a record. and we are both taking 16 credits, so...thank you, professors. i might add, that we don't even have to pay that thanks to pell grants and scholarships. woohoo! we figured we'd start doing our school reading on our road trip up to washington...it's a nice thought, right? 

life has been pretty chill. lots of work, cleaning, fixing up the house (new DIY projects), and cooking. cory's starting on a pallet headboard! we recently scored on some AMAZING deals on furniture, so our bedroom is coming together...after a year. and the cooking and baking is all thanks to free time at work...

 

one of my favorite blogs is preventionrd.com. the author has loads of delicious and nutritious (mostly) recipes. as i was scanning it while bored at work one day, i found her tikka masala recipe. i looked at it and figured we had most of the ingredients, so that's what we were having for dinner! and then i made it again last night because it is now one of my FAVORITE recipes. it is extremely easy and tastes very much like authentic indian food (as authentic as the indian food restaurants i've been to, at least). 

the recipe is as followed: 

tikka masala (with my changes)

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
1 cup brown rice (dry), prepared (i used basmati)
cilantro (for garnish-cory did not like)

marinade for chicken:

1 6 oz. container 2% plain greek yogurt-or 1 cup of greek yogurt from costco!
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger-i used a little less than a teaspoon of ground ginger
2 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

aauce:

1 tablespoon butter
3 garlic clove
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (remove membrane)-omitted because cory hates peppers
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon sriracha sauce
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream (i didn't have, so i used 1/3 cup butter plus 3/4 cup of milk, with a few tablespoons of flour, mixed together)

directions:

mix the marinade together and let sit for an hour, or several

cook chicken on grill or in skillet.   meanwhile, melt butter and saute garlic and jalapeno.  add seasonings and stir for 2 minutes until fragrant.  add in tomato sauce and heavy cream.   add chicken into sauce and cook an additional 10 minutes.  serve over 1/2 cup rice and garnish. yield: 6 servings

this is seriously so good. cory and i prefer less chicken (i used 1 costco chicken breast yesterday, chopped up into small chunks and we liked that better). here's the link to the actual recipe-http://www.preventionrd.com/2010/03/would-you-care-from-some-heat/