Leftover instant oatmeal packets

The other day I was cleaning out my cupboards and came across John's packets of oatmeal from this past winter.  Knowing he doesn't eat oatmeal in the spring, I decided to use them in an oatmeal recipe.  I found an Oatmeal Breakfast Bread in Dorie Greenspan's cookbook which looked really healthy - no butter!  Of course, I followed her recipe loosely since I was already using instant flavored oatmeal i/o of the old fashioned oats.  I didn't have applesauce but did have apples so I grated one large apple and increased the milk by 1/2 cup.  It came out fantastic despite my substitutions.  John was happy to learn the cake didn't have any butter and ate the entire cake over two days.

Indian food

I had one eggplant and 2 zucchinis that needed to be used right away.  I've made an Italian minestrone type soup and a ratatouille before using these ingredients before and wasn't really inspired to do this again.  Instead I pulled out the Ajanta cookbook and made the Baingan Bharta (pureed roasted eggplant), Meth Wala Alu Gobhi Matar (curried potatoes and peas but without the cauliflower), Zaffrani Chaval (Saffron Rice with nuts) and a version of Urid Daal (lentils).  The dishes were pretty tasty with the Alu Gobhi being a little too spicy.

This spurred my Indian food craving even more.  I convinced John to take me to Indian Samsaraat restaurant on Mass Ave in Boston.  Although this is one of our favorite Indian restaurants in Boston, we hadn't been in over a year.  The food is always very good - John got his usual Tandoori chicken along with the restaurant's special naan bread filled with coconut, raisins, and nuts.  I decided to try their non vegan thali plate (an oxymoron) which included 2 really lovely Pooris.