Jewel’s Lentil Cilantro Salad

(currently I have no picture of the finished product!)

• 1 16-ounce bag of lentils
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (or more to taste)
• 2 carrots, sliced thin
• 3-4 scallions, chopped
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 14-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (optional)
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or more to taste)
• S&P to taste

Soak lentils in water for 2-3 hours.  Drain and put in pot with water to cover.  Bring to boil 10-20 minutes, until softened, but firm.

Drain and rinse with cool water.   Add other ingredients and toss.  Refrigerate to blend flavors.

Notes:  This is a very forgiving recipe.  If I am out of scallions I will use onions.  If I don’t have carrots I don’t add them.  I also prefer the red wine vinegar in this recipe, although balsamic or apple cider will work as well.

The mainstays are the lentils, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, and seasonings.  Add seasonings until you reach the desired flavor; you may want to add more or less oil and/or vinegar.

It is also delicious served warm.

   

Still Craving Fresh….and Fresh!

Tuesday night we had a court of honor at our scout meeting, with a pot luck dinner.  Each patrol is assigned a “category” of food to bring. 

Last court of honor our patrol was assigned dessert so that is what I brought.  But at dinner that night, nobody had brought salad or veggie side dishes and I ended up with almost nothing to eat!

This time I was taking no chances!

I was assigned a main dish and I was making sure it would be something I could happily eat if there was nothing else available!

So lentil  salad it was.  Now I totally expected (based on past experience when I bring healthy stuff) to have most of it left over.  But I didn’t care! 

I LOVE my lentil salad!

I planned ahead for this one, ordering an available add-on from my organic produce buying club that included a bunch of scallions and two bunches of cilantro.

Warning #1:  I was such a lousy photographer for this day!  I was too busy trying to get everything together and rushing around to get work done, food done, kids picked up, and to the ceremony on time!

Warning #2:  This is one of my “throw everything together” recipes with no measurements…it probably comes out differently each time I make it!

First I soaked a bag of lentils in water for most of the day, and then boiled them for about 15 minutes to soften them up.  I rinsed them off in cold water.Then I grabbed three (which later turned into four) scallions, a gorgeous tomato, a couple of carrots, and a handful of cilantro.  The scallion, even though fresh, was rooting already! (of course no picture of that!)  Gotta love those organics!I had FabTeen chop everything up and add it to the lentils.  Then we used red wine vinegar, some olive oil, and S&P to taste.  We placed it in the fridge for a few hours for the flavors to meld, although this lentil salad is delicious served warm as well.

Honestly it could have used a little more vinegar…but I hadn’t done a taste test towards the end and I was rushing.  I also meant to add a can of kidney beans…but that slipped by me too!

Needless to say the salad was a big hit!  Several people even asked me for the recipe!  It was soooo good! 

I absolutely love this salad and have been making a variation of it since FabTeen was born, but it has been a while since I have made it.   I think it is my new vegetarian (and vegan) Go-To potluck recipe dish though, as it is perfect for a side dish..but robust enough for a meal.

Of course that is where the pictures ended…no completed salad…no buffet picture, not even a picture of my plate!  Although at least I did manage to remember to take the more important photo of FabStepson receiving his merit badges!  (He is the not so hairy one)

Another major salad craving I have been having is for Sweet Annie’s massaged kale salad. 

Last week we had curly kale in the box and I was soooo craving it!  Sometime during the week I went to make it, and when I was washing it, I found some extra protein in my kale! After four days in the fridge they were still wiggling away!  YUCK!

I picked through, soaked in vinegar, and rinsed the kale to death after that…but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat it raw.  I was satisfied that they were gone though..so we had it sauteed for dinner that night.  But that still didn’t satisfy my kale craving.

So this week I also ordered the $5 leafy add on from the buying club, which included a big bunch of kale and an extra head of lettuce.  With all of my salad cravings lately we have had to buy extra lettuce anyway, so I may as well get it from the buying club!

Finally this week I was able to make my kale salad.  This kale salad is a veritable powerhouse of superfoods!  I feel so healthy when I have it for lunch!

The superfoods include kale, raisins, garlic, walnuts, and honey.  The only nonsuperfood in the mix is the olive oil!

I add everything into the bowl, and then massage all the ingredients together for about ten minutes to wilt the kale and make it soft.  It is a messy job!  But Oh So worth it!         We have been storing up ripened bananas in the freezer…I like to use them for the Green Monsters, but FabTeen has been wanting to make banana soft serve for a while, so he finally remembered to do it when we had time. It has been a long time since we have had this!   I had forgotten how thick, smooth, and creamy this is…so much like ice cream only totally guilt-free!  Definitely something we need to make more often.  It disappeared way too quick!

Finally, dinner was a total throw something together to use up my organic veggies sort of event.  I needed to use up some yellow squash….a bunch of fresh spinach…onions (we have several bags of those!), garlic, and a beet!

What I started out making turned into something totally different.  I was tired and feeling like I was coming down with something, and just didn’t feel like doing anything!  FabHubs said he would take over…but he was going so ssssllllloooowwww and at the rate he was meditatively chopping the veggies, I was worried we wouldn’t be eating before  10 p.m. and I wanted to get to bed!

So I took over some of it…and then  he took over again with a little more hurry in his step!

I sliced up the  squash and added the onions and garlic that FabHubs had minced into the big bowl and tossed with some EVOO, balsamic, and S&P.  I am not a big fan of yellow squash but this made them very yummy!  I also peeled a head of garlic with some giant cloves on it…and tossed the cloves  whole into the mix so they would roast as well.  I LOVE roasted garlic cloves!

I sliced some more onions and rough cut some garlic, and had FabHubs sautee them in some coconut oil.  Then I had him add the spinach that  I had washed and separated.  Finally, I gave him a can of garbanzo beans to add to the mix. Kind of impromptu and totally thrown together…but the end result was so good and  filling too!  When I don’t have a clear source of meat-like protein for FabHubs, you never know if it will pass muster.  Usually I can make beans fit the bill in some way…so I try to add them often to our meals.

In this case it worked!  It was flavorful, healthy, and satisfying!

Plus…the lentils from Tuesday, spinach, and chickpeas were filled with much-needed iron for me…to see if I would pass the test.  I will you about that tomorrow!

A Day Of DELICIOUSNESS

Back to my eats!  Yesterday was seriously delicious! 

Breakfast was in a hurry and very simple (and delicious in its own way)……

Yes…I ran off to school fueled by simply an unpictured espresso to watch my daughter perform in several skits and monologues!

So filling….in a parental sort of way!

By the time I got home I was STARVING though!  and craving salad in a BIG way.  Lately I find I have been constantly craving huge, fresh, crunchy salads!

While I didn’t end up with huge I ended up with delicious.  

FabTeen had made some organic Annies organic Mac & Cheese so I had some of that as well.  

Kids complained it didn’t taste like Kraft Dinner…but that is a good thing!  It is a little blander, but doesn’t have all of those ORANGE chemicals, does it!

On the side I added a perfect avocado.  I forced myself to give FabTeen half of this creamy green perfection!

Over the top of the salad and  Mac and Cheese I sprinkled heavily some nutritional yeast.  I started eating it because I had to…but I am finding I  love the stuff!

Finally…I once again begrudgingly shared this perfect, juicy, sweet, and stunning peach (the last one from the box on Monday!) with FabTeen.  The things you do for your kids!

Dinner started out almost a disaster, but turned out far beyond my expectations!

I wanted to use up some things I had on hand from the box….and  thought I would make some couscous with veggies with a sort of Moroccan type flare.  I LOVE Moroccan/Indian/Middle Eastern seasonings. 

I pulled out a box of couscous and these veggies….

Carrots, half a cauliflower, tomato, onion, garlic, ginger, and broccolini.

I was going to cook the couscous and add in the veggies.

Couscous  turned out to be moth infested!!  YIKES!  What now!!!

I debated brown rice…but was worried the veggies would turn out mushy.  So then I switched to white rice…then finally quinoa.  Despite all the indecision, somehow I ended up pulling together something that turned out FANTASTIC!

While not the original plan,  I decided to cook the quinoa separately than the veggies, and add it to the cooked veggies. 

While the quinoa cooked I went to work on the veggies.  I  rough cut several  cloves of garlic and diced up a bunch (quarter cup maybe?) of fresh ginger (yum) and a whole onion.  

One of my major philosophies is that you can never have too much garlic or too much ginger!

Although first I pulled  out the olive oil…last minute decision led to using coconut oil instead to saute these in the cast iron skillet.  Another last minute  decision  was to toss in a handful of sliced almonds so they would be toasted too.   (originally I was going to add them at the end!)

You can’t imagine  the gorgeous aroma that came out of this pan..coconut, ginger, onion, garlic…aaaaahhhhh…DIVINE!

Once these caramelized a little I began adding the other ingredients. 

First the carrots as they take the longest to cook.

Then the cauliflower, chopped into nice little bite-sized pieces.

Then a  handful or three of raisins.

Then a drained  can of chickpeas (trying to make this appealing to FabHubs…he hates cauliflower and quinoa but somehow beans in some form seem to pacify him!)            I generously poured turmeric, cinnamon, and cumin on top and  stirred to make sure everything was coated. 

By now the pan was so full, so I decided not to add the broccolini or the tomato.

I also decided to serve the quinoa on the side rather than mix it in.

OMG this turned out UNBELIEVABLE!

Even my quinoa, stir-fry, cauliflower-despising husband begrudgingly acknowledged, said, “this is actually pretty good.”

HA!  I will win him over yet!

Crisis Averted

As usual, planning when eating out saves the day!

Last weekend we had a special Boy Scout event.  In our area, it is an annual rite of passage ceremony called Webelos Woods and is where the Cub Scouts leave the Cub Scout pack, cross a over a bridge, and are received by their new Boy Scout troop on the other end.  It is a weekend campout filled with fun activities, culminating in this ceremony.

For many years our troop has done active service for this event and usually FabHubs, a pioneering guru, builds the bridge that the boys cross over.  This year was a little extra special.  While FabHubs was building the bridge, FabTeen built the campfire…a four-foot tall structure (design courtesy of FabHubs) that was lit in the ceremony and burned in a spectacular towering inferno.   I am proud of him…he has learned well from FabHubs!

    

The bridge is built with no nails…all wood held together by rope…and goes up in about 8 hours…and down in less than one after the ceremony!

But back to the crisis…since FabHubs does the bridge, we recruit our troop to help him…and while the troop is out there we always have one of the troop cooks out there preparing lunch and dinner for us.

But this year I am vegetarian.

So I called Troop Cook in advance and asked about the menu.  I know this is something I always have to do now.  In the past Troop Cook, who proudly declares “I don’t eat anything green”  has always been extremely accommodating finding something for me to eat.

This time he seemed a little annoyed.

Lunch, he said, would be roast beef sandwiches, chips, and cookies.  But don’t worry, he told me, it will be very high quality roast beef.

Hmmmmm……

I told him thanks, but I didn’t eat any meat.  But since I had an event with FabPreteen in the morning anyway, I just figured I would come after lunch.  Problem solved.

Now on to dinner.  Dinner would be chili and cornbread.  Now in the past when he has made chili for us it has also had a side of rice.  So in my mind I thought, okay, chili, cornbread, and rice. 

I knew the chili would be with meat…so I asked if he would be able to put aside some off the chili mixture for me before he added the meat and I would bring some Boca Crumbles to put in my batch.  I would even bring my own small Dutch Oven to make it in.  No, that wouldn’t be possible, but he could make it with chicken instead for me (and everybody else). 

No…that wouldn’t work, I don’t eat chicken either.  At this point he was really sounding annoyed, to the point where he told me he was about to lose service on his phone and would call me back in a few minutes, which he never did.

So as usual, I took matters into my own hands and decided  to throw together my own batch of chili, which I cooked the night before and brought with me to reheat at the event.  I figured I could have it with cornbread and rice that would be there.

Plus, I knew besides being meatless, I would bulk mine up with extra veggies…including “green things!”  So I quickly went to work and gathered my ingredients..

Tomato sauce, black beans, Boca crumbles, frozen mixed veggies, spices:

First I browned some garlic, baby bella mushrooms, and garlic in a little EVOO:

Then  I added everything else and let it cook!

     Easy chili!  Ready in 20 minutes!!

I put it in a baggie and stuck it in the fridge, and the next day I packed it in the cooler, along with some cheddar cheese and sour cream to top it off.

Good thing I did too…because when I got to the campout I brought my chili over to Troop Cook and asked about heating it up.  Nope…no extra equipment..I was on my own.

Okay..how about the rice and cornbread..well, no rice, but the cornbread would be cooked as a top layer right on their chili.  So was there a little extra cornbread mix we could put aside and use for my chili?  Sorry!

I was so glad I had brought some toppings and fruit for me!

And I was so happy that FabTeen opted to eat my healthy chili instead of the other too.  (Wish I could say the same for FabStepSon and my Fabulous Husband!)

Vegetarian and Green Just Go Together!

Happy St. Patty’s Day Bloggies! 

How many of you are celebrating are really Irish?

I am not but I still had fun with the day.   Once I got over some frustration of what to make for dinner!

But first let’s talk about lunch!

Since I work from home, lunch is pretty readily available to me and I usually end up with a nice salad, a sandwich and veggies, or some combo of leftovers.

Somehow along this health quest I have learned that almost anything  can be thrown together, put over a salad, and topped with goat cheese to make an excellent meal!

My family still isn’t quite getting how heated rice with green onions and feta, or roasted veggies and feta over salad goes together…but these are two of my favorite combos.

Today I rummaged through the leftovers and found:

• A tiny amount (quarter-cup?) of veggie fried rice.
• A leftover sauteed garlic/cauliflower/kale combo.
• Goat  cheese.

We had salad as well (we always have salad!) but I changed my mind once I started putting it together.

I put the veggies on top of the rice, and sprinkled goat cheese on top, heated it up, and came up with this masterpiece:

Looks  kind of gross but tasted fantastic and was really filling.  Plus the GREEN KALE fit the day perfectly!

After I was almost but not quite satisfied and had a sweet craving!  I remembered my friend had given me a blueberry living food bar to try.  She had shown me three flavors and I had chosen blueberry.

This bar is from a place called Hallelujah Acres which promotes a vegan, mostly raw lifestyle. 

This bar was one of the best bars I have ever tasted!  (These and Glo bars of course!!)  I was in LOVE!  I definitely have to get some more of these!  I love Larabars but these put them to shame!!!

These filled me up perfectly and kept me satisfied through dinner!

Now on to dinner…..

In past years I have always made GREEN dinners for fun!   We have gone usually the traditional route…corned beef (I LOOOOOVVVEE corned beef!), green mashed potatoes, and a green veggie such as broccoli.  I would also color our drinks green!  Yes me…who normally runs away as fast as she can from artificially colored stuff.

It is actually the only time I have ever used food coloring…other than in science experiments!

Anyway…after almost six months of not eating meat, corned beef was not an option…but I knew I wanted to find something green and satisfying for my family for dinner (somehow green and satisfying don’t fit in the same sentence together).

I knew I had a few green things from our produce box on Monday and planned on using the asparagus, rapini, and collard greens.  I was going to make  a dish with the rapini and white beans!  Green enough?

But somewhere along the way I ended up changing my mind and making spinach/white bean burgers…green and white…which came out fantastic!

For hurry up sake I used canned navy beans.  I opened two cans, rinsed them well, and put them in a big bowl and then the fun started.

I added one cup oatmeal, two eggs for binding, a bunch of cumin (I poured and didn’t measure), Adobo seasoning, chopped onion, lots of garlic, and for green value I steamed some organic baby spinach, squeezed it dry, chopped it up, and threw it into the mix.

Almost forgot…I also grated a bunch of parmesan cheese and put that in there too!

Then we mashed and mixed…leaving lots  of chunks in it.

Then I stuck it in the fridge to chill for a few minutes while I prepped the rest of the green dinner.

First the asparagus…That was tossed with a little EVOO, syrupy balsamic,  and Adobo…and into the oven in a single layer at 450 degrees.

Next came  the rapini!

Rapini (or broccoli rabe) looks kind of like greens with little broccolis on them…but is actually related to turnip greens!  It is very healthy, easy to prepare, and delicious.  I treated it like I do all of my greens…to quick dip in heated EVOO along with rough cut garlic and onions…and then when brilliant green I top with some grated parmesan.

Once the two veggies were underway…it was time to get the burgers going!

They look just like my black bean burgers….only green and white!  The taste was different too, but just as good!  I think I might even like these a tad more!

I did end up pan frying them which didn’t thrill me…but it was so fast whereas baking them would have taken longer..but next time I do want to bake these.  I was a little irritated with myself for using olive oil in a third recipe!

FabPreteen was being difficult with the greens…so I made a small burger for her, see it in the middle  of the other four above?  I don’t force her to eat full meals of what we eat…but she does have to try everything.

She has come a very long way with her pickiness and I am thrilled at some of the things she eats willingly now whereas before it was a major argument and turned the meal totally unpleasant!

I also put out a green salad because she had to eat a good helping of veggies and she loves salad!  They added red bell peppers and tomatoes on their own!

I made her Ramen noodles (another thing that drives me crazy that I hope I can wean her off of in the future) and she  went ahead and added green to it so her meal would fit right in!  Yes…along with her green drink.

Yes…here is my guilty green beer!

Final meal…which was really great……and green!

And for dessert, this delicious organic sweet pineapple.…well it is green on the outside!                

I really thought  I was going to blow it this year and other than a green veggie didn’t think we would have our green fun!

Overall it worked out very well…and other than the green beer, was all vegetarian, natural, organic and not processed!

How was your St. Patrick’s Day?

Black Bean Burgers

 More pictures showing how to make black bean burgers

• 1 14 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 TBS herbs of your choice (this time I used oregano and cumin)
• 2 cloves minced garlic (I used more because I like lots!)
• 1 egg
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mash beans in a bowl leaving some chunky.  Add egg.  In a blender or food processor combine the onion, garlic, oats, and seasonings.  Add liquid if you need to, to make the mixture moist.  I used water, but you can use ketchup, wine, milk, or vegetable stock if you like. 

Add the mixture to the beans and mix well.  If mixture is too wet you can add breadcrumbs (I used Panko) to thicken it up some.

You can make this mixture in advance and leave in refrigerator a few hours or overnight.  It will thicken up nicely and make burgers that are easy to form and stick together well.  The mixture will also freeze well, in already formed burgers or in a bag.

To cook, just form into your preferred shape and pan-fry on medium heat in a little olive oil.  

You can substitute a flax egg, or other liquid to make this recipe vegan.  You can also freeze the burgers cooked if you like.

Try different herb combos such as cilantro and salsa; parsley and parmesan cheese; soy and scallions.  Be creative and experiment!