Lentil Loaf

THANK YOU to Oh She Glows for another life changing recipe. The first was her 5 ingredient "cheese" sauce...... Just getting that link to her site I got stuck on her site for 30 min. I want to marry this girl!

Preheat Oven to 325°
1C Green Lentils
3C Water
3Tbsp Ground flax seeds
1/2C Water
1C Walnuts
1 Red onion
3 Cloves Garlic
1C Grated carrot
1C Fine chopped celery
1/3C Grated Apple
1/3C Currants
salt, pepper, oregano (or herb of your choice)
1C Oat Flour
3/4C Breadcrumbs


Step 1: Bring 1 Cup of green lentils to a boil in 3 cups of water (or broth). Reduce heat to med low so that its at a mellow boil. Cook for 45 min, stirring often, till the lentils are sort of breaking up. All the water should be absorbed, it should be a mush with some whole lentils along with lentil puree all blobbed together.

Step 2:Whisk together 3 Tbsp of ground flax seeds, and 1/2 Cup of water. Whisk this mixture every few minutes as you prepare all the other ingredients

Step 3: Chop up 1 cup of walnuts finely. Toast these in the oven for 15 min. Set aside. Raise the oven temp to 350°

Step 4: Remember to whisk your flax seeds. Finely chop a red onion, start sweating this in a sautee pan. Finely mince 3 cloves of garlic and add it to the pan. Grate 1 cup of carrot and add that to the pan, turn up the heat slightly so you hear a sizzle, but the veggies are just getting shiny, not browned. Finely chop one cup of celery and add it to the pan. Peel & grate 1/3 Cup of apple. By the time you add the apple, the mixture has cooked enough you can pull it from the heat. Add 1/3 Cup of Zante Currants, salt & pepper, some dried oregano if you like. Whisk flax seeds

Step 5: Toast 2 pieces of bread. I use gluten free. After toasting, allow bread to cool then pulse in a mini food processor until it is crumbs. Alternatively, you can use 3/4 cup of prepared bread crumbs.

Step 6: Measure 1 Cup of Oat Flour. I use Bobs Red Mill rolled oats processed in the blender to make flour. But they make flour, and you can choose a different brand if you like.

Step 7: Mix everything together in a big bowl. Spray or line an 8 X 8 pan (I used a bigger cake pan because I had doubled the recipe to have lots of leftovers), add the loaf mixture to the baking dish.

Bake for 45 min. It should be firm to touch when you poke it in the middle. Allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes. I like to top this with Trader Joes BBQ sauce & serve with Mashed potatoes (prepared with Earth Balance,  almond milk, garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper) and green beans.


















 


Even better as leftovers!! I made a Loaf Sandwich the next day with pureed avocado as the spread and it was out of this world.

Tomato Sauce

Do you have a million tomatoes from your first try garden this year? I did! I used a tomato or two every day for a month and I still had a kojillion left to make a sauce with. Here's what I did.


Have a pot of water on the stove boiling. place a strainer on a plate nearby. Put about 5 tomatoes at a time into the water for about a minute. Then fish them out with a slotted spoon and place them in the strainer, and move on to the next batch. Blanch all the tomatoes this way. The skin will crack and become loose. Run them under cold water so you can handle them.

Pull off all the skins and place the whole rest of the tomato in an empty pot. I didn't crush or smash them or anything and in about 30 in of simmering, I had this:

I added some dried oregano, salt, and around 5 cloves of (fresh) minced garlic. Let it simmer on a very low boil for a couple hours, stirring occasionally.

These jars hold 5 cups each.mmmmmmmmmmmm The taste is JUST amazing. Sweet, but MEATY, with a high umami factor. Very complex flavor!

Savory Polenta

 Polenta can be used instead of pasta for many dishes, like Spaghetti with red sauce. Its SO tasty with red sauce and this time I made it topped with pizza style ingredients. So here's the basic recipe for Savory Polenta that you can tweek to suit your needs.

preheat oven to 400°
1 Cup medium ground corn grits
4 Cups savory broth
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 red onion very small dice
3 Tbsp Earth Balance 

Use an oven safe all clad skillet with a lid

Start by wilting the onion on low heat for about 5 till its glossy and translucent. You don't want it browning. Add garlic and let it simmer for a minute or two. Add the broth to the pan, and turn up the heat. Bring it to a mellow boil. While whisking, slowly add the polenta grits to the broth. When its all added and incorporated, cover, and place the entire pan in the oven. Pull it out every ten minutes and whisk to break it up, for a total cooking time of 20. I have ALWAYS done it for 40 min but I just recently made this and it really only needed 20 min. Add 3 Tbsp Earth Balance and stir till totally blended

Topped my "pizza polenta" with sauteed mushrooms, white beans, olives, and of course my homemade sauce

Crockpot Oatmeal

 mmmmmmmmmmm This meal is so soothing I will lovingly recommend it for dinner on a bad day. Seriously. It is Yummy and really makes everything better. The texture is creamy and some of the grains still pop in your teeth.
 Ingredients:

2 C Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats
3 C Milk ( I used Unsweetened vanilla almond milk )
3 C Water
2 Apples peeled, cored, diced
2 Tbsp Cinnamon
8 Tbsp Raw cane sugar
3 Tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread (optional)
Put all the ingredients into the pot, give it a stir.






















I've made this a few times now and it takes about 5 hours in my crock. I know they vary though so I would definitely recommend making this during the day so you can find out the correct time on yours. You can stir it every hour or so. The first time I made it, I let it go for a long time so that a huge crust built up on the sides. After it cooled, I stirred it up vigorously so that the crust was broken up into the oatmeal and it was divine!!  I split it up and package it in the fridge for quick grab n go. Add some milk before reheating. Try adding peanut butter and coffee creamer AAAAHHHHHH yum.