No NAANsense Dinner

I have two beautiful daughters that were adopted from India as babies. They have grown up attending India Camp every year and now as young adults they are camp counselors.  My Aunt did a wonderful job keeping them immersed in their culture growing up and since they been mine I have tried to do the same.  For the full story on the girls you can catch up here.

My girls love Indian and food and my little boys are not really into it.  I love making the Indian food but I found I was spinning my wheels trying to cook two dinners in one night just to make everyone happy.  SO, I decide to combine the two a little and slowly entice my boys to give the Indian food a real try.

Everyone likes bread right?

Everyone likes pizza right?

How about rice?

Ok well now that we all like similar things lets get dinner rolling! I love to get my kids involved in the cooking process.  They love to help and sometimes they taste as we go and learn to like new things.  So for the bread part of this meal I make home made Naan.  Its kinda like a pita bread and it is delicious.  Don’t get nervous it is simple to make!  I make a double recipe of the dough because we not only eat it plain, it will be our pizza crust and there so many things you can make out of it.  It also stores nicely in the fridge for a couple of days in a ziplock bag.

I found a fantastic step by step recipe for the Naan and you can find it here

Just a side note.  You can certainly substitute sour cream for the yogurt in the Naan recipe. This really this an easy dough to make and you can’t really mess it up.

So while our dough is rising I like to get the main dish started for the girl’s main entree.  Their favorite is Tikka Masala and I will tell you I do not make this from scratch I simply buy a seasoning packet and follow the instructions.  Its very simple and quick.  You can buy these seasoning packets at Sprouts, Whole Foods and other stores like this.

After I get the rice in the rice cooker I like to get boys in the kitchen and we get our pizza ingredients and get ready to build our pizzas.  First, take a cooked piece of Naan and place it on a cookie sheet.  Simply place all your ingredients on the piece of Naan and then place it under the broiler until the the cheese is bubbly.  These really do make the perfect size personal pizzas.  We like to get creative in our house.

Some of our favorite pizzas are :

• Pepperoni with mushrooms and olives
• BBQ with grilled chicken, cheddar cheese, and caramelized onions
• Mexican pizza (my favorite) re-fried beans, taco meat/fajita meat, fresh salsa, cheese and then top with sour cream, lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, olives, jalapenos
• Alfredo pizza (you can use your favorite jar of Alfredo sauce from the store) add grilled chicken, spinach, mushrooms

The pizzas are also fabulous cooked on the grill!

Ok so now that you have made your pizzas your rice should be done, your Tikka Masala should be done and of course your Naan is done so now lets eat!  There you have it a double duty no Naansense dinner that the whole family can enjoy.

Oh wait did you say what about dessert?  I hope you saved some of that Naan dough.  Heat some vegetable oil up on the stove because YES we are going deep fry this dough.  When the oil is ready, simply drop spoonfuls of dough into the oils and fry until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and dust with powdered sugar.  You can also use cinnamon and sugar, add some ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, strawberries…the sky is the limit!

At our house we love to try new things.  My husband’s mother is from Thailand so sometimes our menu can be very international.  My kids do love Thai food and many others…including some of the Indian food.  If we do not expose our children to new and culturally diverse things how will they every learn?  There are so many beautiful countries and cultures in this world, I encourage you get in the kitchen and experience something new! Take a trip across the world right from your own kitchen!

And P.S. my daughter Karis is quite the Henna artist.  She has really developed a skill and does some beautiful work.  I love how she shares her cultural with her friends and brings light to this world.