Lentils and Rice

This recipe is compliments of a friend. Desiree gave it to me years ago...way back when I lived in Alabama. We haven't had this dish for quite awhile, but it's on the docket for dinner tonight. It's a healthy, inexpensive meal, and a complete protein too!

Lentils and Rice

2 cups dry lentils
1/4 cup dried, minced onions
1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice or millet
1 1/2 tsp basil
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp oregano
3/4 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper

8 cups liquid (either broth or water, but adjust seasonings if using just water)

Mix together all the dry ingredients. (Sometimes I mix it ahead, put it in the resealable bag, and keep it on hand. All that needs to be added later is the liquid) Add liquid. Bake in a 3qt ungreased covered casserole for 1 1/2 - 2hrs in a 350 deg oven.

Serve with all sorts of toppings. (whatever it will take to get your children to eat it ;-) ) We've served this with Ranch dressing, barbeque sauce, or ketchup, but our favorite is South African chutney that we discovered in England. I also serve a salad when eating this.

Variations:
Cheese: I'm told that the original recipe had cheese, but I've never told my children that. There were many times that more than one of us needed to be dairy-free, so I had this dish to serve. I'm afraid that if the children ever tasted it with cheese, they would never want to eat it without. Now they know.
Lentils: I've usually used the brown lentils, but today I used red ones. We'll see.
Spices: I've left out the oregano/basil/thyme and used curry spices instead. yum!

25th Anniversary - late entry

November of 2006, we celebrated 25 years of marriage. Here's us then. I don't have a picture scanned of us on our wedding day.
And our wonderful daughter put on a lovely dinner party for us. Here's a few shots of our friends celebrating with us. Dd cooked quite the elegant meal, and our other children provided entertainment.

Aviator Caps 2

Now the pictures of my bigger boys in their hats. After seeing these, a couple others have requested caps too. I guess I'll just HAVE to order more yarn. Don't you just hate buying yarn?? LOL

Aviator Cap 1

Using the same yarn as I did for the fingerless gloves, I knitted an aviator hat. It was smaller than I thought it would be, so it now belongs to my 4yo. I'm afraid you might not get a good view from this picture, but here it is anyway. She is on the shoulders of one of her older brothers.

Visitors!

Two of my nieces came to visit for the wedding. We all had a wonderful time! Here's a picture of them playing in the snow. With the sun behind them, they look like angels! and of course, they are....

Fingerless Gloves

This is one of the pair of fingerless gloves I did for dd. She's modeling it with her hand plastered on the face of her new husband. I should post the link to where I got the pattern, but alas, it's not in front of me. If you're interested, let me know. The gloves were fun, not hard, and pretty quick.