New Mommy Lentil Mess

Perhaps you’ve noticed that lentils are one of my go-to meals when I’m not in a mood to cook meat and want something easy, healthy, and filling.  I used to be scared of these little guys, but they really are SO easy to cook with, are great at taking on the taste of whatever you surround them with, and they are full of protein and fiber…and are CHEAP!!  We haven’t cooked a thing in quite a while – friends and family have been showering us with comfort meals, from Quiche to tuna-noodle casserole and oatmeal cookies.  But I’m sick of the leftovers and it was time to break out something with a slightly better nutritional profile. And I had a box of frozen spinach that was begging to be used.

New Mommy Curried Lentil Mess

1 cup lentils, rinsed

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 package frozen spinach

1 t turmeric

1 t cumin

2 t curry powder

1/2 t ground ginger

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 t fresh ginger, grated

1 small onion, chopped

1 medium zucchini, chopped

salt, to taste

1/4 t stevia (or other sweetener, to taste)

Rice, for serving

Laughing Cow Wedges, or cream cheese

Throw all ingredients, except zucchini and rice, in a slow cooker. Dump in enough water to fill your empty can of tomatoes, twice.  Come to think of it, you could add the rice in the beginning and it would cook along, but I was out of rice and had to go buy it, so it got cooked separately.

Cook on low for 8 hours, adding the zucchini in the last hour, along with salt and sweetener.  Zucchini is optional – I had one that needed to be used.

Serve with rice, and mix a wedge of laughing cow into each bowl.  Garnish with: Tomatoes, Cilantro, Sour cream, Cottage Cheese (Austin’s gets mixed with a good amount of cottage cheese), plain yogurt…. or anything else that sounds good!  Copious amount of hot sauce optional.  If you aren’t serving this to kids, I would add 1/4 – 1/2 t cayenne to spice it up a bit.

Easy, super tasty, little clean up, and used up that pesky box of spinach. A winner!

Lentil goopiness shown with our “congrats on new baby” flowers

Good Food, Incredible Friends

Tonight, two of my best friends came over and helped me do what every pregnant woman (or really, every woman period!) needs help with: the last 10%.  If you are married to a typical man, you know exactly what I mean here:

So often, guys start up on a project full of enthusiasm and vigor.  They brazenly “break ground” and make incredible progress in a seemingly minuscule amount of time, and work diligently with focus…until the project is “pretty much” finished.  It has reached the stage of “presentable” or “functional,”…and then they fizzle out.  And that last 10%?  Well…It’ll get done.  Someday.

Just to be clear, this is not a “bag on my husband” post.  He works really hard and never ceased to impress me with his DIY skills, whether learned or improvised.  This is merely an observation that seems to ring true with so many of the male species.  Case in point – we were discussing this topic today at work, and a volunteer at the center who has lived in her current house shared this story:

“The other day, I was folding clothes in the laundry room and my husband came in.  He looked up above the door and said “hmm…I never finished that molding.  Why didn’t you bug me about it?  to which she responded….”I probably did, for the first 10 years!”

Hmm, there seems to be a theme.

Anyhow, the girls came over to help me finish off painting the bathroom.  Not that I couldn’t do it, but hiking up and down a step ladder with a 20+ lb baby strapped in my belly probably isn’t the best plan right now.

And finish off the painting they did!  Or rather, my friend Missy, (and incredibly artist by the way – check her out at www.dunegrass-studio.com), did, while Jen and I chatted and made sure she had ample wine to finish the job.  And finish she did – it looks fantastic, despite a small issue with purple ceiling paint.  THANK YOU MISSY!

Check it out! The sink is from Terrestrial Forming studios – by Peter Johnson.  The faucet – ebay. Lyndon made the frame for the mirror and the sink countertop.  And we’ll all just ignore that the sink and faucet aren’t caulked in…yet.  Someday.

(check out that beautiful paint job – straight lines!)

(yes, our child lock is broken.  I don’t recommend the safety first locks.  Don’t worry, all that is down there is toilet paper and towels.)

And my favorite part:

Austin’s little handprint

To show my gratitude, I made dinner.  It was a bit of a conundrum.  Missy isn’t eating much meat or wheat these days, and at the moment her allergies are requiring she stick with gently spiced foods.  Jen isn’t a fan of soup, my go-to veggie meals, so I had to improvise.

The result:

Lentil Apple Almond Loaf

1/2 cup lentils, cooked with a bay leaf till tender.

Olive oil

3 T flax

1 onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, choppped

3/4 cup almonds, chopped

1 apple, finely chopped

1 small zucchini, chopped

1 t dried thyme

2 T rice vinegar

1 T balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup raisins

pinch salt and pepper

1 cup bread crumbs (can use gluten-free bread for this)

Glaze

4 T ketchup

2-3 T honey

3 T applesauce

2 T apple cider vinegar

1 T arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)

Preheat oven to 350.

Get lentils cooking.  Mix flax with 1/2 cup water, let stand in a bowl.

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil and saute onions, almonds, and carrots 2-3 minutes, till softened.  Add rice vinegar, and saute a 1-2 more minutes.  Add in apple, zucchini, raisins, and thyme, and cook 3-4 minutes until softened and fragrant.  Toss in balsamic, salt, and pepper, and stir to combine.  Transfer to a large bowl and mix in breadcrumbs and flax/water mix.

In the meantime, combine ingredients for the glaze in a saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk till combined and thickened. Mix a little less than half the glaze in with the loaf mix.  Press mix into a loaf pan, or into muffin tins if you wish to speed up cooking time (like impatient me).  Brush remaining glaze over the top of your loaf/muffins.

Bake for 30 minutes (muffin tins) or 45 (loaf pan) till top is slightly crisped and your kitchen smells tasty.

Served it all with roasted broccoli and sweet potato, and a strawberry massaged kale salad (massage kale with a bit of salt, toss in apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and honey, and toss with sliced strawberries and salted sunflower seeds), and we were a bunch of happy (and healthy!) girls.  Thanks ladies!

Lentiladas

This was pretty much the perfect meal – very tasty, easy to make, cheap, healthy, and loved by all – meat-eating husband and 19 month old alike.  The penta-fecta! (just watch, soon everyone will be using that word…)

Lentil Enchiladas

1/2 cup green lentils

1 yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, mashed

olive oil

3 carrots, diced

2 T tomato paste

2 t cumin + 1 t (heaping)

1 t (heaping) paprika

water

salt

1 small can diced green chilis

sour cream, cream cheese, or cottage cheese – about 1/4 cup

tortillas

cheese to top

Boil lentils till tender, about 25 minutes.

In the meantime, saute onions, garlic, and carrots in olive oil (1-2 t) till starting to soften, ~5 minutes.  Add tomato paste, 2 t cumin, and paprika, stir to combine.  If you aren’t cooking for a wee one, add chili or cayenne if you wish!  Add about a cup of water, and let the mix simmer down.  If it starts to dry up, add more water to keep the mix saucy – I probably ended up adding 1 to 1.5 more cups of water.  Simmer about 20 minutes, until veggies are very soft.  Whir the mix in the food processor to make your enchilada sauce – taste test and add salt as you see fit.

Drain the lentils, and mix in a medium bowl with the green chilis, extra cumin, and your choice of sour cream, cream cheese, or cottage cheese (I used about 1 T cream cheese – using up the dregs taking up space in the fridge – and then threw in cottage cheese to make it creamy).

Pour some of the sauce down in a glass baking dish.  Spoon lentil mixture into tortillas, roll, and place seam-side down in your dish.  Slather with the rest of the sauce, top with cheese, and bake at 350 till cheese is melty.

We served them with chopped romaine, fresh guac, and sour cream.  Yummy!

These are even better leftover – if you can wait, cook them a day ahead and then reheat in the oven.  The lentils absorb the flavor and it becomes Mexican heaven!