What to Eat on a Stormy Night

It was a dark and stormy night…*snicker*

Actually, it is a dark and stormy night, but that phrase just makes me giggle.

Yesterday, I made a fab-o turkey, tomato, pepper, onion and ricotta frittata before I left the house for work.  Upon our return, I served up the dish, the younger minions took one look, a sniff and they snubbed my creation.  The oldest ate the lovely food without comment but the others begged off with a chorus of , “Do I have to eat this?”  Khaled promptly took pity on them and offered up pasta which I then switched into scrambled eggs.  They needed some protein.

Sigh.  Sometimes they are not the foodies I would love them to be.

So, instead of wasting my time again tonight, I asked my ladies what they would like for dinner.  They promptly replied, “Hamburgers!”

So was the plan until it got derailed.

This morning I met my husband downstairs for some morning coffee chit-chat when my phone chirped and I was being requested for work.  All was well, I thought.  Go to work, pick up the ground beef on the way home and make the burgers. No problem!  But I hadn’t checked the forecast that would have told me that the grill would be out of commission.  I also didn’t know that we would be in the midst of a tornado watch with heavy downpour and flooding.

Khaled was working late, I don’t want to drive across town to get the hamburger meat, making the mad dash across the parking lot into the market is less than appealing.  So, I immediately start going through the options of what I can pull together out of the pantry and fridge.  After some deliberation, I settled on Lentil Soup.  YUMMY!!!

Lentil Soup

Prep-15 minutes? Cook Time – 2 hours? (Plan on the safe side.)

Ingredients

1 medium onion

1/2 C chopped green pepper

2 carrots shredded

1 clove garlic whole

2 C brown lentils (washed)

8 C broth (I used beef tonight.)

2 C canned, stewed, chopped tomato

1 T kosher salt

1 t black pepper

1 1/2 t cumin

1 T olive oil

In a BIG (not the rice pot – bigger, like one you’d boil spaghetti in) pot, saute the onion, green pepper, carrot and garlic clove in the oil until the onion is translucent but not brown.  Add the lentils, broth, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil and simmer until the lentils start to split open.  Probably like an hour, hour 1/2? Add the tomato and cumin.  Taste.  Add more seasoning if you like.  I would have added some ground red pepper for some heat but I was being lazy.  Let it simmer another 15 minutes so the tomato and cumin meld in with the other flavors.

Ladle it into bowls, eat plain, dress it up with shredded cheese or sour cream.  You could probably add a few green onion or chives for garnish if you were feeling fancy.  Eat and feel comforted.

Oh yeah, it will be even better tomorrow, and you could totally eat it with a big, fat slab of fresh bread and real butter. *Drool*