Red Lentils

I can't tell you why, but for some reason I've been craving lentils lately, which is weird, cause the only time I've ever really had lentils, was when I was studying abroad they were easy to get and cook, cheap and delicious, but I haven't had them much (or at all?) since then. So when I was at the grocery store this weekend I decided to pick some up. But I couldn't find any with the dry beans (which is where I assume they're kept?). So I checked over in the organic section with loose stuff that you bag yourself and get to print a little price tag for (clearly the highlight of this venture) and they were all out of green lentils. But, they did have red ones. Having never seen, or even knew red lentils existed, I decided, why not, let's give it a go! 

The dispenser they came from said to use 3 cups water to one cup lentils, and cook them for 30 - 45 minutes. So clearly I followed this advice. But I think I must've missed something, because it definitely didn't take that long, and even then they came out a bit mushy. And I ended up having to add a little more water, but I feel like that's pretty normal. 

I use an advanced method to mix my spices before throwing them into the pot. The only thing not pictured that I did end up adding was a little salt. I used mostly curry and garlic powder, with only a little cumin, and a teensy bit of ginger. 

I also added some onion and a big spoonful of plain greek yogurt.

See, mushy. But it did come out tasting pretty good :) I ended up eating it for lunch, but I'd say given the way I made it, it would be better suited as a side dish. Maybe I should invest some time into looking for recipes involving lentils. Any suggestions?

See you next Tuesday everyone!

X - Presto! (aka Espresso)

Let's begin with the fact that it will forever drive Lilly crazy that I supposedly can't pronounce espresso (APPARENTLY there is no X in espresso, psh). But that doesn't prevent me from occasionally getting motivated enough to make some up! Above you can see i store my beans in foil in a plastic bag, I would love it if someone told me the proper way to store them? (Though google could probably tell me that, maybe I'll get motivated one day to find out). Anyways, I once read that you shouldn't grind the beans until right before you use them, so I dont :)

Look at that lovely $2 grinder from Savers! 

So the bottom part gets water, then the little holder that's designed to let the steam come up through the grinds goes on top.

And then of course it gets to the point were you can make an absolute mess with the grinds as I almost always do (it's really quite remarkable though). It all gets screwed together an atop the stove it goes to boil and steam, and make lovely sounds and smells and it brews up a nice little pot of espresso. Speaking of espresso pots I got mine for less than ten bucks at either a Marshall's/TJ Maxx/Home Goods at one point or another. It's an item that they often have, but not always, I had to be a little patient when I went looking, cause I had seen them there before, but when I wanted one they didn't have any!

For todays liquid treat I've decided to use a little bit of the vanilla and cinnamon syrups from a set my mom put in my xmas stocking as a stuffer. (fun fact: Lilly or someone else will be using that amaretto one, for some reason that's one flavor that I've just never liked much). Once the espresso was done brewing I used my little milk froth-er (a cheap goodwill purchase! god I love second hand things apparently, lol) to froth the milk a bit. Now personally I don't heat up my milk at all because I prefer cold or room temperature drinks over hot ones (unless I am cold, like if I'm out and about on a freezing day).  Also I like to slowly add in the espresso while I'm still using that little gadget in the milk, which i fell must be improper, but it's so fun that I don't even care, you know?

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little window (lesson?) into my espresso drink making habits, and as always, I'll see you next tuesday!

Lazy Mac 'n' Cheese

I know, I know, it's been less than a month since my last post about mac 'n' cheese, but I can't help it, I freaking love the stuff! I also recently came upon this buzzfeed list and immediately was mildly obsessed. I tried a couple of the breakfast ones and they were alright, but then I saw just how easy (some of them are actually more complicated than I would want something of this small of a venture to be....yeah I know, I'm extra lazy sometimes) the diy easy mac one was and I had to have it for lunch! I didn't even really follow it, haha, I just put some pasta in a big mug, and put water so that it covered all the pasta and went for it! I cooked it for 4 minutes on the normal setting in the microwave and that wasn't working and the water was bubbling over, so then I ended up cooking it for another 4 minutes on half power and that worked out well. Then I just used a fork to hold back the pasta and carefully drained the extra water out. 

Remember this cheese from the previous mac 'n' cheese post? Yeah I liked it that much (and yeah it was still in our fridge) that it's what I used for this mac 'n' cheese. And I must say it was a pretty good choice. I cut it up into little chunks (again, I was too lazy to get the grater out to shred it, what is with me today, honestly, lol). I threw the chunks and a splash of milk in, stirred a bit, and microwaved it for another 15 sec on normal power just to expedite the cheese melting. It was a tad bland so I did add a sprinkling of salt and an ever so small sprinkling of cayenne pepper. 

All in all this was pretty damn good. Not as good as baked mac 'n' cheese (will anything ever be), but I'd agree with the original poster of the diy easy mac post in that it's certainly as good as the boxed stuff, and it's definitely faster. The only real downside is that cheese kinda stuck to the sides/bottom of the mug, but it was easily fixed by scraping off a little with my fork for each bite. Problem solved. So yeah, if you're looking for a good grown-up version of easy mac, I'd be a proponent of this plan. Until next time, bon apetite!

For Fun

This week's post is brief, but fun! Once upon a time, not so long ago I used to work at my local Cold Stone Creamy (a fun job indeed), and years ago we had a chalk marker board on which we would write anything we wanted to inform customers of ect. on it. It had magnetic strips on the back cause it lived on a metal board. Eventually they replaced these boards with other things in the stores, so ours lived in the back room for a while, until we were to get rid of it, but one of my co-workers knew that I had always wanted to take it home with me, so she told our manager and instead of throwing it away it did go home with me one night! Now it lives on the side of our fridge and houses jokes! And lets face it: jokes are fun :)