lentil chili

I tried this new recipe tonight, which they called Lentil Vegetable Soup:

http://www.liveglutenfreely.com/recipes/Details.aspx?recipeId=5245d9e2-146c-419d-8739-7345503eeee5

I call it Lentil Chili (it's a soupy chili, but chili nonetheless).  I made a few changes, mainly because I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, but hey.  Why let a few missing ingredients stop you??  =P  So here's my version:

1 large onion, chopped (1.5-2 cups)

1 teaspoon regular chili powder 

1 tsp ancho chili powder (cause that's what I had, that's why)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

@ 1 T minced garlic

1 qt tomatoes/tomato juice/onions/peppers (my mil cans this stuff.  it's good.  You're on your own.)

3 cups water

1 cup (8 ounces) dried lentils, sorted and rinsed

a couple of small green peppers, chopped

1 cup frozen corn

2 cups whatever frozen veggies you have in the freezer

a few shakes of Tabasco Chipotle flavor

1 T or so of vegetable bouillon powder

 Saute onion in your fat of choice (I use canola oil) till about transparent, then add spices and peppers.  When they've had a chance to cook a couple of minutes, add the tomato sauce.  Stir in water, lentils. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 25 minutes.  Stir in corn and veggies. Cover and simmer 25 minutes.   Add Tabasco to taste.

GK's notes:  Ok, you're not really on your own.  I subbed my mil's tomato sauce for the tomato stuff called for in the original because it was what I had.  They called for a can of spicy tomato juice (6 oz) and 2 cups canned tomatoes with juices.  I thought that sounded about like a quart jar of sauce, right?  I dunno.  It worked well enough!  In fact, I thought it would be to liquidy, so I initially reduced the 3 cups of water to 2, but then later added another in anyway, so I'm thinking the original must have been a tad dry... Also, when I tasted it when it was done cooking, I thought it was a bit bland, so instead of just a cup of water, I added a healthy dose of bouillon for flavor.  Perked it right up!  I'm guessing if you want a nice, beefy flavored chili, using beef broth instead of water would be awesome. 
This was a nice, hearty soup.  For some reason, the lentils didn't get cooked, even though they got to sit in the pot simmering nicely for about an hour.  Dunno what's up with that.  I've had a lot of trouble with that lately.  The darned bag they come in says they should cook in 45 minutes.  After a day or two in the fridge and a good microwaving, they'll eventually soften up, but I'm starting to get annoyed at lentils...Oh, these are brown lentils.  Red ones cook much faster, and are becoming my lentil friends, let me tell you.  If you want to use them instead, you can reduce the cooking time by about 20 minutes, probably.

cereal bars

Seriously, this is a ridiculously easy recipe, but it worked well, and was well received, so I'll post it!  I hope somebody enjoys it!

My family are huge fans of rice krispy treats, but I'm not a huge fan of all that sugar with so little nutrition, so I thought I'd try something...completely different!  No, not really.  Just a little different.  I used the regular rice krispy recipe and just changed the cereal ingredients.  And added some orange and black sprinkles.  It is, after all, Halloween Season.  =)





40 large marshmallows
1/4 c butter/margarine (I use Earth Balance soy free)
2 c Perky's Nutty Flax (now owned by Enjoy Life, so with all their colors etc.)
2 c Enjoy Life granola flavor of choice (I used Cinnamon cause my stores have limited choices)
2 c Enjoy Life Trail Mix (I used Mountain Mambo, because that's what's safe for my kid)

Grease a cake pan and set aside.  Keep your grease handy...you'll need it!
Heat the marshmallows and margarine in a large pot over med/low heat till all soft and gooey and combined.  Add the cereal and stir. 
When everything is combined, put it all in the cake pan and grease up your hands.  Smooth the bars down into the pan and allow to cool.  Cut. 

GK's notes:  I've heard that refrigerating the bars and scoring them before they're all the way hard makes them easier to cut later, but I haven't tried it yet, cause I never remember when I'm making them...
I know it sounds like I'm an Enjoy Life employee or something, but I'm not.  It's just that they're the only company that makes those things safe for my kid.  We have a weird combo of allergies that makes it hard to find safe trail mixes etc.  Usually I make my own, but since there is something I can buy now...
I actually didn't have quite enough trail mix to make 2 cups.  Dunno if someone ate some of it or there aren't two cups to begin with, but I had to use some dried cherries and sunflower seeds I had on hand to make up the rest of the 2 cups.  It worked out fine. 

I love how insanely nutritionally dense these are.  I don't even mind the sugar and fat hits, because you REALLY can't eat much of these.  One and you're done, and you aren't going to be eating one close to having eaten anything else.  They are DENSE.  My dh eats one for breakfast, and he's satisfied.  The chitlin can't even eat a whole one!  My greedy tuchus can, but hey.  BUT...the density makes em a tad overwhelming.  I thought maybe next time, I'd go ahead and switch out the granola for some actual rice krispies (well, the safe substitute, anyway).  See if we could lighten things up a bit.  I'll...um...try to get back to you on that...if I ever get around to it!