Lentils and Spinach

Jeff recently made lentils and spinach - really healthy and filling, and I love the garlic!

Lentils and Spinach

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 white onions, halved and sliced into 1/2 rings
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup lentils
2 cups water
1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Directions

Heat oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Saute onion for 10 minutes or so, until it begins to turn golden. Add minced garlic and saute for another minute or so.
Add lentils and water to the saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil. Cover, lower heat, and simmer about 35 minutes, until lentils are soft ( this may take less time, depending on your water and the lentils).
Meanwhile cook the spinach in microwave according to package directions. Add spinach, salt and cumin to the saucepan. Cover and simmer until all is heated, about ten minutes. Grind in plenty of pepper and press in extra garlic to taste.

Moroccan-Style Stuffed Acorn Squash

Jeff made Moroccan-Style Stuffed Acorn Squash for dinner the other day - it's one of my favorite meals that he's made so far. The squash was really good and the filling was great too - great mix of sweet and savory in both!

Moroccan-Style Stuffed Acorn Squash

2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 large acorn squash, halved and seeded
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 cup garbanzo beans, drained
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
1 cup uncooked couscous
Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Arrange squash halves cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake 30 minutes, or until tender. Dissolve the sugar in the melted butter. Brush squash with the butter mixture, and keep squash warm while preparing the stuffing.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, celery, and carrots, and cook 5 minutes. Mix in the garbanzo beans and raisins. Season with cumin, salt, and pepper, and continue to cook and stir until vegetables are tender.
Pour the chicken broth into the skillet, and mix in the couscous. Cover skillet, and turn off heat. Allow couscous to absorb liquid for 5 minutes. Stuff squash halves with the skillet mixture to serve.

Early Valentine's Day Dinner

I’m going to be out of town for Valentine’s Day, so instead Jeff and I had an early Valentine’s Day dinner together. He put together a menu of foods I love. We started with olives and a cheese plate. We were going to have soup, but we had a lot of cheese, so we skipped that course. For the main dish, we had butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter sauce – soooo good! For desert Jeff made brownies with berries and vanilla icecream. It was a great dinner, and really sweet that Jeff made it all. Perfect early Valentine’s Day!

Chef Jeff - the first few weeks

One of Jeff's New Year's Resolutions was to try to learn more about cooking. So, he's decided to try a bunch of new recipes - which is totally fine with me! Here are some of his first creations:

Mayan Couscous: It has couscous (of course) with cumin, garlic, black beans, corn, and onion, peppers and cilantro - very tasty! And good for lunch the next day!

Malaysian Quinoa: This has quinoa mixed with soy chunks, peanut butter, coconut, chile, green onion, and cilantro - also very good!

Bisara: This is a North African dish. It's mostly made up of green split peas, and is flavored with garlic, parsley, red chile pepper, paprika, and cumin. It looks sort of like green mush, but it tastes really good.

Lentils and Spinach: Not hard to guess what goes into this one. In addition to the lentils and spinach, it has onions, garlic, and cumin.

Vegan Split Pea Soup: Jeff made this hearty soup on the weekend when it was chilly out and we stayed in all day - perfect winter dish! It has onions, garlic, split peas, barley, carrots, celery, potatoes, parsley, basil, and thyme.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad: This was one of my favorite dishes so far. It's rice noodles topped with julienned carrots, chopped cucumber, chopped cabbage, chopped mint, unsalted peanuts, and a sauce made with lime juice, cilantro, fish sauce, and mint. Sooo good!

Vegetarian Bean Curry: This is what we had last night. It has lentils, arbanzo and kidney beans mixed with onion, garlic curry powder, ground cumin, crushed tomatoes, and raisins. I can't decide if I loved the raisins or didn't like them at all... but they were definitely an interesting addition.

Jeff's also been making pasta sauce from scratch (well, from canned tomatoes and other ingredients) - it's really tasty, and apparently much more healthy!

It's really fun to have lots of different, exciting dishes - left to my own devices, it's pretty much pasta or canned soup every day (though I do love those things!). Jeff's also really great at making sure everything is healthy - both in terms of having a good balance of vegetables and things and also being low in calories.