Lentils Part 2 with Tasty Recipes

Lentils can help keep your digestive system working “regularly”, help you keep blood sugar levels healthy, and help you keep healthy cholesterol levels. How? The fiber they contain is both soluble and insoluble. Fiber also helps keep you fuller longer, which helps you eat less. While you can buy canned lentils, they are so easy to cook from dried that I really encourage you to give it a try. Here’s a basic recipe:

• 1 cup washed and drained lentils
• 3 cups water
• Sea salt and pepper

Bring lentils and water to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until tender, about an hour. Drain excess liquid if needed. Add seasonings to taste. While lentils are for more than just soup, it can be a great place to start. Here are a couple to get you started: Hearty Lentil Soup and Lentil Soup with Smokey Ham. And here are some “more than soup” ideas:

• Turn lentils into a salad with chopped veggies and a favorite vinaigrette dressing. Try this over a bed of baby spinach leaves with a slice of hot crusty whole grain bread. Get started with this Lentil and Couscous Salad with Arugula.
• Stew or simmer lentils and serve over whole grains, like in this Red Lentils with Garlic and Onions.

• Cook up this delicious Slow Cooker Chickpea and Lentil Stew while at work one day.
• Stuff cooked and seasoned lentils into pita bread with sprouts and veggies for a great sandwich.
• Roll them up in whole grain tortillas with avocado slices and fresh tomatoes.

• Make Lentil Walnut Burgers on whole grain buns.
• Mix them with hot cooked grains.
• Serve them over hot cooked pasta.
• Turn them into a non-meat loaf.
• Make them into a bean dip or spread, like this Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Hummus.
• Serve them as a bed for steamed or sautéed veggies.
• Try them as Lentil Tapenade.
• Try them curry style. Here’s a recipe for Lentil Curry with Cashews and Yogurt

Facts on Lentils

Lentils are the world’s oldest cultivated legume, appearing on the scene somewhere in the neighborhood of 7000 BCE! The name comes from the fact that the shape of a “len”til looks like the “len”s of an eye. And, like eyes, lentils vary in color ranging from black to brown to reddish orange, coral, gold and slate green. They’re easy to prepare and cook more quickly than many other legumes. Different varieties have different textures and are generally used in different types of recipes. For example, brown and green lentils hold their shape well and are great for casseroles, salad, or to ladle over grains or potatoes, whereas split red or yellow lentils disintegrate easily when cooking and are perfect for soups and stews. Adding lentils to your diet is a tasty way to improve your health. Consider that they are high in fiber, packed with plant protein, low in fat and low on the glycemic index, which means they don’t cause a spike in blood sugar after eating. The USDA Nutritional database shows that one cup of cooked lentils contains:

• 220 calories
• 17 grams of protein
• Less than 1 gram of fat
• 15 grams of fiber
• 0 cholesterol
• Iron, phosphorus, folate and plenty of other good stuff

Cornbread Muffins

With all these post about yummy honey, I decided that it would be great to have a recipe to go with that honey. If it is one thing that I like to eat with honey, it is cornbread. This recipe is very simple and you should be able to find the ingredients in your food storage/pantry since they are pretty common things to have around always. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup yellow corn meal

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I use coconut oil)

3 Tablespoons butter, melted

2 Tablespoons honey

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease or paper-line 18 to 20 muffin cups

2. Sift together flour, sugar, corn meal, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate small bowl, combine milk, eggs, vegetable oil (coconut oil) and butter; mix well. Then add to flour mixture and stir just until blended. Add honey in last and mix well. Pour into prepared muffin cups filling 2/3 full.

3. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool slightly. 

They taste the best warm.

Serve them with some yummy honey butter or whatever you like to eat cornbread with. Enjoy, they are delicious! And BE CAREFUL, they are also very addicting! 

Store what you Eat

Hey - it's a scary thing to try to figure out how to feed yourself, much less a family with what is sitting (or not sitting) in your cupboards and maybe a pantry.   Here are my top 10 ways to just get STARTED ...

1.  PLAN:  Get a notebook and write down your plans; your goals; your wish lists.  Keep it simple. 

2.  DOUBLE UP:  Buy double the ingredients of a few meals each week so that you have a "meal in the cupboard" for back-up.

3.  SCRATCH:  Learn to cook from scratch.  I can't say this often enough ... learn to cook from scratch.  This could be the difference between starving and not ... commit to stop paying someone else to cook and package meals for you. 



4.  RELATIONSHIPS:   Make it a family effort when possible.  Bring your children into the experience.  Squash that pride and show up to learn from the "older" women in your family, neighborhood or church.  Ask questions, take notes and learn from their mistakes so you don't have to repeat them. 

5.  TOOLS:  Use a basic food storage calculator to figure out the basics of what a human needs to "not starve."

6.  MODIFY:  Now modify the calculator's results to match what your family EATS.  Remember the little things like seasonings and spices that make meals more palatable.


7.  FUN:  Get on Youtube and Google and teach yourself HOW to do things you don't know how to do.  Technology can be such a blessing!

8.  GADGETS:  Include the simple gadgets you'll need to help you cook your foods. 

9.  GARDEN/CANNING:  You'll be healthier if you can grow gardens & bottle foods.  Make every effort to learn how to do this.  Not all at once; just work it in.

10.  KNOWLEDGE:  Be an eager, humble learner.  Those who know HOW will survive and thrive!


COMMIT to START where you ARE ... lots of little bits can make a HUGE difference!

"No one is responsible for my choices but me.  If I'm unprepared it's because I chose to be." - Robin