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.

Cannot Stoppa This Tapa! Polenta and Guacamole

I haven't used polenta in years, and recently it showed up in our pantry. Here's what I came up with:

These lovely tapas are polenta with guacamole, cilantro, and greek yogurt. It is amazingly simple to make.

It's LEFTOVER MADNESS!!!!!

So. . .I wanted to do a posting on uses of tahini that didn't involve hummus. Now I love hummus, but decided I didn't need to showcase it again. Because I've done that. More than once. But the information I found pretty much involved odd recipes that probably tasted great, but didn't sound wonderful (one for Sesame Flapjacks With Tahini-Maple Syrup was intriguing, but didn't sound like me), or using thinned tahini as a sauce for almost anything, which seemed basic to me, and I'm feeling kind of sophisticated today. My husband always laughs when I say that, but you may not know me, so I might get away with it here.

Pesto

Pesto can be the base of all kinds of tasty meals.  A few spoonfuls thinned with pasta cooking water makes a simple spaghetti.  Rub some on chicken breasts and bake for a great chicken dish.  Add a few spoonfuls to spaghetti sauce for an instant upgrade in flavor.  Spread some on Italian bread and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese for an impromptu pizza.  Or just put some in a bowl and lay some bread straws or crackers beside it for a quick hors d'oeuvre.  Here's the on-the-fly recipe I used for my pesto, with a few ways to change it in parentheses: