Lentils & Rice

Rodney wasn't going to be here for supper tonight so I went searching for recipes I wanted to try that were things Rodney wouldn't like LOL. I actually was planning to make zucchini "crab" cakes, but thought that wouldn't be enough all on it's own, so noticed this crock pot recipe and thought, hey, I can put this in this morning and we can eat it for supper with the zucchini. But then I got lazy and when supper time rolled around I skipped the zucchini and we just ate this. But the girls LOVED it! We ate ALL of it! It's easy, cheap & healthy, what more could you want!!! (but I don't know what makes them "tacos" they're not all all mexican-like)

3 cups chicken broth (or water and chicken seasoning)
3/4 c uncooked lentils
1/2 c uncooked brown rice
3/4 c chopped onion (I didn't measure, just used 1 onion)
1/2 tsp sweet basil (I used fresh, and didn't measure)
1/4 tsp oregano (I used fresh, and didn't measure)
1/4 tsp thyme (I used fresh, and didn't measure)
1/4 tsp garlic powder (I used a spoon full of minced garlic)

Stir together in crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. Can be baked at 300F for 1 1/2 hours.

Serve as is, or with tortillas, sour cream, shredded cheese, etc.  YUM!!!

It also occurs to me that if you used dried herbs, this could be premixed and you could just dump it in the crockpot with 3 cups of water and some chopped onions from the freezer. How easy would THAT be?!?!?

Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers

Another yummy recipe from Heavenly Homemakers.

1/2 c butter, softened
3/4 c sucanat
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c ww flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Cream butter and sucanat. Bean in egg and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I didn't do this since I was using a baking stone, I should have). Place very small spoonfuls on paper. Bake at 325 for 5-15 min (I baked 15 min). Turn off oven and leave in oven to crisp for about 1/2 hr.

YUMMY!

Perpetual Pancakes

This is my adaptation of this recipe. I love that I can mix it up the night before & just fry however many we want in the morning!

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup milk

2 Tbsp oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Combine all ingredients, refrigerate overnight. May be stored in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Can also be used for waffles. 

Minted Sweet Pea Soup

Daddy wasn't home for supper tonight, so the girls & I went hunting for a recipe to try that WE would like and HE wouldn't. The girls decided they wanted soup (because, you know, 90+ degree weather in September is perfect soup weather LOL, but we have A/C so whatever . . .) so we started browsing the myriad of recipes I bookmark and never get around to trying. And we found this one.  I was SURE we had a huge bag of frozen peas in the freezer, so said yes, we could definitely make it. Only to realize, as we started to cook, that we apparently finished the huge bag and ate half of a smaller bag, so all I had was 1/2 lb of peas.  However, I DID have several bags of baby lima beans in the freezer (they're one of the few veggies hubby likes, so we eat them often), so we decided to use half peas & half lima beans. It was still a yummy soup, but we all felt that it would be BETTER with straight peas, so we'll be re-making this soon with all peas.  Here's the recipe, with my modifications:

1/3 c butter
1 lb peas
1/2 c water
some chopped onions (I didn't measure)
2 1/2 c milk or half-and-half (we use raw milk, I was opening a new gallon anyway & it's hard to mix teh cream in w/o pouring some off the top to give it more room, so I poured some cream into the measuring cup & then shook the rest in & finished measuring with the whole milk, so slightly creamier than whole milk not quite half & half, would be my guess)
1-2 tsp fresh mint, snipped (didn't measure, but I'd guess we used at least 3-4 tsp and could have used more)
salt to taste
chives for garnish

In a med saucepan melt the butter on low heat, then add peas, water & onions .  Cook 15-20 min for fresh peas, 5-10 minutes for frozen peas. Don't over-cook, you want the peas tender, not mushy.

Remove from burner, let cool slightly. Add milk, mint and salt. Puree with immersion blender. Return to burner and heat till heated through, do not boil.  Garnish with snipped chives &/or snipped mint.

For the 3 of us (plus sharing numerous bites with Little Bit), one recipe wasn't enough for a main dish, we'll be doubling this recipe in the future.