Lentil and Cauliflower Salad

I just whipped this up for lunch. Had my camera been working I still wouldn't have been able to pry it away from my girls to take a picture. Sorry. This was fast and easy to make and very satisfying. I was stunned when both of my girls devoured it. Yes, even the three year old who hates all vegetables.

1/2 cup brown lentils
1 cup raw cauliflower chopped into tiny florets
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 large clove garlic
small pinch of cumin
few drops of agave or honey (maybe 1/4 tsp)
salt and pepper to taste

Bring water to boil add salt and then add lentils. Cook until they are tender but not mushy. While those are cooking prepare the cauliflower and put into medium sized salad bowl. For the dressing: Using a blender or small food processor add garlic, vinegar salt and pepper, blend until smooth. Add cumin and olive oil. Blend until you have a creamy emulsion. Taste for salt and pepper and add a tiny bit of honey or agave. This is just to cut the tang of the vinegar, not to make it sweet. I like to use rice vinegar for salad dressings since it is a bit milder than white vinegar. When lentils are done to your liking drain and give a quick rinse. Add lentils to cauliflower and toss with desired amount of dressing. Serve immediately. I make this salad fairly often. I use this same dressing and lentils and sub veggies. I love this with finely sliced green cabbage or lots of fresh coarsely chopped parsley, celery or broccoli.

Kale Chips

I'll admit it, I don't like kale. Kale is that stuff that sometimes comes on your plate as a garnish that you quickly remove. Kale is that stuff that you see in salad bars that the salad is sitting on. It is a green, leafy veggie that is a bit tough and I think it is a bit bitter. So when I kept seeing other people blogging about kale chips I quickly clicked on by. But I kept seeing it and everyone raves about it. So, trying to be open minded I decided to give it a whirl. I made Kale "Chips". I am not going to bother to post a picture because to be honest, they are not very pretty and this has been blogged about so much by so many others, what is the point, right? I am adding it here so that I don't forget about it. Do you ever do that? Just completely forget about something that you love??? Anyway, stunningly, these are amazing. Seriously, they are fantastic. The first time I made them my mom and I ate an entire bunch to ourselves. I should point out here that she had the same kale aversion that I had. Then I served them as an appetizer to about 15 people. I made 3 bunches (or are they heads?) and it was all eaten. Now for the most unbelievable thing... all 3 of my very picky kids and my husband all like them (although my husband won't admit that he likes them, he did eat a lot of the plate)!! That is what I should have done: taken a picture of my kids devouring them. Now here is the best part; it's nutritional benefits. This is now a regular in our house. Making it is so easy that it isn't really even a "recipe" but here is what I did.



Kale Chips



1 bunch of kale (washed and dried)

olive oil

kosher salt



Preheat oven to 350. Tear kale up in bite sized pieces. Toss the tough, woody stem. Lay the pieces out on a cookie sheet and do not let them overlap. Lightly sprinkle with olive oil. It would be good to have a sprayer for this but I don't so I just drizzled it. Then, very lightly sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until they are crispy. (If they are not crispy and are still a bit pliable, they will be tough~ and then you just have kale) Serve immediately as a substitute for potato chips or the like.

The Best Ever Devilled Eggs

Being that we raise chickens, I always have fresh eggs and am always looking for ways to use them up. There are only so many times a person can have plain eggs for breakfast. Honestly, if I eat another scrambled egg anytime soon I will likely wretch. I don't make devilled eggs very often because peeling really fresh eggs is an excersice in extreme frustration. I have tried countless ways to peel them in a manner that does not produce an egg that looks like it has already been predigested and I am still looking for that magic technique. If you know of any tips PLEASE leave a comment. Anyway, this morning I tried again. I choose the least fresh of the bunch but still they were only maybe 3-4 days old so they still looked terrible. However, they tasted fantasic. As far as I am concerned they were the best I have ever had. They are just eggs, right, how good could they be? Try this and find out.

Best Ever Devilled Eggs

7-8 eggs
1/3 cup mayo (more or less depending on how creamy you like it)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 T chopped fresh dill (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Place eggs in a pot and cover with water. Once boiling set timer for 10 minutes. Don't overcook the crap out of them. Timing does make a difference. If you leave them in there too long the yolks get that grey color around the outside and are sort of dry on the inside, ick! After 10 minutes drain, crack shells by jiggling the pot back and forth, and cover with ice water. Peel (or try to). Cut in half, pop the yolks out into a small dish. Combine all remaining ingredients with yolks and mash together until creamy. Check for seasoning and then refill the egg white halves. If you want them to look prettier you can sprinkle with paprika but I can't be bothered. I also didn't bother with a picture since mine are never pretty. Fresh and yummy, yes. Pretty, no.

Cesear Salad Dressing

I love this time of year in Arizona. It makes me feel like I am living in paradise. My family in Canada are still dealing with snow and cold and here I am harvesting from my garden. I will savor it because during the summer it feels like hell and is just as hot. My garden is coming along really well. Last night I made a Thai noodle dish with chicken and broccoli. The broccoli was right from the garden. It was awesome. My lettuce is also doing really well. It is growing faster than I can eat it. So I have been eating a lot of salads lately. Even Sage is loving the lettuce. She routinely has a fistful of it and eats it just plain. Rori on the other hand... If it is green she won't even try it. Anyway, here is the salad that I have been eating nearly daily. I never buy salad dressings anymore. They are gross. Nearly all of them. Ever look at the ingredients on those dressings? Ick! It is so easy to make your own. This is my favorite. It is a cesear dressing but I put it on regular leaf lettuce from my garden.

Cesear Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 minced garlic clove
3 anchovy fillets
1 T Dijon mustard
1 raw egg yolk (make sure it is fresh)
salt and pepper to taste

Put everything into a blender or mini food processor and blend until smooth. Lightly dress salad and top with whatever you like. My personal favorites lately have been pine nuts and black olives!

Lentil Cesear Salad with Pine Nuts

I whipped this up for lunch today and loved it. I am hoping this lunch negates my breakfast of peanut butter fudge which was so fantastic. That was a recipe where I can't find the one that inspired the final product. I will keep searching because it too is a keeper. Anyway the salad was terrific too and ultra healthy.

Dressing

3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 anchovy fillets
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 T Dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
1 egg yolk *make sure you have really fresh eggs*
salt and pepper to taste

Combine everything in a mini food processor and blend until creamy.

For the salad I combined one romaine heart, 1/4 cup pine nuts and half a cup (raw measure) of cooked brown lentils. I cooked them in salted water and I like them a little firm to the bite. I hate it when they get over cooked and started to fall apart and taste grainy. Spoon dressing over top, as much or as little as you like. Then toss it all together and voila lunch is served. Actually I added 5 or 6 anchovy fillets diced finely but I love them and no one else seems to so feel free to omit.

Devilled Eggs

Seriously, this doesn't get old. I find myself going outside to the chicken coop to check for eggs several times a day. The weather is getting nicer here so the kids and I are out there frequently giving them treats and checking to see if they left any for us. It is totally cool. Even so I can't bring myself to touch them, especially their feet. They really give me the willies. Ron gets the willies from the eggs themselves. He is a little weirded out when it comes to eating the eggs. He says he is more comfortable with the eggs from the store and that maybe he just doesn't like to know where his food comes from - animal food that is. I said that if we were real farmers he would end up being a vegan. Anyway, today I wanted to use up some of our eggs. I should say that I am not an egg lover, as in to eat an egg all by itself, but I do a lot of baking that requires eggs. I am going to have to try to change that. We have 12 chickens (6 different breeds) and they lay every 24 - 36 hours. We have so many because we have never done this before and we never thought for a minute that all 12 would survive. But they did so when all of them are laying likely by the end of the month we will have more than we know what to do with. Back to the cooking. I made devilled eggs. One kind of egg I do like. I didn't know that really fresh eggs are impossible to peel. Therefore I didn't bother with a picture. They weren't that pretty. But they sure were good. I didn't measure as usual so I'll just post what I put in there.

6 eggs, hard boiled, cut in half yolks removed
mayo
Dijon mustard
lemon juice
fresh dill
salt and pepper to taste

The lemon juice really added a little zip. Very good. Now if anyone is actually reading this and has some other good uses for eggs please let me know.

Tomato Soup with Basil, Spinach, Beans and Rice

Gee, I am on a roll today (but no longer in a good mood - Rori just drew all over our leather couch with a pen and I can't get it off even with the "lipstick and ink remover"). I made a tasty and healthy lunch. Again, if I could just get the kids to eat it I would be ecstatic. I used to love tomato soup, Campbells. But Campbells doesn't make a single soup that is gluten free. So I have been making my own which it better tasting and better for us and has no non food ingredients. Today I did my usual creamy tomato basil and brown rice but decided to amp it up a little. I added the beans to create a complete protein with the brown rice. I also added some rough chopped fresh spinach. I am determined to use up this huge bag of spinach without wasting any of it. Additionally the iron in the spinach and the pumpkin seeds will be better absorbed due to the acid in the tomatoes. Hey, gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian!

Tomato Soup with Basil, Spinach, Beans and Rice

2 T olive oil

1 onion diced

3 large cloves garlic minced

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

2 cups soup stock

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

1 t dried basil, fresh would have been better

1 T honey

salt and pepper to taste

1 large handful coarsely chopped fresh spinach

1 cup cooked brown rice

pumpkin seeds to garnish

Heat oil in large pot. Saute onion and garlic with salt until soft. Add tomatoes, stock, beans, basil, honey and pepper. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. With an immersion blender blend until smooth. Add spinach and simmer for another couple of minutes. Add rice and stir until heated through. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds as a garnish. YUM!