Vegetarian Chickpea Curry

Morning friends!

Hope you all had a wonderful evening :)

I meant to post this recipe earlier, but the day kind of got away with me...but better late than never, amiright?!

Vegetarian Chickpea Curry

As I mentioned, I went to a friend's place recently and she made a curry that tasted bomb diggity, so I decided to finally test it out for myself.

Although I am a big fan of curry, I have never attempted to make it for myself. I have always been a tad intimidated by the long list of spices in recipes.

Also, I lived with an Indian girl for a bit when I was a student at McGill University, and she had this cute little container full of all of the spices that you need to make curry. She would roast them and make amazing dishes all of the time. 

I got a false sense of assurance that I knew the proportions of the various spices that she would use, and attempted to add the spices to a rice dish that I made once (she said I could use the spices any time...I swear!) and totally mixed up the amounts and ended up with the SPICIEST dish of all time. 

I have been scared to attempt using curry spices ever since...but, I decided to buck it up and test out this recipe. I went a little on the shy side of the amounts of spices that I used juuust in case it turned into spicy hot lava like last time, but turns out I could have used more - it turned out awesome :)

 I ended up using only powdered spices, since that is all that I had available, but you can also take a stab at roasting fresh spices. I'm sure it would give it a fuller flavour.

My first successful curry :)

Let me know if you try it out!

Vegetarian Chickpea Curry

Inspired by Fuss Free Cooking's Recipe 

Ingredients

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 large onion

2 tbsp curry powder

2 tbsp cumin

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp ginger

1 tbsp chili powder

1 cup mushrooms

1 eggplant

2 tomatoes

2 cans chickpeas

Directions

Dice onion and mince garlic. Cut veggies into large chunks.

Saute onions in coconut oil [or oil of choice] with curry powder and cumin in a large soup pot until onions are translucent.

Add garlic, ginger and chili powder until spices are fragrant.

Add mushrooms and eggplant and sauté for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are somewhat cooked. Add tomatoes and let cook for another 5 minutes.

Add one can of chickpeas, drained, and another can of chickpeas with the liquid. Let simmer for about 30 minutes or until chickpeas are soft.

Serve and enjoy!

Bodyrock & Meal Prep

Morning friends!

Hope you are all having an awesome Tuesday morning :)

Going back to work after a long weekend is always a bit of a blast back to reality, but coming back to work after a huge humanitarian disaster like the recent Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines means that I will be very busy, indeed. 

Workout

I did this bodyrock workout last night, these were my times. Try to beat me ;)

Round 1 - 18, 8, 9, 12, 10

Round 2 - 18, 8, 10, 14, 10

Round 3 - 21, 9, 9, 14, 9

Breakfast

I had a big bowl of oatmeal with half a banana this morning - it will have to fuel me through to lunch, I'm guessing, since I have a bunch of urgent meetings about the Philippines response this morning.

Lunch

I organized myself for the week! Froze 3, put 2 in the fridge.

I only realized this morning that I made it as if it was a 5 day week. Ah well, at least I have one meal on the weekend taken care of now, or I can use it on Monday since I froze some of them :)

I'll be back this afternoon with the recipe for this curry - super simple! The hardest part is the spices...I cheated a bit and only used powdered spices since I had them all on hand (benefit of living with 4 other girls who also like to cook) and didn't want to invest in all of the fresh spices since it was my first time and wasn't sure how it would turn out.

It tastes delicious, though, so I might splurge for the next time ;)

Have a great day!

Dinner Date & Bottom and Ab Workout Videos

Hello friends!

It is a heck of a lot nicer out today than it was yesterday. I woke up to the sunshine instead of the pouring rain - always makes it easier to get myself out of bed in the morning ;)

Dinner Date

Don't get too excited folks, it wasn't a 'date' date.

I ended up staying at work super late again today and left when they started to turn off the lights - its this annoying thing where they flicker the lights at different areas of the floor and then slowly turn them off section by section. I guess they're saving electricity, so I can get behind that.

At least I had some snacks to power me through:

The printer snacks hit again - this time a bag full of chocolate from Geneva. 

I took the dark chocolate ;)

Anyway, I was feeling pretty worn-out by the time I left and was trying to think of the fastest possible thing to make for dinner, when a friend of mine asked if I wanted to go to a vegetarian buffet that costs $5. 

Uh, heck yes!

It was great to meet up and eat deliciously spicy curry and catch-up. I can feel the starting of a cold coming on, so I've been loading up on echinacea, oregano oil, vitamin c and trying to get as much sleep as possible! I feel like spicy food helps too...any excuse for spicy curry ;)

Bottom and Ab Workout Videos

If you haven't already heard of Blogilates, inform yourself. It is an amazing blog powered by Cassie, who is pretty much the most chipper person of all time, and who posts amazingly deceiving pilates workouts. 

I did this workout to target my little bottom in the hopes of one day actually having a bum - I have the flattest butt of all time, in case you were wondering ;)

Aaanyway, I used my stability ball instead of a pilates ring because, well, I don't have one!

I then rounded it off with this ab burner, which was insane. I was dying by the end. 

Although I was already feeling the burn, I tried this one too since Miley has been popping up everywhere with all of her crazy antics...but, letsbehonest, the girl has got some great abs. 

If you're looking for a bit of a butt & abs combo, give these a try! Or add one of them on to your cardio day for a little ab burner bonus :)

I'm planning on having a craft date with a friend of mine tonight...so excited!! I'll post all the deets here tomorrow!

Have a great day!!

Keep up to date on all things Fitness à la Anna by following me on Twitter and Facebook!