#Meatless Monday Vegetable Curry with Vegetarian Strips

Indian Curry Vegetable Meal with Vegetarian Strips - Aldi Meatless Monday $2.99

Aldi likes to release a bunch of products all related to the traditional flavors of one area of the world. In the past we've seen them visit Greece, Italy, Mexico and Germany, but right now their latest collection is inspired by the flavors of India. 

This isn't Aldi's first collection inspired by India, but it's the first time I've seen it show up with this much variety. They're currently offering curry-based soups, Tikka Masala meal kits, cooking sauces, and various freezer meals. It's been a very VERY long week for me, and even though I like to cook homemade meals on the weekends, I caved and bought a bunch of frozen meals from Aldi instead. (They're vegetarian friendly so I can share them with my boyfriend!)

For today's #MeatlessMonday post, I heated up one of Aldi's frozen vegetarian curry meals for my boyfriend and I. It has something called "vegetarian strips" in it, which look suspiciously like tofu, so we'll see how this one pans out.

Korma Sauce - Aldi: Cherry Hill, NJ

Korma Sauce - Aldi: Cherry Hill, NJ

A little more than a year ago Target had this wonderful Vindaloo meal kit that was inspired by Indian cuisine. It was delicious, and spicy and easy to make...but it was discontinued. Why?! There were a bunch of consumers complaining that the meal was too spicy, and Target has since pulled the items, lowered the spice levels and released similar products, but they've never been the same. The boxes were very clearly labeled, and it was obviously a spicy product, it's such a pity because I really like Indian food, and that kit was very close to my usual order from my local Indian restaurant.

If any of you shop at Aldi, you've noticed it goes through themed phased, and nearly a year after my delicious spicy meal kit was discontinued, Aldi went through a "Indian phase." They released their own version of some Indian-inspired sauces, along with a few other items, and I had to give them a try. I bought two different bottles, so this korma sauce is up first!

Penne with Zucchini and Parmesan- Homemade

Penne with Zucchini and Parmesan- Homemade

Just a little something I threw together for dinner the other night. I still have a ton of veggies in the fridge and I want to use them up before they go bad so I might be making more recipe posts soon. 

This used:

• 2 Tomatoes - diced and grilled with minced garlic
• 1 Zucchini - Sliced and grilled
• Penne Pasta - Boiled on the stove (I eyeballed the amount and just used what was left in the box)
• Pasta Sauce (Again, I eyeballed it and used what was left in the jar)
• Parmesan Cheese - grated, 1/2 cup

I filled a pot with water and a dash of salt and put it over med-high heat.

While waiting for the water to boil, I chopped the tomatoes, sliced the zucchini, and grilled them with a teaspoon of minced garlic in a grill-pan. (One of the best kitchen pans ever!)  Once grilled and ready, I set them aside and started grating the Parmesan. 

After the water came to a boil, I added the pasta and allowed it to cook until it was ‘al dente.’ (Penne is my favorite, but you can use any pasta you want.) Then I drained the cooked pasta, added the noodles and the rest of the ingredients to a glass baking dish, and topped everything with the grated cheese. 

Once combined, I used my oven’s broiler to melt the cheese to crispy, melty, perfection. (I broiled mine for about 5-7 minutes.)

This is a simple way to use up veggies that are laying around or overripe. (You could also add onions, peppers, or peas.)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Ikea Food - South Philadelphia, PA

Ikea Food - South Philadelphia, PA

My mother and I went to IKEA for the first time EVER this week. I originally went to purchase a table, but got wrapped up in the food! (I also bought some things from the food section, so I have an IKEA haul coming up soon!) 

Here is what we had for lunch:

My Mother had the roasted chicken breast with mashed potatoes, she said it was the best chicken she had ever had in a restaurant.

For lunch I had the Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jam and mashed potatoes. Lingonberries are really popular in Scandinavian meals. On the side I had lingonberry juice and an elderflower cupcake.

The mashed potatoes were creamy and delicious! They tasted buttery and had a hint of cracked pepper. They sell the same potatoes in the freezer section of their food market, and I have to say these were the best frozen mashed potatoes I had ever had.

I have to say, the lingonberry jam tasted like the best cranberry sauce I had ever had. The berries were tender and soft, but the overall flavor was dry and tangy. A lot like cranberry sauce, but the berries do not have anything to get stuck in your teeth (like cranberries often do.) I actually picked up a jar of this to have at home.

Although Ikea is famous for them, the meatballs were actually my least favorite part of the meal. they tasted a little overly spiced. I think I would have liked them with a different gravy more than the traditional brown. The brown gravy made the spices overpowering, if a tangy sauce had been used I would have liked them a lot more.

The lingonberry juice was really refreshing, but it was a lot like a cranberry juice, just a bit brighter. It isn’t very strong on it’s own, but when I mixed it with a bit of lemon lime soda it was really interesting! All of these items can be bought in the grocery section so you can easily recreate your meal at home.


The elderflower cupcake, was something I had never seen before. The cupcake was really moist and dense, and it tasted like vanilla pound cake mixed with lychee fruit. The icing on top was cream cheese and I think the elderflower was also in the icing, but it was hard to tell with how strongly the cupcake was flavored. I loved it!

Overall, I am incredibly impressed with IKEA’s food. I never though a store that sold furniture would also make decent food. I highly recommend everything! (Except the meatballs with gravy. I won’t be getting that again)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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