Mixed Vegetables with Yogurt and Coconut

2 cups squash (I used butternut peeled)
2 medium potatoes, I used 3..one blue, sweet and white I think.
2 carrots sliced into about 1/8th inch rounds
1 cup green beans
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 cups freshly grated coconut..or, moistened unsweetened dessicated coconut
1 cup organic plain whipped yogurt
1 Serrano chile diced and seeded
1 tsp Celtic salt freshly ground
1 tablespoon extra virgin organic olive oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
10 curry leaves

Wash the veggies, peel the squash and cube into 1/2 inch pieces.  I used one whole medium squash.  Place the veggies in a pot with just enough water to cover and simmer uncovered for about 10-15 minutes until half-cooked. Add the yogurt and the turmeric and simmer 5-10 minutes. Add the grated coconut*, 1 tablespoon cumin, chile, and salt.  Mix well and leave over low heat.

Next heat the oil in a wok and stir-fry the mustard seeds and curry leaves for 1 minute until the spices begin to crackle and become fragrant.  Mix the mustard seeds and curry leaves into the veggies, stir well and serve:)

*Coconut...if all you have is dried unsweetened, moisten first in enough water and maybe coconut milk to just cover it for about 5 minutes before adding.

Indian food and cleanse day one

Today is the beginning of a 10 or so day cleanse.  The first thing we (a dear friend and I are doing this together) eliminated was meat and beans.  I did not find this challenging at all.  The thought of eliminating some of the other groups and keeping them out however, seems to be really concerning me.  I have done this before and once in the swing of things, it was easy and pretty fun.  Not so sure for example to remove dairy and meat and sugar and all nuts and grains, and then all fruits will ever ever be easy.

Tonight I attempted Indian food, a sort of new venture for me.  I have made several other things before such as Apricot Chicken, Lamb Kabobs, and some cucumber salad.  I pretty much have a perfect recipe for hummus and Naan so those were not a problem.

The first thing I made was a vegetable dish that had root veggies and squash. It also had green beans and carrots, garlic and celery, fresh curry leaves and black mustard, oh and organic plain yogurt too just to name a few of the things in this one. I loved the addition of coconut!  I found organic everything so I was really happy about that.  This is the beginning process pictured here.

This was raw cashews, brown mustard seed, fresh curry leaves, organic olive oil, yellow split peas and salt.

 Here is the finished veggie dish and along side is the lemon rice.

This of course is the lentils.  They were sort of bland but had carrots and celery in them.  Maybe a little more salt is needed.

This is the beginnings of my Hummes.  Organic Garbanzo Beans, organic Tahini, many cloves of organic garlic.  The only other thing I added was olive oil, and lemon with a little salt.

This is what the Naan and Hummus looked like.

Here is the whole thing.  I did not make my own salad dressing this time although I usually do.  Since there was so much more to the rest of dinner, it was just much easier to open one of these organic bottles, just not as tasty as my own but not bad.
I'll post the recipes in the next post since it is raining like crazy outside right now and I don't want to lose this.