Curly noodle and lentil soup - Fail

My older boys disliked this meal so much they were downright rude.  Honestly I must be fair, they usually try everything and are fair enough sports with our crazy eating.  Tavio (s2) doesn't really like it.  I think he'd be perfectly happy with a rotating menu of 7 favorites - one for every day of the week.  But that isn't what I like to do and he's stuck with my cooking for now.  Back to this recipe - they both folded their arms and refused to eat.  I made them eat some, but ended up feeding them an alternate food.  I can't say it was that bad - really it wasn't.  I thought the flavor was just fine.  However, the lentils (or something) gave the pasta a bit of a gritty texture that I didn't care for.  I actually had seconds of this at dinner, but didn't save the left overs at all.  The recipe is from Family Feasts for $75 a week.  She had the greatest description of the lentils floating or bouncing off the curly pasta - no amount of cute would have helped my teens eat this - oh, and it was NOT cute.  

Chili corn pone pie -Fail

Here is one we didn't care for.  No recipe here.  Looks great, and I really like the idea of a taco type bottom layer with a corn bread type upper layer, but this cornbread was too dry and I wasn't a fan of the flavor combinations in the bottom either.  The recipe was from Family feasts for $75 a week.

hearty barley bake

This was a strange meal.  Recipe is from Simple and delicious magazine.  I was interested to try it because it mixed some different flavored  I liked that it used barley.  I was excited to try something with our home-made sausage, and the recipe came from someone in cypress TX which is where I live.  So, I tried it.  It wasn't a favorite all around.  Brandon really didn't like it.  Said - Is this my no thank you portion and ate it.  I didn't think it was that bad.  I think Tavio had seconds, but he likes cooked spinach.  I'm not writing out the entire recipe, just the ingredients - I don't recommend combining these.  :)

These were the ingredients

• mushrooms - 2 cups sliced - mine went bad and I used a can
• 1 cup thinly sliced carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• garlic
• pork sausage
• cooked barley
• 1 can cream corn
• 1 pkg. chopped spinach
• savory
• thyme
• marjoram
• pepper
• Parmesan cheese

Tarka Dhal

This could have been good, but there were issues with the recipe. First of all it called for 115 g/4 oz/ or 1/4 cup masoor dhal, then 50 g/2 oz/ 1/4 cup moong dhal - those didn't work out -the weight and measure of the first didn't work out at all. We used the weight. (those are both types of lentils -they are pictured in the previous post.) Then it took a lot longer to cook than it said. It was still crunchy after 15 minutes, after 20 minutes, after 25 minutes. We started covering it after the first 15 minutes. I'd cover it from the beginning next time. It was also way too salty. I couldn't eat it because of how salty it was. I tried to taste the flavor past the salt and I actually think it was pretty good, but it was hard to taste. I did not make the tarka topping or the garnish because I didn't have any more time for getting dinner ready, and it would just make it spicier which I figured the kids wouldn't like as much. I was very glad I didn't waste my time when it turned out so salty. I do think it could be tasty if I cut the salt way down which is why I'm bothering to include the recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 oz masoor dhal (That turned out to be about 1/2 cup maybe a bit more.
• 1/4 cup moong dhal
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon ginger pulp
• 1 teaspoon garlic pulp (again I used 2 teaspoons of the ginger/garlic mix I had bought)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 fresh green chilies (I used about 1 Tablespoon canned diced green chilies)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt - (DO NOT use this much - maybe 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon maximum)

Tarka Ingredients (I did not make this but it could be good especially if you like spicy food)

• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 1 onion sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon mixed mustard and onion seeds
• 4 dried red chilies
• 1 tomato, sliced

Garnis Ingredients (didn't make this either for time, but it also could be good.)

• 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 1-2 gresh green chilies, seeded and sliced
• 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh mint

Directions

1. Boil the 2 lentils in the water with the ginger and garlic pulp, turmeric and chopped green chilies for 15-20 minutes until soft. (Cover to make this quicker.)
   
2. Mash the lentils mixture with a fork or pound with a rolling pin until the consistency of a creamy chicken soup. (We used a potato masher.)
3. If the lentil mixture looks too dry, add a little more water. Season with the salt.
   
4. To prepare the tarka, heat the oil in a heavy -based frying pan and fry the onion with the mustard and onion seeds, dried red chilies and tomato for 2 minutes.
5. Pour the tarka over the mashed lentils and garnish with fresh coriander, green chilies and mint.