So I went off the beaten path a little bit this week and followed a recipe on the side of a can. It’s just that I had some Thai curry paste lying around, and one thing led to another. The instructions were a little confusing, so I just cut up some potatoes, an orange bell pepper, a carrot, and a pound of tofu and simmered everything with the curry paste in some coconut milk mixed with water. Fortunately, the result was significantly better than the Thai restaurant down the street, and I appreciated that all the ingredients fell along the white-to-orange spectrum as well.

If you live near an Asian supermarket or aisle, or you have a can of Thai curry paste in your cupboard because you got it in a birthday package last year and haven’t gotten around to trying it (hi, Mom!), I’d definitely recommend trying this as an addition to the weeknight meal rotation.

Orange curry.

This made at least four meals, and the volume was comparable to two orders of curry from the aforementioned Thai restaurant down the street. In the city, this amount of food might cost $25, but I made it for around $7. Now I have $18 left over, which I’m thinking will go to Action Against Hunger, a major organization dedicated to combating world hunger.

http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/

While I was enjoying this delicious curry for lunch today, it suddenly struck me how lucky I was to be eating a nutritious, filling meal at all. One billion people in the world are not so lucky. Imagining what it’s truly like to not have access to proper nourishment is incredibly scary, so I feel pretty confident that this $18 is going to the right place.