My First Post/Why I think lentils are great

Hey everyone-

I decided to start a new blog...I've had several before talking about random stuff going on in my life. This time, I want to focus on something much more interesting- my kitchen. In the last couple years, I've discovered a passion for cooking, and I want to share some of my stories- my kitchen disasters and successes, my difficulties in tracking down some elusive type of meat, and some of my recipes. My experiences are especially interesting because I am a 21 year old college student- so I am always trying to make my money stretch as far as it can!

Alright, so, my introduction's done...now on to the kitchen stuff. Here's what's been cooking in my kitchen lately.

Lentils-
My boyfriend bought a bag of dried lentils a couple months ago, and he's been bugging me to make something with them for awhile now. This weekend, I finally got around to it- I made a simple lentil soup, with chicken broth and garam masala (an Indian spice mixture). It turned out great...except for the fact that after 4 hours on high in a crockpot, my lentils were still gritty and crunchy. I did all the soaking and boiling that the bag suggested- has anyone else had a problem like this with dried lentils (or beans or split peas)?

This was the first time I actually made lentils, and the first time in a couple years I ate them. I have to say, they are awesome! You'll learn as you read more of my posts that I like meat- I love having meat in pretty much anything. But, the lentils were excellent without any meat at all. Another huge plus- the price of dried lentils. I used half the bag to make about 5-6 servings of soup...and one bag costs about a dollar. Much like black beans, I felt like I was getting a lot of protein and taste for a very small amount of money. Word to the wise- you pay for the cheap price- as I said, my lentils cooked for 4 hours in a crockpot, plus the 30 minutes of boiling the bag suggested before actually cooking with them.

The garam masala was a great addition- I think it gave the lentils a lot of Indian flavor, but not a ton of heat. If you don't know what garam masala is, stick around- I plan on doing a post in the next week or so about spice mixes I use- and what I use them in. All in all, lentils = one of my new favorite items for....

Meatless Mondays-
This is something surprising for me. I've been doing a lot of reading about how bad meat (in particular beef) is for the environment. At the same time, I heard about the campaign that's starting up calling for Americans to start eating less meat and going without meat on Mondays. It seemed like a good idea, so I started doing it. Man, it has been interesting. I have really branched out and experimented with new options besides the usual chicken or beef. A few weeks ago, I had tilapia for the first time- it is so delicious! I really like that. My lentil soup recipe was inspired by Meatless Mondays, and that was good too. But I think my favorite thing thus far was a tortilla espanola I made with lightly fried potatoes and onions. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a large omlette, usually filled with potatoes and onions, that is cut into wedges and served as a tapa (an appetizer with drinks) or main course in Spain. It was excellent, minus the fact that the Food Network's website has no clue how to cook eggs. The recipe I tried suggested cooking the eggs over medium heat until the top set...but after 15 minutes, I gave up and cooked them over high heat. So far, I'm just doing this thing once a week, but maybe eventually, I'll do it more often. It seems like such a good idea from both an environmental and health standpoint.


Alright, everyone, thanks for reading my first entry...hopefully, there will be many many more to come! Keep checking back to see what's cooking in my kitchen, and leave me comments to let me know what's going on in yours!