Indian Master, Not Quite

Crock pot Chicken Tikka Masala. Not my best. Made this during the day yesterday. Love the fact that it cooked while I was sleeping. Didn't fall in love with the flavor. One of my co-workers is Indian, and she cooks the most amazing food. I have no idea why I thought I could cook Indian food as good as her on my first try. It was absolutely not on her level. However, it was 100% edible, unlike the cauliflower and peas I made as a side dish. I did however make some banging Basmati rice though. I'm a slacker and didn't take any pictures of this process, sorry!

The problem with the Tikka is the chicken either completely disappeared or the chunks that did exist were too dry. The recipe calls for yogurt, and I thought that would make the dish creamy and delicious. Nope. That tangy flavor didn't exactly cook out or mesh with the other flavors. It was also oddly sweet. I say odd because I didn't add any sugar to the dish. I'm game for trying another Chicken Tikka recipe soon. Maybe I can get a personal cooking lesson from my coworker!

So the cauliflower. I have never in my life cooked cauliflower raw in a skillet. That should have been my first red flag. The recipe called for a minimal amount of oil, and no liquid whatsoever. Second red flag is that most of the spices are in quantities of tsp, except for the ground coriander. Now I've never cooked with it before, and it didn't have an overwhelmingly strong odor, so I assumed that 2tBsp was reasonable to make up for a mild flavor. That has to be a typo in the recipe! The whole thing literally tasted like sawdust, completely inedible. The cauliflower was sooo dry. I have no idea how I managed to make a vegetable taste dry. That's a first for me! Hubs and I each had a bite then threw the rest out.

Last night was a rough night. I honestly ran from 1945 (7:45pm) to 0330 (3:30am). I didn't drink anything, I didn't eat anything, I didn't pee. I never left my patient's room. I finally just had to sit down, get some charting done, and eat dinner at the same time. I had a Smart Ones Fettuccine Alfredo. One of those little frozen meals is absolutely not enough to fill me up. I saw a tip from Hungry Girl that to bulk up the frozen meal, just add more veggies. So I added a bag of SteamFresh Broccoli and had a very satisfying vegetarian dinner that I probably ate in 4 minutes. 

I'm super excited to be home right now and about to crawl into my bed. No idea what dinner is going to be tonight, but I'm too tired to care! Hope everyone enjoys the sunshine, I'll be sound asleep!