Crazy Day, Comforting Dinner

Monday was crazy. You know how it is, heading back to work after a long break. I was so happy I had made the extra roast chicken on Friday, because we used it last night.

I started out with Lentil Soup. What a hearty, comforting way to begin a meal.

1 onion diced finely,
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tbs. olive oil
2 carrots cut into small dice
3/4 tsp of smoky paprika or cayenne pepper (if you like heat)
1/2 tsp of cumin
2 bay leaves
8 ounces of fresh spinach
1 large can of chicken broth
8 - 16 ounces of water
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 lb bag of brown lentils.

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil for about five minutes and then add the carrot, the paprika, cumin, bay leaves broth, water, lentils, and boullion cube. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer and let cook for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Three or four minutes before you take the soup off the heat add the spinach. Let it cook down and you are ready to serve.

We ate this with mulit-grain bread that I made last week.

For the rest of the meal, I cooked up some asparagus, took some of the left over orzo that hadn't been sauteed with the veggies from Friday, heated it, dressed it with olive oil, red pepper flakes and a dusting of pecorino romano cheese. We ate all this with some of the leftover chicken.

Easy, and filling.

It's cold here and I don't like it!

I got up this morning and walked the dog. It was cold, I mean really cold, like in the 20's cold. It was that way yesterday too. It's not supposed to be this cold in October. I am really worrying about November, January, March. Yick! So, when I got home from tutoring last night, I decided I wanted to have something warm. I made red lentil soup.

1 onion chopped, 1 carrot chopped, 3 cloves of garlic chopped, and 1/2 tsp of chopped ginger. Saute this in olive oil. Add six cups of water, or broth and 1 can of coconut milk. 1 cup of red lentils and 1/2 cup of uncooked rice. Add 1/2 tsp of celery salt, fresh ground black pepper, 1 tbs of brown sugar and 1 bay leaf and let it simmer for 20 minutes or unitl the lentils are falling apart and the rice is cooked.

Serve it with chopped cilantro, lime, and scallions. I made flat bread, naan, to go with it.

Mix 1 tsp of yeast with 1/2 cup of warm water, add a little pinch of sugar so the yeast has some food. Let it proof for about 10 minutes and then add 1 tbs of olive oil, 3/4 tsp of salt and 1 and 1/3 cup of flour. Mix it together and let it rise for about thirty minutes. Divide it into four pieces and create flat round pieces of bread like pita bread. Heat up a skillet or grill pan, cover it with olive oil and then cook your bread. You want it to be golden with little bits of brown burned on it. This is really yummy with the soup. I could have eaten four bowls all by myself. This is a really healhty dish too. That's always good.