Day 221 - Vegetable Panang Curry

When I was a kid, sometimes we got lucky and were served a TV dinner for supper.  Now that I am an adult, I realize those nights were probably times my mom was exhausted and not in the mood to cook meat loaf or cheesey chicken (which was her specialty).  But at the time, it felt a bit like hitting the jack pot to get that metal tray, piping hot, placed in front of me.  Oh that metal tray…  With the separate areas for the turkey with gravy and piping hot mashed “potatoes”.  Ahhhh…  Fancy!

Now I am an adult.  At least age-wise I am an adult.  And I do not find instant potatoes with a thin layer of crust on the top appealing anymore. 

BUT I HAVE FOUND A TV DINNER REPLACEMENT.  Trader Joe’s has an amazing assortment of frozen foods.  You could spend an hour just strolling down the frozen section, filling your cart with boxes and bags.  And one box you should put in that cart is VEGETABLE PANANG CURRY with Jasmine Rice.  It’s great!

Put this box in your shopping cart, stat!

It takes a total of 4 minutes in the microwave to cook (as opposed to God knows how long my mom had to leave our TV dinners in the oven way back in prehistoric before microwave times…).  The box has one serving so it was perfect when I gobbled it up just now for a very late 5:15 PM lunch. 

The Jasmine Rice is wonderful.  It is steamy, fluffy, with just the right amount of “stick”.  Veggies include zucchini, onion, asparagus, kale, green beans, snow peas, baby corn, and spinach.  See – it’s a far cry from the watery fake potatoes in the TV dinners of my youth!  And the curry sauce is fantastic.  The only bit of negativity is that the asparagus in this dish is sometimes “woody”. 

Here it is on a plate - I was a bit messy when I dumped it out cuz I was starving

Overall this is a terrific saucy, ricey dish and should be eaten by YOU (unless you are not a fan of slightly spicy stuff, then skip this and eat something boring).

Note – this is VEGAN, so if that’s your thing they gotcha covered.

Price – $2.69 (I think…)

Rating – 4.75