Lentils x 2

I can’t believe the year is already over.  What happened to Fall?  I don’t remember having Fall.  I’m mostly sad the holidays are almost over because that means Son2 goes back to college (leaves on Tuesday).  I miss him already.  When he’s so far away I worry about him. Is he eating well?  Is he getting enough sleep?  Is he staying healthy?  How’s he doing in his classes?  These thoughts  often keep me from sleeping well.  When he’s home I also don’t sleep well because I hear him in the kitchen making his (very) late-night snack. (I’m a very light sleeper.)  Sigh.  It’s just the life of a mother.

Small wonder I like to make “comfort foods” for myself.  I also love good recipes that are made in the slow cooker.  Anything that goes in the slow cooker is almost by definition “comfort food.”  When I saw this recipe for Lentil Sloppy Joes from The Edible Perspective, I made it the very next day.  I had all the ingredients on hand — a bonus.  Note: I halved the original recipe since I didn’t know how many here would eat it (my husband is not a big fan of lentils and I wasn’t sure about the rest of the family.)

These lentils have an excellent texture, they stay slightly firm and don’t get mushy.  Everything goes into the slow cooker without any pre-prep, like browning or sauteeing.  So very easy.  I initially thought I would serve them as the recipe intended — as sloppy joes.  (I also made regular ground beef joes for those non-vegans in the house.)  When it came time for dinner I wasn’t in the mood for a bun, so I steamed some broccoli and served the lentil joe mixture on top of the broccoli.  It was very good, and perfect comfort food.

In addition to halving the recipe, I made a couple other changes.  I used fire-roasted diced tomatoes which I think added a smokey flavor to this dish.  I also added a handful of chopped mushrooms simply because I had some on hand.  They added a nice texture to the dish.

Day Two of Lentil Sloppy Joes:

Last night we split up and went to the movies, again.  DIL and I saw The Muppets (no, we weren’t the only kid-less adults in the theater).  We rushed home and prepared a taco buffet so when the other movie-going got home, we were ready to eat.  I used the Lentil Sloppy Joes for my taco filling and added diced tomatoes, guacamole, lettuce and salsa (on corn tortillas). Mmmm.  Good use of the leftovers.  Sorry, no photo.  I presume you know what a taco looks like and I was too hungry to make time to photograph it.  (I had already wasted precious eating time by breaking a glass casserole lid right before we started to eat.  Shards of glass flew everywhere.)