Tasty Tuesdays Cravings Edition - Spice

The craving: Indian food. 

When: A few Friday nights ago. 

Options: Sitar or Taj. I had a coupon for Sitar. OR Wilson's (a store close to the house, where I had spotted some frozen Indian food, all sorts of spices and ingredients (they warmed my heart to know that I could find them so close to me), and Indian bread. 

For less than $20, I got frozen chicken tikka masala (chicken curry), navratan korma (nine vegetable creamy curry), paneer tikka masala (cheese curd curry), and onion paratha (onion stuffed bread). 

Tom really liked the dishes (and they were mild), and it tasted very close to what we would have found in the restaurants around here. I also said I would be an accomplished Indian cook when my tikka masala tastes like the one I purchased. Bonus, we had enough from these items for two dinners for two, and one lunch for one. The chicken tray only had four pieces of chicken so for the second night, I made some chicken and added it to the leftover sauce. I also saw that World Market was having a sale on their ready-to-eat Indian meals, and I had a $10 off a $30 purchase. I stopped by and got 4 meals, a set of buffet napkins (it's more eco-friendly, plus I'm not picking up a thousand paper towels after a meal with the ceiling fan on), some Twinings tea for lab, and some chili paste.

For my Mauritian comfort food, I turn to my spice pantry box and I'll whip up this: rice, red lentils, Mauritian chicken curry, and a veggie dish (in this case sauteed spinach). This is the typical Mauritian dinner (4-6 dishes) which awesome mom and dad would make in about 30-45 minutes. Of course, the lime relish (found at Publix!!!) goes with all these dishes, whether made from scratch or bought frozen.