Honey Baked Lentils and Rice

I know this doesn't look like much but oh. my. goodness. this is SO good. I've tried many lentil and rice recipes and this one is hands down our favorite. My husband and kids don't even like lentils and won't eat them any other way but they love this. I adapted the recipe from Becca's recipe called Honey Baked Lentils. I wanted to make ours a little more substantial since we eat it as a main dish so I added rice and changed up the measurements a bit. It works great as a healthy side dish as well. I prefer it cooked on low for half the day in the crock-pot. You can bake it in the oven but it just didn't come out cooked as even because of the rice added.

Here's my take on it:

1 c lentils
1 c brown rice
4 1/2 c water
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp dried minced onion (fresh onion floats to the top)
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 1 minced clove of garlic)
1 tsp salt (or more if needed)
pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients in the crock-pot and cook on low from about noon till dinner. This stuff is addicting. The flavor is SO good!

If baking in the oven: 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

Fried Rice

This is so easy to make and pretty darn healthy. I use brown rice which makes it even better for you. I can see why this is a staple in so many other countries. It's also a great way to use up leftovers.

4 cups leftover refrigerated rice
1 diced onion
oil (olive oil or coconut oil)
2 eggs
2-4 tbsp soy sauce to taste
1 tsp paprika
salt
pepper
garlic (1 minced clove or a dash of powder)
leftover veggies (peas, corn, chopped spinach, bell peppers, green beans, mushrooms, etc.)

Saute the cold rice, onion, and veggies in oil. Add soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic. Push rice mixture to the side and crack eggs into the skillet, blending them as they cook. Serve.

Notes-
In the pictures I used spinach and green beans. This was not a big hit with the kids. They liked it better the next time I made it with carrots and corn. Use whatever sounds good to you. My husband and I really like this new dish.

Chow Mein

I wanted to attempt to make a Panda Express Chow Mein Noodles copycat and although I didn't have all the right ingredients on hand, this turned out so good. My husband was loving it and begged for all the leftovers. My kids loved it and I loved it. Yum. Here's what I came up with.
(Oh, and the pictures are from a few different times that I've made it until I had perfected it.)


1 package soba noodles (these are found in the Asian cooking isle)
1 can mung bean sprouts or 1 1/2 cups fresh mung sprouts
1 cup fresh snow peas
2 cups chopped cabbage (either Napa Cabbage or Bok Choy)
1/2 a diced onion
2 minced garlic cloves

(optional to add sliced mushrooms, diced bell pepper, etc.)

salt, pepper to taste
2-3 tbsp soy sauce (we prefer 2 tbsp)
olive oil

Directions: Saute all the veggies and beans in the oil. Cook the soba noodles in a pot of boiling water according to package directions. Once noodles are done cooking, drain and add to the sauteing veggies. Add seasonings and soy sauce. (Don't add too much salt because the soy sauce will be salty.) Pour more olive oil over the sauteing noodles and veggies. Saute the noodles with the veggies for a few minutes and serve.

Notes:
Not very healthy when it comes to the noodles since I'm yet to find whole grain soba noodles. But with the olive oil, organic high quality soy sauce, and all the veggies, this is pretty good for you! Of course, I haven't been able to find all of these ingredients organic so this is one of those "not eating the way we should be meals" that happens from time to time. You could easily substitute coconut oil for the olive oil which I plan to do next time, making this an even healthier dish. This is going to be one of our new vegetarian meals because it was such a big hit.

I've been making fried rice too and I'll share that recipe soon.


Anyone know where to get whole grain soba noodles or a healthier alternative? I'd love to know!

Homemade Potato Salad

I made this up and it's soooooooooooooooo good. I think someone was asking for a recipe earlier this summer so I apologize for it being past the summer season but it's also a great dish for football season! =0) I wanted to create a potato salad that tasted like my Great-Aunt June's like I remember as a small child and watching her make it in the kitchen of her enormous house with an elevator. I think I successfully mastered it!

8 peeled and cubed yukon gold potatoes
8 hard boiled eggs
1/2 a diced onion
3 diced celery stalks
2 diced whole kosher dill pickles
2 cans sliced olives
1 cup mayo plus more till moist
heavy squirt of mustard (about 3 tbsp)
a douse of the pickle juice (secret ingredient!)
salt and pepper to taste (about 2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper)

Boil the potatoes just till tender. Yukons are the easiest to digest but they also are a very buttery potato (making them a great choice for potato salad) so they can fall apart easily if cooked too long. Drain and run cold water over them till cooled completely. Refridgerate till chilled through. Peel and chop hard boiled eggs (be sure they are chilled ahead of time as well). Mix all the ingredients together.

Macaroni Salad

13 oz macaroni pasta (whole wheat or brown rice pasta)

4-5 diced large Clauson kosher dill pickles

3 2 oz cans sliced black olives

1 to 1 1/2 cups mayo

my kiddos love this....as do I.

Sweet Potato Fries

My kids and husband WILL eat sweet potatoes this way and no other way....I love them like this too.

Peel and slice sweet potatoes. Steam till crisp tender. Toss with olive oil, garlic, and salt. Put under broiler till browned. Serve with fry sauce.

Fry Sauce:
mayo and ketchup mixed together.

Garlic Adzuki Beans

My mom introduced me to this new bean. They are so good even though I know they don't look like much in the pot. They are a reddish bean with a white stripe on them but when you cook them they turn this dark purple. They are really good for you and if you want to read a snippet more about them you can here.

I like to soak them overnight and then cook 1 cup in about 3 cups of water for about 45 min. to 1 hour. Then I mix in some butter and sprinkle with salt and garlic powder (but you could use one whole minced garlic clove or more if you like garlic!). They are so good with garlic.

This Japanese and Chinese bean may be hard to find in a regular grocery store. Look in Asian markets, health food stores, or mail order.

Hubbard Squash

I'd never cooked or eaten a hubbard squash before so this is a first.

Cut the thing in half..which is not easy to do.

Scrape out the insides and steam like you would any other squash or put in your crock for 6 hours on low. This turned out yummy just like other squash. =0)



Serve with brown sugar and butter.

Beets

Beets are good. Red beets stain. But beets are good. =0)

High in iron, beets are worth cooking. Wash them, cut off the ends, and then steam them with the skins on till fork tender. Once cool enough to handle, skins peel off with ease..in fact, they practically fall off. Serve them hot with butter and salt or let them cool and slice them for salads.

Instead of steaming them, cook them in your crock-pot on low for 4-6 hours or until fork tender.

(the beets pictured are red beets and white beets fresh from my dad's garden)

Butternut Squash

Tis the season for squash! I know some of you are cringing as were my husband and kids when I told them I was cooking squash. But after preparing this smooth and mild butternut squash drenched drizzled in a butter maple syrup glaze that I made, they were all pleasantly surprised and ate it.

How do you cook it?
Well, there are a couple of ways you can cook it......
1. Roast it in the oven: Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, place it face down on a cookie sheet and bake @ 350 degrees until fork tender.
2. Steam it: Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, steam it on the stove in a pot with water and a steaming basket till fork tender.
3. My new way: Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, place it face up in crock-pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours or until fork tender.

When it's done top with butter and brown sugar....or a mixture of 2 tbsp of butter melted with about 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup and a tbsp or so of brown or white sugar.

This also makes great pureed baby food and you can also sneak it into things like mac and cheese!

Chile Relleno - Guest Chef

Here's another recipe from my sister in Mexico! Yummy.

6 fresh poblano or Anaheim chiles

2 potatoes (total of 14 oz.)

Scant 1 cup cream cheese

1 ¾ cup grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese (I used a white cheese since we don’t have cheddar and it was yummy so you might want to go with a white-jack would work…the cheddar seems like it might be pretty strong.)

½ tsp salt

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

½ tsp pepper

2 eggs separated

1 cup flour

Oil for frying

1. Roast chiles in frying pan until totally black all over. Try to pick flat chiles at the store as they are easier to roast evenly.
2. Put chiles in a plastic bag for about 20 minutes or until skin peels off easily. If they are not thoroughly roasted they will be really hard to peel.
3. Peel chiles, cut one opening down the side and carefully remove seeds. Try to keep them as intact as possible.
4. Dice small and cook potatoes until tender.
5. Mix potatoes, cream cheese, grated cheese, ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper.
6. Fill each chile with filling and cool in fridge until filling becomes firm. They don’t have to be COLD COLD just firm. (This will help keep them from falling apart or opening during frying too.)
7. Whisk egg white to firm peaks. Beat yolks separately then fold in with whites.
8. Put flour in shallow dish and mix in the other ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper.
9. Heat oil for frying (375 degrees).
10. Coat chiles in flour then egg and place in hot oil. CAREFUL!
11. Fry all chiles in batches and enjoy!

BBQ Shrimp

These de-veined and shelled frozen shrimp are great on the BBQ. I seasoned them with lemon pepper and garlic. We dipped them in melted butter. Oh ya! What a special treat this was.

Cook till pink and solid white through and through.

Crock-pot Mashed Potatoes

I've decided to do my mashed potatoes in the crock pot too now. I put a roast in one crock-pot and then the potatoes in my other crock-pot. Yes, I have two...actually I have 3. A large one, a small one, and one for dips. I'm trying to do as much as possible in these little counter top ovens to simplify my busy life.

I have found recently that NOT everything was meant to go in the crock-pot. =0)

Put your washed (and peeled if desired) potatoes in the crock-pot in the morning and cook on low all day till dinner. Then mash and add ingredients for mashed potatoes. My family LOVES mashed potatoes so this makes it super easy because I used to dread the time it took to make them the old way. Now we can enjoy them much more often.

-the picture is of the potatoes done. Notice they didn't turn brown on the exposed part.
-no, I do not put any water in there...just the potatoes.

NOTE: I just had someone try this and the potatoes were not done by dinner....we figured out that red potatoes take longer to cook...as do yukons. So, if you are doing a lot of potatoes and you are using red or gold potatoes, you may want to try cooking them on high the whole day. Sorry for any mishaps this may have caused. Mine turned out well so I dind't realize that some potatoes take longer to cook.
Hope that helps.

Fried Zucchini

Just trying to use up all the garden produce still.....I love fried zucchini. Yum. So I figured I could give it a whirl. It went something like this:

1 c bread crumbs (plain or Italian style- if using plain then add 1 tsp Italian seasoning)
1 tsp garlic (mixed into the bread crumbs)
vegetable oil
eggs beaten

I washed and cut the zucchini into spears. Dipped the zucchini into the egg then into the bread crumb mixture. Into the skillet with the veggie oil they went until they were crisp-tender (I believe is the trendy term). These are piping hot so let them cool before dipping them in, yes, you guessed it, ranch dressing. My friends who know me well know that just about everything in our gets dipped in ranch dressing.

The breading didn't stick so well so maybe doing the traditional breading style would work...the one where you put it in flour, then egg, then the bread crumbs.

note- other than the zucchini these probably aren't very healthy so if you're dieting, you probably don't want to make these!

BBQed Corn on the Cob

My daughter loves corn on the cob. It's one of her favorite foods. On nights when we BBQ it's easiest to just BBQ the corn right along side the meat.

First pull back the husk gently just enough to remove the stringy fibers. Fold the husk back around the cob and soak it in water for about an hour or so. Then drain the water and BBQ the cob for about 15 min. or so. Pull the husk back to be used as a handle, roll in a stick of butter, salt and it's ready to eat.

Baked Potato in the Crock-pot

So a long the same lines, I decided to do my baked potatoes in the crock too....with homeschooling and my busy schedule, it's easier to have things slow cook in the crock-pot all day instead of rushing home and heating up the oven and

trying to hurry dinner along while everyone is "starving"!

Wash your potatoes, wrap in foil and place in your crock-pot in the morning and turn on low. Now all you have to do is set up Baked Potato Bar....shredded cheese, sliced green onions, chopped chives, sour cream, ranch and quickly steam some broccoli and you're good to go.......ya know, you could probably wrap some broccoli in some foil and stick in there too and it would have all been done!

Corn on the Cob Crock-Pot Style

I've been trying to do more and more things in my crock-pot. I got this idea from another blog (thanks Shannon for sharing that link in the Coconut Rice comments) and so I thought I'd give it a try. Worked wonderfully. Just prepare your corn on the cob (break in two pieces if it won't fit in your crock whole -I had to go back and do that, duh!) and then wrap in foil with all the seams facing up so that the juice of your meat doesn't run inside of it. You can do the same with other things as well.

Place them in your crock on low in the morning on top of your meat or whatever you have cooking.

Coconut Rice

1 c Basmati Rice

1 can coconut milk
1/3 c shredded sweetened coconut

I made this in the crock pot the other night.

You can make it in your crock-pot or in a regular pot on the stove (on the stove, bring milk and shredded coconut to a light boil, add rice and simmer on low for 20 min.) For the crock-pot I cooked it on low for about 5 hours.

And, no, it didn't turn out yellow..it's just the poor lighting in my kitchen in the evenings.

Mashed Red Potatoes

These mashed red potatoes done in a traditional mashed potato style are so good and leaving the skin on makes them fast and packed with more good for you-ness!

Wash potatoes, slice in half and boil till very tender. Drain water and mash with a potato masher. Add 1/2 stick of butter, 1 c sour cream and a splash of milk and 1 tsp salt or more to taste. Be careful not to mash too much, you want them to be a little chunky for that rustic presentation (do I sound like a real TV chef? LOL. I used the word "rustic" to describe food...now I'm really trendy!).

Grilled Squash

Slice the squash in long diagonal slices that are just under an inch thick. Marinade in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and a dash of salt. Grill till just tender.