Tuesday, October 6, 2009

United Breaks Guitars, Calories and other Other Life Factors


Mood: Content; yoga, coffee, lunch with Ann and Val; great start to the day.



Dave sais:
"In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise".

Apparently United Airlines shares dropped for a while. This is a class response to extremely poor customer service; if only we could all sing, write songs and dance our complaints, the world would be a much happier, better place! I commend you, Sons of Maxwell!

I made a really quick, easy, vegetable curry tonight and by using couscous instead of rice, low fat margarine instead of butter, I managed to cut down the calories of this already low fat meal to 205 calories per good sized portion. Yup. 205 calories. That's the equivalent of two small cookies or a packet of potato crisps (chips). If the marg had affected the taste, I'd have been a little disappointed but it didn't, not one little bit. Obviously, you need to keep an eye on frying with margarine as it sticks easily. As with any dish of this sort, varying the vegetables won't make one iota of a difference or if you prefer less tomatoes or a bit more sugar, then go ahead.

Easy Vegetable Curry
1 red onion
Leftover ginger (5 inches)
2 cloves garlic
1 green chili
1 cinammon stick
2 cardamom pods
1 clove
Teaspoon each ground cumin, coriander, fenugreek
Sea Salt
Ground black pepper
1 teaspoon light margarine
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin cherry tomatoes
2 peppers
Leftover veg from last night's roasted vegetables
10g caster sugar

Total cost £2.40
Total calories 385
Total cooked weight 1360g Medium portion 240g 42 pence 100 calories approx.

10g margarine
200g Couscous
Chicken Stock Cube

Total cost 40p
Total calories 372
Total cooked weight 600g
Medium portion 150g 10 pence 93 calories

Tablespoon low fat yoghurt 12 calories

Squeeze lemon or lime juice, grinding black pepper

Total calories per dinner !205! Total cost per dinner !55 pence!

Blend together the red onion, ginger, garlic, chili, pinch sea salt, black pepper, ground cumin, coriander and fenugreek along with the cardamom, cinammon stick and clove, ground up with the pestle and mortar.

Fry gently with the margarine, stirring regularly to avoid sticking.

Add the turmeric and stir.

Then add the tinned tomatoes.


Bring to the boil...

...and add vegetables of choice; I added a green and yellow pepper and three mushrooms left in the fridge, halved.

I also added the leftover veg from the roasted dish the night before. I've added in the calories!


Bring to the boil and simmer. After around 10-20 minutes, depending on how much time you have, taste the dish and season; add the sugar at this point. Remember, if it tastes a bit bitter to you, add more salt, not sugar. Stir, put on lid and simmer once more.

To make couscous, heat margarine over a low heat and add couscous.

Stir for a minute and then add chicken or vegetable stock cube, dissolved in 300g of boiling water. The easy way to cook couscous is to place the same amount of weight to water ratio i.e. 4 ounces couscous, 4 fluid ounces water but I find I prefer it a bit more juice to my grain. You can always add more water later of course. Leave to soak up the water, around 3 minutes and then turn on the heat for a minute, stir it around and then remove. Stir with a fork, fluff up and taste. Add more water if you desire but if you do, leave it once more to soak up. Add a squeeze of lemon juice. For the kids, I also added chopped cucumber.

Place around a quarter of this on your plate and top with curry.

Add a tablespoon low fat yoghurt and a squeeze of citrus to taste.

Apply fork to face and stuff down yer gob. You'll be glad you did, especially when you realise you can have a big, fat treat for your supper. Or not, in my case, but that's only because my extra pounds want to leave home soon.

9 comments:

The Blonde Duck said...

I've actually never had a veggie curry! It looks lovely though!

Single Mama NYC said...

...sigh... I think I'm going to have to move to Scotland. My son will never have a homemade veggie curry. Never. Poor child.

xoxo!

AiringMyLaundry said...

Yum, my stomach is growling...

Lisa Petrarca said...

This looks delicious...maybe I can even make it!LOL!

Anonymous said...

Wow! On the Calories for this dish. "Good Job"

~Amor, Familia Y Cultura~
Betty

*Thanx for your comment*
LOL!!!

Brigetta Schwaiger said...

Love the guitar guy- good for him and I also love that you call them tinned - not canned. It sounds so much better.

Sumandebray said...

I read about the airlines story sometime back and I am thrilled that someone could teach them a bit of a lesson. There was an incident in Dubai when a family friend of ours was charged extra for a late checkout by a hotel and that too without advising her in advance. I wished I could do something similar to give a bit of negative publicity but obviously lacked the talent.
I have a suggestion for you ... why don't you put a warning that no one should visit your blog when hungry...

Zuzana said...

Hehe, I agree with Sumandebray and the last sentence in his comment! That was my first thought when scrolling down the page while reading your post! I have only steamed vegetables for lunch, I rather have lunch at your table!;))
xo

Jayne said...

I so seriously need to apply myself to losing some weight and this curry sounds delish. Curry is so flavoursome anyway that it probably disguises low-fat ingredients - something I knew but clearly hadn't thought about. Right. Guess what's on the menu tonight!