Lentil and brown rice casserole recipe

Since I have not been working outside of my home for the past month, I have been spending more time cooking dinners. This next recipe is a modification from a recipe in the Vegetarian cookbook pictured below.

The inspiration!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup red lentils

1 cup brown rice

6 cups vegetable broth 

3 cloves of garlic

3 small leeks

1 red bell pepper

1/2 can baby corn

about 4 oz fresh green beans 

head of broccoli florets

28 oz can of diced tomatoes

Directions:

1. Add the lentils, rice, and vegetable broth to a large pot. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes.

2. Cut the vegetables up into small to medium sized pieces.

Sliced and diced!

3. Add the cut vegetables, spices, and canned tomato to the pot and boil for abut 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

4. Garnish with some fresh basil and serve it up! It will continue to thicken over time.  Mine started out like a soup and ended up being a thick casserole.

Now I found that once it becomes really thick that it tastes nice if you shred some cheese on the top and mix it in.  But then again there isn't much that I don't like when covered in cheese!

Bulk Whole Wheat Pancake Recipe

I mentioned in my last post that I had plans to mix up some bulk pancake mix. I tend to eat only whole wheat products and most whole wheat pancakes tend to be hard and thin. I found this great recipe in the Martha Stewart magazine (see original here) a few years ago and have been making it since as my only pancake recipe. It produces nice, fluffy pancakes that are thick, soft, and delicious. The wheat germ just helps to round out the flavor perfectly.

Ingredients:
Dry
1.25 cups Whole wheat flour
0.25 cups Wheat germ
2 Tbsp Sugar
1.5 tsp Baking powder
0.5 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Salt

Wet
1.5 cups Buttermilk
0.25 cups Vegetable oil
2 Eggs, lightly beaten

Recipe:
Combine and mix dry ingredients.
Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix.
All to rest for 10 minutes.
Cook on griddle.

For the bulk batch that I made, I multiplied the dry ingredient volumes by 5 and mixed them together. I then placed the mixed dry ingredients into a storage container. When I go to make pancakes next, all I have to do is measure out 1.5 cups and 3 tbsp of the dry mix and add to it the wet ingredients as listed above. This might make it quick enough that I get back into making them every Sunday! If you are like me and never have buttermilk, you can easily substitute any type of cow's milk (skim-whole) with a bit of lemon or lime juice added. If you make this with low-fat buttermilk the calories, fat, etc should be correct in the photo below.

 

Indian Samosa Casserole

If you know me, then you know I LOVE Indian food.  If I could, I would eat it every night! So when I came across this recipe for a Samosa casserole, I just had to make it! The recipe below is based off of the one on the vegetarian times website (see it here). I have modified a few things in my recipe to suit my tastes, but you may prefer to use the original.

Indian Samosa Casserole Recipe

Crust

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole-wheat flour
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Filling

• 2 Tbs. yellow mustard seeds
• 2 tsp. curry powder
• 2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
• 5 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (1 ¼ lb.)--I used closer to 2 lbs
• 1 ½ tsp. vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, diced (~1.5 cup)
• 1 large carrot, diced (~1 cup)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 tsp. agave nectar or sugar
• 2 Tbsp milk

1. To make crust: Preheat oven to 375°F. Whisk together flours and salt in bowl. Stir in oil and then add 6 to 10 Tbsp cold water  until dough holds together. Shape into ball, cover with damp towel, and set aside.

Crust dough

2. To make filling: Stir together mustard seeds, curry, ginger, cumin, and red pepper flakes in a small bowl and set aside.

Seasonings

 3. Cook potatoes in boiling salted water for about 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain, return to pot, and mash, leaving small chunks.

Potatoes mashed

4. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, and garlic, and sauté 5 minutes, or until carrot is tender. Move onion mixture to side of pan, and add mustard seed mixture in center. Toast for about 30 seconds.

Toasting seasoning

5. Stir in frozen peas and broth. Fold onion mixture into potato mixture; stir in agave nectar or sugar and season with salt and pepper to taste.
 

Mixing the onions, carrots, and pea mixture into the mashed potatoes.

 6. Spread filling into a 9-inch pie pan and set aside.

Filling spread in pie pan

7. Roll out crust dough to 11-inch circle on a lightly floured work surface. Cover filling with dough and crimp edges with fingers. Cut X in center to vent steam and lightly brush with milk just before baking.

Filling covered with crust dough.

8. Place pie on baking sheet to catch any potential bubbling over and bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until crust is golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Cooked until the crust was golden brown

 9. I topped it with a tamarind-date sauce I bought from an Indian grocery store.  Yum!

Delicious!

Let me know if you make this and how it turned out!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Now that Thanksgiving has past and the days are getting colder, I have started think about the month of holiday parties I have ahead of me.  I like to bring a treat to the parties, so I have started making a list of deserts to make. This year Christmas will be hard for me. If I don't find a new job soon, come Jan. 1 I will be officially unemployed. While that in itself is sad and very scary to me, it is forcing me to be creative for Christmas. I plan to make a lot of my gifts and bake even more! So here is the first item on my list:

  

Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars

I found the recipe on www.annies-eats.com. Go check it out! The bars look beautiful and extremely yummy!  I can't wait to make some this weekend.  I will let you know how they turn out!