Friday Greens: When You Can't Contain It, Cup it

Last Friday we were invited to dinner by our neighbors, Mike and Sara. The invite came late in the afternoon, after breakfast and lunch, and I found myself having NOT eaten my salad for the day. I would soon tempt my fate of asking a green salad to squeeze Chicken Tikka Masala off my plate. What would you do?

Here is my confession. I got the tikka masala recipe from Sara. She's married to Mike the Happy Italian. Just about everything Sara cooks for us, I have to get the recipe per my husband's insistence and my taste buds. But as a testament to a woman and her kitchen, and the subsequent alternate universe created there, her tikka masala and my tikka masala taste a little different from each other. Both are delicious!

So back to salad. When at first you can't contain it (your self control for amazing food)..cup it!

That is why I brought a huge stack of romaine leaves to dinner. My rice and spicy, creamy, delicious tikka masala sauce was portioned beautifully, and I finished it with petite peas on the top. A reversed double stack of leaves meant that I could set it down and it wouldn't roll off to the side and spill it's divine nectar onto the plate. Then I would have to use a utensil of all things, and if there's anything a lettuce cup is good for, it's to eat utensil free.



Romaine cups are also good and giving you false sense of willpower when you dribble a little rice and sauce instead of creating a mountain on your plate. I'm so healthy I had 3 lettuce cups that night. Aaahhh!

Thanks for dinner Sara and Mike the Happy Italian.