I really need to make new dinners more often. Tonight’s dinner was really new and exciting to me! I made a chicken and chickpea curry.

Before I started working on the curry, I grabbed my rice cooker from it’s trusty hiding spot and started on my basmati rice. I love that I can just start rice and then let it cook all by itself – so easy, and I can concentrate on the main show – the curry!

I started the curry by heating up two teaspoons of coconut oil in my pan. I cut up two chicken breasts and when the pan and oil was heated up (and smelling amazing!) I added the chicken. I added a pinch of Himalayan salt. I cooked the chicken on one side for about four minutes and then I turned each piece and cooked the chicken until it was cooked through (another four minutes). In the meantime I had chopped up an onion, a yellow pepper, and three cloves of garlic. Once the chicken was cooked, I took it out of the pan and put it on a plate lined with a paper towel. I added another teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan and then added the onion and yellow pepper. I sautéed the vegetables for five minutes. I added a small pinch of salt and a good amount of freshly ground pepper (a few cranks of my pepper mill). I cooked the vegetables for about four more minutes, stirring frequently. Then I added the garlic and a tablespoon of curry powder (I used Trader Joe’s brand) and cooked everything together for two more minutes.

Once things started to brown, I added a cup of chicken broth and a can of Trader Joe’s light coconut milk (shake both the broth and coconut milk before opening and adding to your pan). I brought the mixture up to a boil and then reduced the pan’s heat so it continued to simmer.While the pan is simmering, I added a can of chickpeas that I had rinsed and drained. I added a teaspoon of hot sauce. I continued to cook and stir for ten minutes.

During this time I toasted a piece of garlic naan bread in the toaster oven. In “no time” everything had come together. The rice was perfectly cooked, the naan was warm and my amazing curry was looking delicious! I plated the curry on top of some rice, squeezed some lime juice on top and added one chopped scallion.

During tonight’s dinner I was so excited to chop my onion because it was the first time I was using my new onion goggles! I love them and actually cooked with them the entire time I was making dinner. I almost forgot to take them off before I started eating… oops!

Thanks to these handy onion goggles, I think I’ll be doing a lot less crying in the kitchen. Ever since I was a little kid onions made me cry my eyes out as I was chopping them! My dad used to try to come up with lots of different ideas for helping me and making the onions less pungent. One of the things we used to do was put the onion in the freezer for five minutes before I started chopping them. That did seem to work. But these goggles are definitely a keeper!! (Oh you might think – let someone else chop the onions you crazy kid! Yes, that would be an option – but I always loved chopping and would never let anyone else do it for me!)

Normally I do my cooking on Sundays so that I have more time to do what I need to do during the week (like going to the gym!). But this past weekend went so quickly and I really am not sure where the time went. I decided to let myself take a break from the gym today to go home and make dinner.

The rest of my week is really busy – but I’m really excited to eat this curry for dinner for the next couple of days! It is really fun to create a new dinner and have it turn out really well.

I hope you are all having a good start to your week. Keep cooking and I’ll see you soon!