I ♥ summer thunderstorms!
It was crazy beautiful (and HOT!) in the Midwest today, but as soon as 4:00 came around, the clouds started rooooollin’ in.
I made a dash for my trail and pounded out 3.5 miles in 30 minutes before the sky began to rumble, and the rain began to fall. I think it was the fastest I’ve run since making the transition from treadmill to trail earlier this Spring!
Perhaps it was because I was so hot – so insanely hot – and just wanted to get home. We’re talking the kind of hot where your brain can’t quite comprehend what your body is feeling, and starts getting a little cracked out. Like laughing out loud cracked out. It wasn’t so much the sun, since it was under a thick layer of clouds, but the humiditywas killlller!
At any rate, I’m alive. And I just finished enjoying some Indian food for dinner. Palak Paneer, anyone?
Ok, I know. I know that this is one of the most atrocious looking things I have ever put on the blog – I was very suspicious while preparing it – but it turned out to be an ugly duckling dinner!
For starters, I barely had to cook a thing because I used this pre-made Palak Paneer from Trader Joe’s!
Palak Paneer is a traditional Indian dish made with slowly simmered spinach, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and onions, which is combined with blocks of pressed cheese that are almost tofu-like in texture.
The dish has some great nutritional stats (a little high on sodium),
but the ingredient list was what I was really pumped about. Love the looks of that!
The meal came in an astronaut food-type pouch, that I emptied into a microwave safe container and nuked for 2 minutes.
When it was warm, I combined it with some freshly sautéed baby spinach and served it over some brown rice. Cooked homey style, of course…
Ok, DEFINITELY ugly, but DEFINITELY delightful! This rather unfortunate looking green mush blossomed into a spicy, creamy dish that had layers and layers of flavor.
I would definitely add some freshly sautéed spinach to it, or something, because the sauce alone is pretty thin. Other than that, the flavor was spot on and the cheese texture was fabulous. That’s important in a paneer! 
I’m going to go watch the rain, me thinks. Other than that, I have nothing else to do with my night. How did that happen?!
Good night!
~~~~~
What are some “ugly duckling” foods that you eat?
I’d say the green monster is rather frightening to look at, if you don’t really know what it is!!
Related posts:
Indian is my major ugly duckling food! But it tastes SOO good:)
One time I tried to make eggs in piperade – definitely an ugly dish (mainly because I’m not a food artist), but it was still mighty tasty!
I have to say it looks delicious to me!!
Yeah, most Indian Food isn’t so attractive but it sure tastes good!
Does Ben like it? I wish Toly did, but he is just not into this cuisine.
Enjoy your relaxing night!!
I have a few things that I really struggle to take pictures of because they’re hideous! Most Indian dishes, and i made one stew that was just gross looking…but SO GOOD
It’s crazy how sometimes the ugliest foods are the BEST tasting!
I think this looks great! I love Indian food, but I definitely agree, it’s not the prettiest! I wish my husband liked it so that I could eat it more often!!
Green monsters are definitely the ugliest thing I eat… I love to add berries, but it makes them BROWN! Yuck, but delish. And Indian food is hardly ever pretty when I make it, but oh so tasty!
xo
K
I think the ugliest dish I know of is one my boyfriend’s mom makes called Hamburger Pie. It’s similar to a Shepard’s pie, but she only uses 3 ingredients. Browned Ground Beef spread onto the bottom of a casserole dish. Mashed potatoes on top of the beef, and shredded cheddar cheese on top of that. Bake in the oven and broil for the last 5 minutes to give the cheese on top a little cruch. Trust me, I KNOW it sounds gross. I was def scared to try it without looking rude. It is also by no means pretty OR healthy, but it is SO good. The savory beef with the creamy potatoes and gooey cheese is a combo that will knock your socks off!
My Tofurky sandwiches and other fake meat probably look pretty ugly to some people, lol!
Jenn
My lunchtime wraps always look a little gross and squishy when I nuke them Great mile time! How often do you run and how much each week? Do you take rest days?
I love indian food but yes, its not the prettiest is it?! Id say lamb rogan josh is my ugly duckling.
I feel like our weather its always so similar. As I read this the skies opened and your storm reached us!
That does look scary but it is so good.
I described a green monster to my WW meeting on Saturday and they were terrified.
Palak Paneer is my FAVE!! It’s pretty simple to make from scratch (yes, you can even make the paneer cheese itself!), but kind of time-consuming. Ugly, but SO good!
I actually just tried my first green monster today based on the formula you posted earlier this week. I guess I had been a little turned off by the color… but, truth be told, it was mostly the cost of quality fresh spinach that had been a barrier! Today was my lucky day, though, because spinach was on sale at HyVee!
Let’s just say that I’m a green monster convert!
Yeah, I would say that is probably theeee most unfortunate looking dish I have seen in awhile. Blech.
But I might be brave enough to try it at an indian restaurant. There is a Bollywood close by!
Thanks for the idea.
Oh.. I think the Green monsters are a pretty shade of green, but I have yet to try it.
Yummm! That actually looks delicious to me.. I love Indian spices! I love chicken saag from this local Indian place which is a spinach based dish as well. I think it’s basically the same flavors and all that! The last time I was at TJ’s if I knew they had that.. I would have bought it! The nutritional stats really are not bad for a prepacked dinner at all. I’ll keep that on my list for the next time I stop by TJ’s for sure!
I make a mean cheeseburger pizza that’s SO good but photographs horribly. I don’t mind, it just tastes so good!
Haha, most of my food is ugly! I made a sick looking brown smoothie yesterday…but it was one of the best I’ve ever had IMHO! Ugly food = the best food
Oh and I LOVE summer storms too!! I like to walk about in them
I would have to say sauteed curried kale is the least photogenic/ ugly duckling food I’ve made.
HA, “Homie Style”…loooove it!
Your food sounds good, but I’m not allowed to eat close to that much sodium. There shouldn’t be more mg of sodium than there are calories so make sure you drink plenty of water! You almost always have that with frozen or packaged meals though, unfortunately.
haha! this made me lol. too funny. it’s not pretty, is it!?
oh, and love the “homie style”!
[...] Just two days ago I thought I was running in the hottest weather ever. I learned real quick that today I was running in the hottest weather ever! It was slap-in-the-face hot, and I sweated up a STORM on my run after work! [...]
[...] know I keep saying this, but today was definitely the hottest run [...]
[...] turns out I was wrong all those times I thought it was the hottest day of the summer because, according my my girl Jeriann, today is [...]