Spinach and Mushroom Lentil Bake

A week out to the big holiday!

How are you doing? Are you making all the cookies and cakes and all the things? Are you getting all the cookies and cakes and things given to you? And are you eating all the cookies and cakes and things?

That is cool because that is what is suppose to go down right now. But one thing we all need to do is make sure we are eating some decent food (not cookies and cakes and things) as well.

Like lentils with some veggies. You really can’t go wrong with lentils because they are the best and don’t you dare say otherwise. This bake here is packed with lentils, mushrooms and spinach, is creamy and crispy, hearty and warming, and tastes so freaking good. A no fuss, easy peasy meal that can be thrown together fast and when you are eating it, you are feeling good. And once you start eating it, you probably won’t be able to stop (that was me anyway…)

So make yourself something nice to go along with all the cookies, cakes, and things. You need it.

To the lentils!

The stuff. Red and green lentils, a few big mushrooms, a couple handfuls of spinach, an onion, crushed tomatoes. dill, thyme, sage, and red pepper flakes, chick pea flour, a couple cloves or garlic, water, oil, and and pepper.

Start with the lentils. Just dump them all into a pot with the water. Place on stove and bring a boil.

Now chop up onion into small bits, mince garlic, and slice the mushrooms thinly and in half.

Add a splash of oil to a large oven safe skillet and place on stove on medium heat. Once skillet is hot, add in the garlic, onions, and mushroom. Start to cook, adding in all the spices once they start to sizzle. Cook until the onion starts to become fragrant and translucent and fragrant and the mushrooms are slightly browned.

Once the lentils come to a boil, let cook for another minute or two then remove from heat. (If there is a bunch of foam on top of pot, just scape it off.) Add in the chickpea flour, the tomatoes, and all the spinach. Season with sat and pepper too.

Dump the lentil mixture into the skillet with the mushrooms and onion and mix everything all around until its all incorporated. Level off top and then stick the whole thing into the oven. Bake covered for 30 minutes then remove cover, give the whole thing a (careful, it is hot) good stir, re-level off the tope, and keep baking for another 30-35 minutes or until the top of the lentils are nice and crispy ans the inside is nice an creamy.

The crispy top lentils are everything.

Scoop into bowls, add some fresh chopped something of another if you want ( I had fresh dill and parsley) and eat away.

What is not pictured here is the yellow mustard I had in waiting. Mustard on this… AMAZING!

-C

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Spinach and Mushroom Lentil Bake

feed 3-5 people

• 3/4 cup each red and green lentils (or 1 1/2 cups of either)

• 1 cup crushed or diced tomatoes

• 1 small onion

• 2 cloves garlic

• 2 tablespoons chickpea flour (can sub with cornmeal or oat flour)

• 1 teaspoon each dried sage, thyme, and dill

• 2 large handfuls spinach (about 3 cups)

• 2-3 large white or cramini mushrooms (about 1 1/2 chopped)

• 2 1/2 cups water

• splash of olive oil

• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400

Dump lentils into a pot with the water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, let cook for a minutes or two then remove from heat. If there is a bunch of foam on top, just scrap it off. Mix in the chickpea flour, tomatoes, and spinach. Season with salt and pepper

While lentils are cooking, chop onion into small pieces, slice mushrooms in half, then the halves into thin pieces and mince garlic. Place a large oven safe skillet on stove on medium heat. Add a small splash or oil and once heated, dump the onion, garlic, and mushrooms to the hot skillet. Cook for 5-7 minutes or until the mushrooms start to brown and the onions and garlic are fragrant. Add in the spiced and stir around.

Take skillet off heat and carefully dump in the lentils mixture and mix around with the mushroom and onions. (if you don’t have a large enough oven safe skillet just dump it all into a casserole dish) Level off mixture and place in the oven, covered for 1 hour, removing cover 1/2 way through and giving he whole mixture a mix ad re- leveling it off.

Once baked and nice and crispy (the longer you bake it, the crispier it gets) remove from oven and serve immediately. Toss some fresh dil and parsley on top if you have it. Also mustard as a condiment goes amazingly with this!

Millet with mushrooms, onions, Greens and a mustard vinaigrette

Salad season is here. Green salads, fruit salads, potato salads, and grain salads. All the salads and we are not mad about it.

This is a good grain salad using millet, which I am sightly surprised to hear that a lot of people have never had. Millet is kind of like quinoa, but not. I cooks fluffy and looks kind of the same, and is gluten free like quinoa. I think the biggest difference is that millet is slightly softer and tastes a bit more nutty. It also is really good at absorbing liquid flavors.

But who are we to compare. The main thing is that it is nutritious and delicious so we will eat it.

Back to the salad. This is one of those grain salads that is good cooked and served warm but only gets better with a little age (like an hour or a day) in the fridge. Served hot or cold or room tempature, and is hearty enough to be meal like but is also a fantastic addition as a side to any of you meal plans. Like maybe a BBQ? Whatever the occasion, or non occasion, this is just a really good grain salad situation and I think you will be pleased, smiling all smiles while eating it.

To the millet salad.

The stuff. Millet, a couple handful of greens, a few mushrooms, an onion, dijon mustard, a little maple syrup, red wine vinegar, a lemon, a couple cloves or garlic, some toasted sunflower seeds, and salt and pepper.

Start by giving the millet a little toast, just enough to really up the nutty flavor and make it that much more yummy. It only takes a few minutes in a skillet on medium heat. Not an entirely necessary step, but you should do it.

Toasted millet goes into pot with water. Bring pot to a boil and then turn to the lowest simmer and cover.

While millet is cooking, get to the mushrooms and onions. Chop the onion thin and small and the mushrooms thin and small as well. Place them into the skillet with a drizzle of oil and place on medium heat. Mix around every now and then and cook until the mushrooms and onions are soft and a nice golden brown.

And make the vinaigrette. Minced garlic, mustard, vinegar, the juice of the lemon, and maple syrup get put into one place.

Mixed and now all is one.

Millet. Cooked and fluffed and ready to go.

Cooked mushrooms and onions go into the pot, along with the greens, the sunflower seed, and the vinaigrette. This step can be right away or you can wait a little while for things to cool as to not wilt the greens. Up tp you.

Mixed with love and hunger.

Even if you are making it ahead of time, just do yourself a favor. Grab a bowl, grab a fork, and get down on it.

-C

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Millet with mushrooms, onions, Greens and a mustard vinaigrette

Seves 4-6

• 3/4 cup uncooked millet

• 2 cups water

• 1 sweet onion

• 3-4 big button mushrooms

• Large handful or two of bitter greens like arugula, spinach or a mixture.

• 2 tablespoon brown or dijon mustard

• 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar

• 1 teaspoon maple syrup

• 2 cloves garlic

• salt and pepper

• handful toasted sunflower seeds

To start, toast millet. Dump the uncooked millet into a pan and place on a medium heat tt for about 5 minutes or until you start hearing the millet crackle.This gives the millet a slightly more nutty flavor but you can skip this step if you don’t care.

Dump millet and water into medium pot. Place on high heat until water starts to boil then tun heat down to simmer and over. After about 15 or 20 minutes, when most of the water is gone, turn pot completely off. Let sit, covered for another 10ish minutes then take a fork and fluff it.

While the millet is cooking, cook the veggies. Grab the onion and slice it up into thin pieces. Clean off the mushrooms and chop them into small thin pieces too. Place the chopped stuff into the skillet with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt and place on a medium heat. Stir occasionally and cook for about 15 minutes or until the onion and mushroom are a nice dark, golden brown.

And make the mustard vinaigrette. Mince garlic and place into a jar or bowl with the vinegar, the mustard, the maple, and the juice of the lemon. Mix and set aside.

Once the millet is cooked, the mushrooms and onions are cooked, and the vinaigrette is made, all you have left to do is mix everything together. You can do this while things are slightly warm which will wilt the greens a bit, o let them cool so the greens stay fresh. Up to you. (I like the greens fresh)

Finally, dump cooked mushrooms and onions into pot with cooked millet. Add in the greens and sunflower seeds and drizzle the vinegertte all over. Toss around until fully mixed. Sprinkle with lots of fresh cracked pepper.

Then eat. Or place in a container to bring to the BBQ.

Not Your Parents "Shit on a Shingle" (Creamy Lentils and Mushrooms on Toast)

The other day the mister and I started reminiscing about some of our earliest memories of what our parents fed us or what they used to eat when we were growing up. One of the dishes that we both remember eating was the classic creamed beef on toast, or as my mom use to call it, shit on a shingle.   Yup, shit on a shingle. (who ever started calling creamed meat on toast is a freaking genius) I think that as a kid, I liked  the dish just for the mer fact that I could say the word shit and get away with it.  I think my mom liked it for few reasons; she could make a big butt load of it really fast, for a crap load of kids, on the super cheap. And I think that she just really like it.  

Shit on a shingle is one of those foods that I like to call "trash food", you know stuff like beefaroni or pork and beans. Stuff that we all loved as little kids but might think twice about feeding to anyone now. ( I'll still feed nick a can of beefaroni.. he likes it) As a throwback to our earliest food memories, (also a lack of food in the house and wanted to make something fast, easy, and cheap.. thanks mom!) I made the mister my rendition of the classic. Creamy Lentils and Mushrooms on toast. Not quite as trashy as creamed beef (lentils, mushrooms and onions are not trashy) but you get the same reminiscing feeling. I guess I could call it something like "stuff on a shingle" or lumps on a shingle", but what kid (or adult)  would want to eat that. Let's just stick with shit, it makes it more awesome to eat it.

The shit….. A few mushrooms, a bit of onion, cooked lentils, flour, milk, oil, salt and pepper, and garlic powder. And the shingles.. 2 pieces of thick white country bread. Slice the mushrooms and the onion and toss into a skillet with a drizzle of oil. Cook on medium heat until browned and fragrant..Remove from pan.In the empty pan still on medium heat, add in the olive oil and the flour. Whisky constantly, slowly add in the milk. Keep whisking until sauce thickens. Remove from heat. Add in  salt, pepper, and garlic powder.Add the mushrooms and the lentils into the sauce and give it a good mix. Oh, and don't forget to  toast up the bread. Now dump that shit all over those shingles! Oh the memories.

If you need to, make it classy by serving it with a cloth napkin and a nice fork and knife. But eat it however you need to. (As kids we like dirty hands and no fork, preferably with a big tall glass of overly sweetened red flavored kool-aid)

Enjoy this fantastic Spring weekend!

-C

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 Shit on s Shingle (Creamy Lentils and Mushrooms on Toast)

One serving

• 1 cup cooked lentils
• 2- 3 mushrooms
• 1/2 small onion
• 1 cup milk (cow, nut, plant… whatever you want)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• 2 pieces of nice thick but soft white sandwich bread

Slice the mushroom and onion and toss into a pan or skillet with a drizzle of oil. Cook on medium heat until brown and fragrant than dump onto a plate. In same skillet, add the oil and the flour and mix with a whisk while slowly adding in the milk. Keep whisking until sauce starts to thicken. Turn heat to simmer and add in the cooked lentils and the sautéd mushrooms and onions. Push down the bread in the toaster.. and when it pops up, dump the shill over it.

Polenta Delicata Caramelized Onions and Mushroom Pizza

Wowzers.. What was I thinking! I know, the same thing you are…YES YES YES!!! Gluten free what now.. My lovely sister is on that ban wagon. She has been having"issues" lately(so many, it's hard to pin point) and says she is feeling better without the gluten. Me being the lovely person that I am want to feed my poor sister, make her happy with food.  I HAD to prepare that lady a dinner and it had to be pizza cause I know how much she likes her pizza. So I brain storm. What would be a good gluten-free pizza crust? I could do the obvious and  get gluten-free flour, but to be honest, that's some expensive stuff and I really didn't feel like going to the store. I wanted to work with what I had in the house….and ah ha, there it is,  cornmeal.. With a little bit of water I can turn that into some polenta and a super gluten-free pizza crust.

So in walks polenta(if polenta could walk) What goes good with polenta? Caramelized onions, mushrooms and yes, my last delicate squash.(I am too nice) A nice base of marinara sauce and a bit of parmesan cheese mixed into the crust and sprinkled on top…..a complete work of genius that I was proud to serve to the gluten free lady.

Note. I have to make this clear, just because this pizza is gluten-free doesn't mean that a person that is not gluten-free cannot eat this. Anyone and Everyone should eat this pizza.

 There really isn't a whole lot of ingredients to this pizza… Cornmeal for the polenta. Marinara sauce….I used jarred marinara because it was a little easier and we don't always need to make things from scratch…Lots of onions(2 finely sliced), handful of  sliced mushrooms, thinly sliced squash and parmesan cheese. Most of the prep takes place at the same time, but that's good, we can multi task, just have everything pre chopped and ready to go. First thing first, start the polenta

There are so many different ratios and directions on how to prepare polenta, so if you feel like your way is better, I trust you. What I did for this crust was 1 cup cornmeal to about 2 1/4 cups water. The main thing is the finished product. You want a pasty paste that is spreadable but not overly watery.

Bring the water to a boil and constantly whisk while gradually pouring in the cornmeal. After a minute to two, it should be pretty well incorporated and there shouldn't be to many lumps. Turn the heat down to simmer and stir a lot  until the polenta starts to pull away for the sides of the pot. Really scrap the bottom of the pot so it doesn't burn. Once its done, add in a 1/4 cup of parmesan( if you want to keep it vegan, just don't add it) and salt and pepper.

           On a well oiled baking sheet or pizza sheet..spread the polenta into the shape of your desire. I went with a somewhat circular shape, but now that I think of it, I wish I had been more creative, like maybe a triangle or even the shape of a bus….Yeah, a bus shaped pizza would have been cool.

This crust needs to be pre baked so stick it in the oven.It should take about 20ish minutes.

            You can do this pre crust or at the same time, but roast your sliced squash. Place single layers squash on an oiled pan, salt and pepper, then into the oven. It should take 10 minutes on each side.

     

You got the crust in, the squash in, now we need to caramelize the onions. You may be thinking that 2 onions is a lot, and it kind of is, but you want a lot. A tiny bit of oil into a skillet and all the onions. medium low heat with a lid, string on occasion. When the onions start to caramelize, add the mushrooms and cook until onions are nice and soft and the mushrooms are no longer raw.  By the time you done with this task…everything should be ready….time to assemble!

    

First marinara…then the roasted squash.

      I Sprinkle a layer of parmesan cheese and pile on those onions and mushrooms,. Sprinkle with a little more cheese.  ( use vegan cheese or no cheese if you want it vegan) Back into the  oven for another 15 minutes to give everything some time to crisp and melt.  Remove from oven and appreciate…That is one good looking pizza. I took  a long spatial and run under the crust just to make sure if wasn't stuck. I also found that if you let it  cool for a few minutes before serving, the polenta gets a little stiffer and easier to handle, but not necessary.

Its time to eat!   And I know that it was a success. This is my gauge for how good it was…I stopped by the next day to drop a xmas tree stand off to her(again, look at how nice I am) and she was eating lunch…the left over pizza. That might not seem like anything to you but to me… She doesn't eat leftovers. Sure, she will stick them in the fridge, but that's where they stay until she tosses into the garbage. The pizza was leftover good….That is good!

Polenta Delicata Caramelized Onions and Mushroom Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 cup polenta (Cornmeal)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for the pan
• 2  1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan(omit if making vegan)
•  1/2 of Marinara sauce
• 1 small delicata squash
• 2 medium onions
• 8-10 mushrooms
• 2 gloves garlic

Directions

Pre heat oven to 425

In a medium saucepan, bring 2¼ cups water to a boil. Whisking constantly, slowly add the cornmeal while constantly whisking. Once full incorporated, turn to low and stir for a few minutes until the polenta starts to thicken and pull away from the sides. Stir in 1/4 cup of parmesan (if using). Salt and pepper to taste. Genously oil a pizza sheet to a cookie sheet and spread the polenta mixture  about a 1/2 thick. Place into oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until crust is a nice golden brown.

While the crust is cooking, place thinly sliced squash on an oiled baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in oven at the same time as crust, flipping squash after 10 minutes. Cook until fork tender, about 20 minutes.

While the crust and squash is baking, caramelize the onions. In a large skillet with a bit of oil. toss in onions and a little salt.  Cook on medium low heat with a  lid, giving them a good stir every now and then. Once onions are nicely cooked down, toss in the mushrooms. Continue to cook unit mushrooms are no longer raw.

Remove crust  and squash from oven and let cool for a minute. Now just pile stuff on. Spread  marinara sauce evenly around crust. Add squash and top with cheese. Dump the onions and mushroom on top and sprinkle with a bit more cheese.(Again, use vegan or no cheese to keep it vegan) Place back into oven for another 20 minutes.

Remove and let cool for a few minutes………..and then eat eat eat!!!

A good side dish for this pizza…a nice light arugula salad. Hey, you could even just toss some greens right on top of this pie, that would be fantastic too!

Enjoy and be awesome!