Lentils In a Creamy Spicy Tomato Sauce

I am a lean (kind of) mean (not on purpose of course) meal freezing machine!


Little man had a stomach bug that totally caught me off guard. All he wanted was to be held and cuddled 24-7, and while I in no way mind doing so it made me aware of the fact that we are getting low on freezer meals. Anyhoo, you may see a little less of me in the next few weeks as I build up my reserves. In the mean time, we are also still working on squirrelling away money to put into savings. And what is cheaper than lentils?? Right? Well I served this dish over rice, and you could use any type of beans you like in place of lentils.

This meal is the perfect example of why I like to have lots of spices on hand. This is really a quite ordinary dish...garlic, tomato sauce, beans, not very exciting at all. By using some spices that I always have readily available, garam masala, cumin, paprika, it turns into a scrumptious dish that the whole family enjoys.

What you need:

2 tbs butter (or olive oil)
3 tsp garam masala
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp dried ginger
1 tsp chili powder
dash or two of cayenne
5 cloves of pressed garlic
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
1 can coconut milk
Salt to taste
2-4 cups of cooked beans (I used lentils, kidney beans might work well in this too)
If you want to go with canned beans, be sure to drain and rinse them well.I used a lot of beans, I was going for a high protein high fiber meal. Add the beans to your liking and tastes.


Melt the butter (or heat the oil) over medium heat and add the spices (garam masala, paprika, cumin, ginger, chili powder, and cayenne). Cook about a minute and a half until fragrant.

Add the garlic and cook one minute more.

Add the tomato paste and stir. Lower the heat if necessary, tomato products are quick to burn (if memory serves me this is because of their high sugar content, anyone know for sure?)

Slowly stir in the tomato sauce and the coconut milk.

Add salt to taste and heat through.

Add the beans and cook until heated through once more.

Adjust to suit tastes (more cayenne, salt etc) and serve over rice. Garnish with cilantro.

Although this lovely dish looks kind of like dog food it was quite tasty, and we all enjoyed it very much. I hope you do as well.

Garlic Ginger Grilled Zucchini Roll-ups

I would recommend this to a zucchini hater. I myself used to be a zucchini hater, but this recipe helped me change my mind. What I hated was the taste of raw zucchini, something about it totally grossed me out as a kid. Now that I have learned how zucchini caramelizes on the grill, and how well it works in veggie pancakes, I've been won over. If you are super zucchiniaphobic, you might want to start out by trying them in veggie pancakes and working your way up to these.

I made two types, one with feta for us adults, and one with cheddar for the kids. I'm not going to recommend the cheddar ones, the kids were ok with them.....but they don't know how wonderful feta is. However, because I didn't think to take pictures of the process until I had already rolled all of the feta ones, you will get pictures of the less tasty cheddar version. You can also add diced roma tomatoes, and chopped fresh herbs to the filling with very tasty results.

You will need one recipe garlic ginger butter , zucchini, and feta cheese. It's that simple!

Melt the garlic ginger butter.

Wash off the zucchini and chop off both ends. Slice it thinly lengthwise and brush it with the garlic ginger butter. Throw it on the grill until it has these little liney thingies, and is pliable...see picture below....
Line those babies up and sprinkle feta, diced tomatoes and whatnot over the top half of the zucchini.
Roll them up and serve immediately! Here's what the kids version looked like....
I served these along side manicotti. I found 1/2 of a box of manicotti noodles in my cupboard, and though I didn't have all the ingredients I normally use I improvised.....and it was a hit. My daughter raved that she loved "circle shaped spaghetti".....do you want to know what I did? I replaced the mozzarella with cheddar...not a huge leap, and I replaced the ricotta with.....beans....white beans.....and it was delicious. My husband said he liked it better than regular manicotti. All you do is drain and rinse one can of white beans, and throw it in the food processor. I added one clove of pressed garlic and seasoned it as I would ricotta (salt, pepper, oregano, and a dash of nutmeg). It was a little thinner than normal manicotti filling, but it was pretty tasty. I didn't get any good pictures (again I wasn't thinking) but I got a picture...which is about all you really expect from me by now isn't it? That's the game, set the bar low.;)

I made this dish out of mostly pantry and staples so I'm labeling it a pantry meal......because I can, because it's my blog. :)

Curried Pumpkin Soup

This recipe is so simple and tasty. It only has four ingredients........well, plus the two pantry staples (oil and salt)...so really six. But you know, who's here for math? You want a recipe right?

The other great thing about this soup is that it's a hit with every single member of our family. The kids each ate two bowls garnished with spicy fried chickpeas (recipe will be posted soon).

You don't have to use pumpkin, any butternut squash would also work nicely I think. But we covered this, I'm in love with pumpkin....as in love with a squash as someone can be within the boundaries of sanity of course.


oil to coat pot
1-3 tbs Indian curry paste (like Patak's)
1 can of pumpkin
1 can of coconut milk
2 cups of broth
Salt to taste

Coat the bottom of a large pot with oil and heat over medium heat.

Add the curry paste and cook until fragrant. I used 2tbs of mild curry paste. I could have done with another tbs, but I ran out. If you have a hotter variety of curry paste than it might be wise to use less. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know how universal flavor/heat is when it comes to curry paste......so use your own taste buds as a guide, you can always add some cayenne to spice things up if there isn't enough flavor in the end product.

Add the pumpkin and stir well. Slowly stir in the coconut milk, and the stock. Heat until warmed throughout.

That's it, simple, delicious, warm. Enjoy!

Super Easy Pasta Salad (egg free, soy free)

I have posted this recipe (or at least a very similar one) before, but I wanted to post it again because...
1.) It's summer, and this dish is perfect for hot days.

2.) Last time I posted this I had no picture of it, and now I do!! What's that??....You don't see a picture...well that's because it's still on my camera. But I do have one, and I will share it with you as soon as I figure it out.

3.) We are still working on clearing out the fridge and this is a great clear out the fridge meal because there are so many things you can add to it...olives, peppers, feta cheese, grated carrots, and broccoli all work very well in this.

What you need:

1 cup of cooked noodles (check ingredients for egg and soy if you are accommodating to allergies)
2 cans of beans drained and rinsed
1 bottle of this red pepper vinaigrette
3 cloves of garlic peeled and put through a press
Anything else you care to throw in there...maybe a few veggies and herbs...whatever floats your boat.

Mix it all together and refrigerate. The garlic will be strong. If you are serving this to a crowd......or if you care what other people think of your breath you may want to cut it down to 1 or 2 cloves of garlic. I really really like garlic....you will know what I mean if you make this.

An acceptable use of flour tortillas

You may remember this post, where I mentioned that we don't buy flour tortillas with the exception of burrito and chimichanga use, or in the case of cooking for company. Well company is coming, and included in that are two beautiful (but picky) little girls, and one slightly less picky man. In the interest of planning ahead I decided to make and freeze some flautas so we will have a couple of quick meals to eat while they are here. Hopefully they will go over well, and I will lose my reputation as the aunt that makes the "weird food". So here is a recipe for not weird baked vegetarian flautas that you can make and freeze should you wish. If you like things spicy consider adding some salsa to the mix.

Totally Not Weird Flautas

1 block of cream cheese softened
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of green chilis
garlic salt, salt, cayenne and pepper to taste
Flour tortillas (ten pack)

Mix together the first 3 ingredients and add seasoning to taste.

Divide the filling evenly between the tortillas, placing it in the center of the tortilla.

Roll up tortilla and place flap side down on a baking dish. Bake at 375 for about fifteen minutes, or until tortilla becomes crispy at the edges.

If you wish to freeze these put them on a baking sheet and place them in the freezer to freeze individually first. Once frozen you can bag them and tag them. Errr that is put them in one labeled Ziploc freezer bag.

Chickpea Pot Pie

Sorry about the lack of pictures, I promise to get in a whole slew of them once I can figure out how to get them from my phone to my computer....Now you have to ask yourself, which is better, no pictures, or a slew of cell phone pictures. I will leave you to decide weather or not you want to check back and see about those.
This was yummy! The sauce was a little thick/non existent. Mostly because I second guessed myself and added two extra tablespoons of flour. It's pretty much just chicken pot pie, but with chickpeas, and instead of a crust I used drop biscuits. It's a pantry meal so adjust it to whatever you have on hand. Since it has vegetables, protein, and grains, there was no need to make any side dishes to go with it. And we had leftovers for lunch the next day. /happy dance

For the biscuits
1 1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup olive oil

Mix together the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet ingredients all at once. Stir to combine. Set aside.


For the filling
2 cups of chickpeas
2 cups of frozen veg (I used a mixture of peas and spinach)
2 potatoes diced
olive oil
2 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp seasoning salt divided
1/4 tsp pepper

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Once melted, whisk in the flour 1/4 tsp seasoning salt and pepper. Cook for a minute or two or until the floury taste is gone. Pour in the milk all at once, whisking as you go. Heat through. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile pan fry the potatoes in olive oil until golden brown and add salt to taste.

Pour frozen veggies, potatoes, and chickpeas into a greased casserole dish. Pour sauce over the top, and drop biscuit dough in rows over the top of the veg mixture.

Bake at 350 for 30-50 minutes or until biscuits are done, and the filling is bubbly.

Addendum
Here is the aforementioned slew....
Note the negative space, the contrasting colors....


The shadow of my elbow...
oooooh aaaaahhh

Saffron Rice with Lentils and Garlic Butter

The good news is I found my camera...the bad news is that it wasn't before I took this picture.
This was yummy. I'd like to say we all enjoyed heaping bowls of this round the dinner table, but that would be a lie. The truth is that my darling son woke up early from nap time, and he woke up hungry. And consequently he ate 3 adult size bowls of this, the result being that there was little left for the rest of us to eat. So I will definitely be using this as a side dish next time. Maybe along side some grilled veggies. If you don't have saffron, I'm not going to say you should go out and buy some just for this recipe, as it is very expensive. However, should you happen to have a bit left over from another recipe, or if you just love saffron rice as much as I do I think this is a good place to use it. I made this in my rice cooker......what's that, you don't have a rice cooker? Well go get one, no seriously, they are awesome.

What you need for the rice
1 1/2 rice cooker cups of rice
1 1/2 rice cooker cups of lentils rinsed and sorted
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 pinches of saffron
1 tbs butter
3 cloves of garlic peeled and finely chopped
Broth

What you need for the garlic butter
1/4 cup softened unsalted butter
Pressed garlic (I used 4 cloves) and salt (I used about 1/4 tsp) to taste.

Add the rice, lentils,salt, pepper, chopped garlic, butter, and saffron to your rice cooker. Add broth to the fill line required by your rice cooker for 3 rice cooker cups of rice. Cook. :)

Mix together the remaining garlic, butter, and salt to taste. Top your saffron rice with this mixture as desired. I think this would have been outstanding with a few tablespoons of freshly chopped herbs. Maybe next time.

To veganize simply replace butter with vegan "butter".

Pizza with White Sauce and Roasted Veggies

This was not bad for a pantry meal, quite tasty if I do say so myself....although I don't know if it is really a pantry meal since I keep the yeast and flour in my fridge.....the veggies were in the freezer...and the cream cheese was obviously in the dairy drawer. But "pantry meal" has a much nicer ring to it than "what you make for dinner when you are trying to save money for a big trip to California and all you have left are staples meal"....point proven I think. If you really want to get picky the veggies weren't roasted at all, they were sauteed. The bag said roasted though, and who am I to argue with a bag....there is no reasoning at all with bags you know, they are highly illogical.
The crust was a recipe from King Arthur Flour. I replaced one cup of unbleached flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour, and I sprinkled the pan with cornmeal because I love the texture of it. Other than that I think I stuck to the recipe pretty well. It came out great.





The veggies came in a bag....from my freezer....I'm not ashamed. I think they paired very nicely with the garlicky white "sauce", really it was more like a spread.

White "sauce"

1 package cream cheese softened
2 onions caramelized with one tsp salt
2 cloves pressed garlic
salt and pepper to taste
2tbs (or more) milk
Stir together the cream cheese caramelized onions, garlic, and salt and pepper. Add in milk one tbs at a time until desired consistency. For me it was really more of a spread. It covered half of the pizza this way, leaving the other half free to be cheese pizza in case the kiddos found anything objectionable about a pizza without orange cheese.

I baked the crust until done spread on the white sauce, added the cooked veggies, and served it. The sauce was strong, I really like caramelized onions though so that's OK. The hubster gave it a big two thumbs up as well.

Black Bean Loaf with Quick Chipotle Red Pepper "Gravy"

Hubster: So what's for dinner?

*silence*

Hubster:That bad eh?

Me: Well I don't know that yet....it's a bean loaf (see how that "loaf" word sounds so horrible in a recipe title).

Hubster: /groan

We are still running on pantry meals...can you tell?? And despite my husbands not so subtle objections, he had seconds, and DS had thirds. I thought it was quite good myself, perfect for a chilly day like today. It didn't hold together as well as some of the other loafs I make, probably could have used an egg in it....perhaps next time. It would probably hold together better with oats, instead of rice too.

Black Bean Loaf

1 block cream cheese (softened)
1/3 cup salsa
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
Tabasco to taste
3 cups black beans
1 cup rice
1/2 cup shredded cheese (mozzerella, cheddar, pepper jack, whatever you have handy)

Stir together the first 5 ingredients until smooth, add in beans, rice, and cheese until evenly mixed. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for....a while...dang I really wasn't paying attention...I want to say like a half hour to forty five minutes...man why am I doing this blog thing again.


chipotle Red Pepper "Gravy"*

3tbs unsalted butter
3tbs flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 chipotle pepper in adobo chopped
1 cup Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Melt the butter over medium heat and whisk in the chipotle, flour, and salt. Continue to stir for about a minute to two minutes to get that floury taste out (we're making a roux here). Lower the heat to medium low and pour in the heavy whipping cream, and soup. Keep stirring intermittently, this should get thick and and ever so slightly bubbly....but never boiling. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Vegan Version:
For the loaf, replace the cream cheese with a box of silken tofu. Puree the tofu, garlic, Tabasco and spices, and add an extra 1/8 tsp salt. Continue with above directions (omitting the shredded cheese of course).
For the sauce, simply replace the butter with vegan butter or olive oil, and replace the cream with coconut cream.

* I don't know exactly what qualifies as a gravy, nor if this fits the criteria...however I feel that the quotation marks make that......
A.) clear
and
B.) ok