Peanut-Sesame Chicken

Tonight I got stuck with dinner duty. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking. But it's nice to have a husband who usually does the kitchen work (he's all mine!). I lost the scissors/paper/rock battle this time, so I burrowed through the fridge like a good girl.

Calming Rose Tea

I woke up this morning with the virtual palpitations--my term for the feeling I sometimes get when my mind shoots around at a mile-a-minute. Sometimes it's fun--I feel exhilirated and energized. Today, when I want to focus, it's hard. Since it usually comes after I have too much caffeine, or eat something weird, I know it will only last about a day or so. But how to function until it gets better?

Fortunately, I'm a master herbalist, which in practice means I can forage through my cupboards better than most people for medicinal foods. Today I found my decaffeinated green tea (which helps the digestive side of things) and my food-grade rose petals (which are calming and soothing). I put a couple of rosebuds into a teaspoon of tea, and made a cuppa.

It's only been 5 mintues, but I can already feel myself calming down. If you're having unwelcome exhiliration, try a cup today!


Photo by BenDad

Curried Chicken and Squash Over Millet

Sometimes we just get bored with our usual food choices. When that happens, I rummage in the cupboards and see what's around. Last week we had too many meals consisting of chicken and cabbage, or hamburger and pasta, or anything over rice, and something just snapped. I remembered my once-favorite grain, millet. Since we had also just found our stash of spices (which we misplaced in our move in April), I also had  the lovely mild curry powder we buy from our local Indian market. Problem solved.