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! :)