Red hot lentil curry recipe!

I have recently discovered curry and it is yum yum hot hot. In my quest for healthy meals I have also discovered lentils. Can you believe that I have never had lentils before? Nope, not ever. My family is the meat and potatoes type - when I say pasta, they say what? Last semester I tried making a lentil soup which failed miserably. Mainly, due to the fact that I had no idea how to cook a lentil and because I didn't know that acid from say lime juice causes the lentils to cook very slowly.. oops. However, this time I was smart and soaked my lentils overnight to avoid any problems with slow cooking!! :)

Ingredients:

1 cup red lentils

1 can diced garlic and onion tomatoes drained

1 small onion

1 tbl curry powder

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

• Rinse lentils with cold water until the water becomes clear
• Soak lentils overnight in 1 cup of water
• Simmer lentils in 2 cups of water for about 15-20 mins or until tender
• While the lentils are cooking soften some onions in a pot with a bit of butter
• Once the onions are soft and a little brown add your drained can of tomatoes (I used garlic onion tomatoes diced)
• After about 5 mins or so combine all of the hot ingredients and add all of the spices. Stir! (For more burn-your-tounge-hotness add some extra chili powder!)
• Pretty good, huh?

Buffalo rice and beans!

Man is it really annoying only cooking for one person. I have been eating the lasagna rolls (see recipe below) for three days and yes I like them but I want something new! I also didn't really feel like cooking much so I decided to just throw a bunch of stuff together in a pan and wah la! Dinner! I know this is such an easy meal and I feel kind of silly about posting it but I know that I would forget to make it again if I didn't have it documented! And it was super yummy so why not share? Who doesn't love buffalo hot sauce?

Also, I realize that this recipe does have chicken broth.... but I am going to say that this is a technicality and does not wreck my no meat week. I said no meat and did not said animal products. Yes I know a "real" vegetarian would not eat this. However, like I said previously, I am doing this for health reasons so I am going to say broth is ok. At least for me. If you wanted to make this a truly vegetarian dish you could just cook some brown or white rice and then add buffalo hot sauce to that!




Ingredients:
1 package Knorr's rice sides Buffalo chicken flavored
1 can of reduced sodium light red kidney beans
1 can corn
Buffalo hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

• Cook the Knorr's buffalo flavored rice according to the package directions
• Drain and rinse the kidney beans
• In a separate pot place the kidney beans and the undrained can of corn - bring to a boil and then drain the water from the pot
• Mix together the cooked rice and the beans and corn. 
• Add salt, peper and as much hot sauce as you want! I added maybe about 2 tablespoons. 
• Wah la! enjoy. Tastes pretty good for such a simple meal
• Other ideas I had were to add maybe some salsa and onions but alas I did not have any but give it a try if you like! :)

Veggie Lasagna Rolls!

No MEAT for a WEEK challenge!!!!! Ever wonder what it would be like to be a vegetarian? I have. I just mainly wonder if I could really go without meat. My one and only love is salmon. Can I survive without it for one week? I think so. I am mainly doing this as a health experiment. After eating ranch turkey burgers (see recipe below) every day for nearly a week I am feeling kind of icky (I know I could of threw them away instead of eating them all but I am a grad student. I am not made of money!). SO anyway. This is my challenge. Go one whole week without meat. I started on friday and so far so good. The first no-meat dish that came to my mind was.. pasta! (What self-respecting person does not like pasta?) I thought I could make some lasagna rolls! I am sure that there are about a million different ways to make these but here is how I did it. And they are pretty yummy and healthy too!

What you need (for 5 rolls):

Whole wheat lasagna noodles 

3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1 can of stewed tomatoes with italian seasoning

(Can use tomato sauce instead, if desired)

A handful of red onions, chopped

2 handfulls of spinach

garlic powder

tin foil

baking pan

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
• Cook whole wheat lasagna noodles according to package. At first I was like, how the heck is this going to work? My pot is too small! But really, you stick 2 or 3 in the boiling water at a time and they soften up pretty quick so you can just squish them down into the water after a minute or so. My package of noodles said they were supposed to cook for about 10 minutes.
• While you are cooking your noodles you can soften up your onions for about 5 mins in a pan with a bit of butter if you like
• Lay out your noodles and place about 2 tbls of ricotta cheese per noodle 
• Sprinkle with some garlic powder (everything tastes better with garlic! Yum!
• If you are using the canned tomatoes like I did. Drain the tomatoes BUT keep the liquid in a bowl and set aside. you will use it later.
• Place how ever many tomatoes you want on the noodles - I used about 3 per noodle
• Then add your onions and your spinach
• Now the fun part! Slowly roll your noodles up. Be careful not to roll them too tight or the cheese and stuff with gush out!
• Place on a baking pan lined with tin foil for easy clean up! I placed them on the pan with the seam side down to keep them together.
• Then pour the liquid from the tomato can over them and bake for about 20 minutes
• Bon appetit!

Garlic, onion, ranch turkey burgers!

Ever since I got back to school I have not felt like cooking anythingggg, but after three days of oatmeal and clif bars I really need some sustenance. Burgers sounded like a superb idea! I don't eat red meat soo I bought some ground turkey at meijers!

Ingredients:
1 lb extra lean ground turkey
1/4 of a red onion - finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic - minced
1 egg
1/4 cup worcestershire sause
1/4 cup italian bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 packet of ranch seasoning
(I added some extra garlic powder too, yumm)
(Next time I might add some chili powder to give them more of a kick!)

Pretty easy to make! Chop, season, stir! Cook in a pan with olive oil on medium heat - 5 mins on each side!  enjoy!

This recipe makes 7 turkey burgers... I really should of only made half a pound of turkey. Now I am going to have to eat one for lunch and dinner every day to get rid of them. Good thing they are yummy.