I almost called this blog “Flying by the Seat of My Pants”, but then decided I didn’t want to lock myself into being the disorganized, procrastinating, always “winging-it” gal that I am. But, truth is – that’s me, and it’s OK.
But here’s a great example of how being this way can be terribly frustrating.
I have thousands of photos on my computer. It wasn’t until I’d had my digital camera for 4 years that I even attempted any kind of organization, and that only applies to recent photos. I tried to load some new photos onto the computer a couple weeks ago, only to find that I have NO ROOM left on my drive. UGH.
So, until I can find the time to sit down for many hours and go through them all, I can’t take any new photos…which is half the fun of this for me. 
In the meantime, I tried this recipe for Chana Dal yesterday and it is a real treat for the taste buds; the kind of dish that keeps me excited about cooking, and eating.
Chana Dal is a legume used in Indian dishes – it’s very similar to a yellow split pea.
The recipe is completely vegetarian, but the spices are so perfect…they create a broth that has such depth of flavor you’d think there was some kind of meaty broth behind it. So wonderful to be able to layer spices together in such a way that tasting them lights up every one of the senses. I’m not kidding. Even my husband – who is tentative about beans/legumes, thought it was delicious and said he could eat it every day. (!!!!) My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
I didn’t have tamarind pulp, but I did have a can of tomato paste that needed to be used, so I substituted that. This is a great source of fiber and protein. It really is so good that I plan to make a double batch today so I can keep eating it for a few days.
We ate it with brown basmati rice which I flavored with a few saffron threads. I wasn’t sure it was going to work – I really like white basmati with Indian food. Surprisingly, they went together perfectly. BONUS!
PLUS – it’s so cheap to make. I spent $4.99 on the bag of dal at the Indian grocery. I can make 4.5 batches of this with that. Considering each batch is about 4 servings, this comes to less than $.30 a serving. (not including the spices) Buying the spices at the Indian grocer saves a TON as well.
I will probably try the next batch with half the salt and see how that works…
The estimated nutritional data is for one of four servings
