Brown rice and lentils

For some reason I had a hard time wanting to make lentils this week.  I think because this recipe was spiced kind of similar to the black beans I made on Monday.  However, I ended up liking the lentils a bit more than the black beans.  Having said that, I do have to admit, that for lunch I've been eating the black beans, but that is mostly because I can wrap them in a tortilla and toss some salsa on them, and I really like them that way.  All in all, not a bad lentil recipe.  It comes from my 365 ways to cook rice, beans and grains.  Great book.  I highly recommend it if wanting to add more legumes and grains.

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion diced (3/4 cup is what I used)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice
• 3/4 cup dried brown or green lentils, rinsed
• 4 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 scallion, copped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. In a large skillet, saute the onions in butter until fragrant - adding the carrots as you chop, then the garlic, cumin and coriander closer to the end with the olive oil.  Saute just until combined and stir in the rice and lentils.  Saute for another minute or 2.  
2. Add the water and salt.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes or until rice and lentils are tender.  
3. stir in scallion and cilantro.  Stir to combine.  Serve

lentil and cheese casserole (vegetarian meatloaf)

Part of my new healthier eating is eating way LESS meat.  In fact, I haven't cooked anything with meat in over a week.  In the past 2 weeks we've only had a birthday dinner that had meat, and salmon.  Like I said, way less meat.  It has been interesting.  So far for the most part I haven't had too many revolts from the kids.  Probably helps that I had my older boys watch food inc and food matters with me.

Back to the recipe.  This one was actually on my calendar for a few weeks before it got made.  Something about it being subtitled vegetarian meatloaf made me shy away from it.  I also think I kept avoiding it because it was made of lentils and sometimes they go over extremely well, and other times they don't go over very well at all.  This was one of the better times.  Only my oldest had horrible commentary to go with this meal.  He hated everything about it.  The casserole and the salad I served on the side.  Wanted to know why I was serving such gross and disgusting food.  However, both of my younger boys LOVED this.  They both had seconds.  Tavio also didn't seem to mind it because he too had seconds.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I sauteed my onions.  That was the biggest flavor in the dish.  So glad I chose to add that extra step from the original.

This recipe is adapted from one in The Six O'clock scramble.  I'm LOVING this cookbook.  It has lots of recipes and quite a few of them are vegetarian.  Not vegan, but vegetarian.  

Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese  + a bit more for topping if desired
• 2 cups cooked lentils (directions below)
• 1/2-1 Tablespoon butter
• 1/2 medium sweet onion, diced
• 1 - 2 teaspoons garlic (can't remember how much I added)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg, slightly beaten

Directions

** To make lentils, bring 3 cups of water to a boil.  Rinse 1 1/2 cups of lentils in a colander.  Add lentils to boiling water.  Return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until tender.  (This made like 3 cups of lentils.  Not sure if I'd dare go down to 1 cup lentils, but I think 1 1/4 cup would be plenty without as many left overs.)  Cook these earlier in the day for a quicker meal prep.  If not, do step 2 first while the lentils cook.

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Place cooked lentils in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher.  
2. Saute the onions in butter until nice and golden.  Add the garlic and saute a minute or 2 longer.  Add the salt, pepper and thyme and stir to combine.  Remove from heat.
3. Stir onion mixture and breadcrumbs into the lentil mash.  Add the cheese and eggs and stir to combine.  
4. Evenly spread the lentil mixture in a loaf pan that has been coated with cooking spray.  Top with additional cheddar cheese if desired.  Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
5. Slice and serve with ketchup or tomato sauce.  

Indian spiced lentils with rice

I really liked this meal.  Loved the mild curry, and the sweetness of the raisins.  However, it wasn't a huge hit with the kiddos.  Gets a blog post because I liked it and have finally finished all of the left overs for lunch. (sure sign that I really liked it.)  YUM!  I found the original on 6 o'clock scramble.  I did modify it knowing that curry isn't a popular flavor in my house.  The modification was good enough that DH ended up liking it, and our oldest ate it and had seconds, but the rest of them were not impressed with the curry even though I cut it in half and added extra cumin.   Oh well.   They all tried it though.  Even Mr. Picky toddler ate 2 bites for me.  Happy day.  :)
The suggestion at 6 o'clock scramble was to serve this with a cucumber/avocado salad.  I wasn't a fan of that, but then again I'm not a fan of avocado (unless it is in guacamole.)

Here's how I made the lentil dish

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup lentils
• 4 1/2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 cup raisins
• greek yogurt for serving

Directions

1. In a large stockpot with a tight fitting lid, heat coconut oil over medium high heat and saute the onions, uncovered for about 5 minutes until they start to brown.
2. Ad dthe rice, curry powder, cumin and bay leaves and stir for a minute to coat the rice with the oil.  Add remaining ingredients (except yogurt) and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until water is absorbed and the rice is tender, 50-55 minutes.  (I did 50 minutes, my water was absorbed, but my rice was not tender enough, so I added about 1/2 cup more water and simmered for 5 additional minutes)
3. Remove bay leaves and serve topped with  yogurt if desired.

Syrian Rishtah

So I have yet another cookbook checked out of the library.  (OK, so I have 3 or 4 out)  But one in particular I really like.  It is called 366 Delicious ways to cook Rice, Beans, and Grains (unfortunately my Amazon product finder is not working so no cute little picture.)  Anyway, it if full of tons of ideas for cooking grains and beans (imagine that.)  Not a great book if you are looking for something with tons of pretty pictures, but as a resource for new ideas I'm loving it.  Now if I can just find a place around here that sells amaranth I'll have a bunch of new recipes to try.  :)
Last night's dinner and this morning's breakfast both came from this book, and I have tons more with little pieces of paper sticking out to try.  I've already put them in my menu for then next few weeks.  I'll start with last night's dinner.  I chose this because I've had good luck with lentils in the past, and I thought the combination of spices (cumin, allspice, and coriander) sounded interesting.  It turned out really good.  I loved the flavor.  I thought the sauce ended making the noodles a bit grainy, but I used regular green lentils rather than the French lentils called for (couldn't find those)  I think this problem could be solved by 2 things if using the green lentils - 1 cook them a little less time originally, and 2 not adding the cooking water, but fresh water or more stock.  Definitely what I would try next time.  I'd make this again, and actually sent the left overs to school with my 5 year old, so I can't have been that bad if he was willing to eat left overs.  :)
This is how I made it.  (Adapted a bit from the original in the book.)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dried French green lentils, rinsed (I used regular, see above)
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 2 small (or 1 large) onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (I used the dehydrated minces, the fresh garlic I have has been particularly spicy lately and I didn't want the dish ruined by pungent garlic I actually sauteed onion and garlic but it was so strong smelling that I started over and used the minces)
• 1 can (15-16 oz.) petite diced tomatoes (undrained)
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/2 cup chicken stock (could also use vegetable to keep it vegetarian.  I just had chicken in the fridge that was already opened)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional - I left this out because of the kiddos but served them on the side for DH)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 lb fettuccine noodles

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine lentils and water.  Bring to a boil.  REduce heat and simmer, covered until lentils are just tender but still retain their shape (25 min - maybe a bit less next time for regular green lentils -see above)  Set aside but do not drain.
2. In another saucepan, heat butter over medium heat.  Add onions (and garlic if using fresh) saute until onions are golden (about 10 minutes.)  Add garlic minces towards the end of the 10 minutes if using dried.
3. Add the lentils, cooking liquid, tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, cumin, allspice, soriander, red pepper flakes (if using) salt and pepper.   Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
4. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and toss with the lentil mixture.  (I made 1 lb of noodles but didn't use all of them.  I used most of them, but not all - didn't want the pasta to be too dry.)

Egyptian lentils (Kusherie)

Here is yet another recipe from $5 dinner mom's book.  I really liked this one. I never knew it, but cumin and brown sugar together are absolutely delicious.   I've been eating the left overs for days.  Yummy.  I do have some suggestions though for next time.  -Definitely just stir everything together.  The lentils and rice had nothing on them, but the tomato sauce was very flavorful and good.  The original had you just stir a bit into the noodles, serve them to the side, then put the rice and lentils next to the noodles with the red sauce on top, and onions over that.  I ate a bite or 2 like this, then mixed it together on my plate.   I mixed the rest together to store the left overs.  In the future I'll mix everything because it was hard to divide the right amount of sauce over the right amount of lentils.  I also might add a bit of water to the sauce because as left overs the rice and lentils were a bit crunchy.  I did cut some oil out of this recipe, and used some butter for the onions. 

The only bad thing about this recipe - it does take like every pot in the house.  This is how I made it.

$5 dinner mom p. 244

Ingredients

• 1 cup elbow macaroni (DH said he would have liked more, but I thought it was fine.)
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 cup lentils
• 1 green pepper, diced (I used 1/4 cup dehydrated green and red - which I rehydrated)
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons ground cumin
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 sweet onion, cut into strips
• 1 Tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Start brown rice in rice cooker (or on stovetop.)
2. Cook macaroni according to package directions, drain and set aside.
3. In yet another pan, cook the lentils in 4 cups of water on medium-high heat for 20 minutes.  If water gets too low, add more.  If lentils are soft, and there is extra water, drain it off. 
4. In a small skillet saute the diced bell pepper in the oil.  Add the tomato sauce, brown sugar, cumin, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Let simmer about 10 minutes.
5. In another skillet (or the same one if you're cooking brown rice on the stove.)  Saute onions in the butter until browned and caramelized.
6. Next time I will just mix everything together at the end.  As mentioned above, the original had you mix a few spoons of sauce into the macaroni.  Put that in a serving dish.  Mix the brown rice and lentils together and put that next to the macaroni.  Then top it with the remaining tomato sauce and onions.  The only advantage to that was I didn't serve onions to everyone, but that is it.  Definitely easier to mix it all together.

Honey Baked Lentils

This is a recipe out of $5 dinner Mom's cookbook.  I only made a couple of small changes for our tastes and to make things easy.  I was very afraid it wouldn't work out because I burned my lentils to the bottom of the pan, plus I haven't been a huge fan of lentils in the past, but the combination of the lentils, honey, mustard and bacon was very good.  This was surprisingly well liked by all, and I would make it again, but probably make 1.5 cups lentils.  Here's how I made this

Ingredients

• 1 cup lentils (I just used regular)
• 4 slices bacon (I used pre-cooked but I still microwaved them to crisp them up.)
• 2 Tablespoons mustard
• pinch ginger
• 1 Tablespoon dehydrated onion flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 cups brown rice

Directions

1. Cook lentils by placing in a medium saucepan with 3 cups water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.  (Mine burned because I got distracted and let them boil for a while before putting the lid on - thus reducing my water - Normally this would not be a problem.)  
2. Cook brown rice according to package directions.  (I tossed mine in the rice cooker.)
3. Crisp up bacon in the microwave if desired.  I put it in on paper towel for 30 seconds.  Crumble or chop
4. Preheat oven to 350.  In a small bowl mix mustard, ginger, salt, dehydrated onion and 1 cup of water.  
5. When the lentils are cooked, place in an 8 X 8 baking dish.  Pour mustard/water mixture and 1/2 of the bacon over the lentils.  Mix.  Sprinkle with the remaining bacon.  Drizzle with honey.  
6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until bubbling.  Serve over rice.