Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Meals for Mamas

A dear friend from my mom's group just had her second baby.  Our group organizes meals for mamas after a new baby or if a mama is having a rough time and needs a hand.  How great is that? Yesterday was my day to bring a meal.  I made this yummy Roasted Veggie Enchilada Casserole.  I did add black beans, to up the protein content, and carrots and broccoli, because I had some.  And we used our homemade tomatillo salsa (from this recipe).



50% of children I tested liked this meal.  My own child spit it out, made a gagging sound, and asked for bread and butter instead.  But he doesn't like cilantro.  Dude, whose kid is he?  His friend who was over for lunch liked it.  She also had a butter sandwich, though.  My mama friend predicted her kid would just want the same grilled cheese she wants every night.  What is the matter with children?  I can personally say, this meal was awesome.  A make-again for sure.



I was super-psyched to return from my meal run to find that Sarah had made her signature yummy lentil soup.  It's such a pleasure for someone else to make dinner.  We have two really good lentil soup recipes.  She uses the lentil soup recipe from this book.  Here is my own recipe, which I like just as much, though it's a bit more work.  Ellis loves both.  (Tonight he ate 3 bowls.)

Jen's Best Red Lentil Soup Recipe

2-3 TBS butter or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 small onions, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 med. potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 carrots, cut into small pieces
1 cup red lentils
6 cups vegetable broth or water
1 tsp. cumin
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. brown mustard seeds
1 tsp. salt or to taste
2 TBS lemon juice

Melt butter in large soup pan.  Saute onions and garlic until onions begin to get tender.  Add veggies, lentils, and salt.  Saute about 1 minute.  Add spices and stir.  Add liquid and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes or until veggies are tender and lentils are breaking up.  Turn off heat.  Add lemon juice.  Serve over rice.

Fair warning: This is going to be a soup week on the blog.

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