Friday nights! If you have kids you know that Friday nights do not necessarily mean that you get to paint your nails a dark shade of red and get out to paint the town in the same color of divine abandon. Well not every single Friday night.
There are those Friday nights when a weekend school project is due the next week and you want to stay back to help. Not that the 12 yr old asks for it, but sometimes it is better for my own heart’s health to think I am around when if she needs me.
Or some Friday nights there is an athletic competition the next day and we have to load up our vehicle and leave before the sun rises. If it means that I would be improving the dexterity of my hands by knitting leg warmers ( I usually don’t finish the project to know if the knitting does anything besides improve my hand functions ) and adding in a few decibels of my own to the cheering crowd while the competition is going on – so be it.
Then there are some Friday nights when every other happiness pales in comparison to spending time with your little one who is not so little anymore. This Friday night was one such night.
She came up, all excited and asked if she could learn to cook a snack for herself. She wanted some ‘homemade deliciousness that would not take forever to make’.
Even though all I wanted to do was prop her up on the counter and let her talk to me while I cooked something for her, I did quite the opposite. I propped up on the counter and gave instructions. With every stroke of the knife in her hands, my heart would pound, but I would calm it down. With each part of my “mommy heart” wanting to take the knife back and do the chopping for her, I held back with the steel heart of a “mother” who wanted to be able to let go.
I survived that pivotal time. I held back and let her do it and It was kind of empowering to be able to see the little babe as a young person.
Some Friday nights are all about growing up and growing up together and growing up deliciously.
Paneer Tikka – Hariyali (Pan fried )
Ingredients
- 1 cup Diced Paneer Thin rectangular slices to enable quick cooking
- 1/2 cup Bell Pepper any color - I used green
- 2 tablespoons Cilantro Mint Chutney
- 1 teaspoon oil
Instructions
- Take a non stick pan and heat it up on medium ; add oil .
- Add in the bell peppers and let them cook for about 2 minutes or until you see some brown spots on them
- Add in the paneer and mix in and cook for about 2 minutes or until you see the paneer get some light brown spots
- Add in the Chutney, mix carefully as the paneer would be soft might break easily.
- Cook it all together for a minute
- Serve with some more chutney