After teaching spinning and Anna’s music class, what else is there to do when it looks like this outside?
The obvious answer is to make a warm, home cooked meal for your family and friends. Who cares that there are 3 naked and chilly baby dolls on the floor, and that 18 out of 20 puzzle pieces are scattered in the family room, or that I have at least 2 sets of sweaty workout clothes in my laundry basket. Dinner takes priority.
So I understand that Thai can sound intimidating, but that shouldn’t be the case. Thanks to the help of Trader Joes and a few other shortcuts, you can make a great Thai meal with only a few ingredients.
My advise would be to start with these 5 ingredients for your first Thai meal:
- Trader Joe’s Thai Red Curry Sauce
- Chicken, Cooked Lentils or Tofu
- Brown Rice
- Green Beans
- Peanuts
Simply cook the chicken or simmer already cooked lentils in the Red Curry sauce and serve over brown rice and green beans. This meal can be done in 15 minutes and will get your head into cooking Thai.
Then, move on from there.
Buy some Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste and mix it together with some light coconut milk. Once it’s combined, you can add a little ginger, red pepper, brown sugar or any other ingredients – such as in this recipe I made a few weeks ago!
Thai peanut sauce:
- 3 cloves of fresh garlic, pressed
- 1 T. fresh ginger, pressed or minced
- 3 T. water
- 4 T. light sodium soy sauce
- 3 T. light coconut milk
- 4 T. peanut butter, all natural, no sodium, creamy
- 1/2 lime, juiced
I mixed all of this together but it was a little too liquidy and wasn’t the taste I was going for. It needed more.
So…
I took half of the Coconut Peanut sauce and mixed it with 3 tsp. of Red Curry paste.
Then I added a dash of chili powder and some ground red pepper.
The result was the perfect Thai Spicy Peanut Red Coconut Curry Sauce!
To garnish your Thai meals, use a little fresh cilantro or some peanuts – any variety will work!
Tonight’s recipe sticks with the Thai theme and comes from Mama Pea.
Thai Unfried Quinoa
What are your favorite Thai dishes to make? Any good recipes to share?
