Last night I tried a recipe from Rebecca Blood's blog: Rice and Lentils. Her version was pretty simple, and easy to add things too (like the four carrots). I used this a a filling for tacos (warmed corn tortillas) along with a bit of parmesean cheese and some Cholula brand hot sauce. I used a rice cooker to make it, so I was able to read "Square Foot Gardening" while the food was cooking.
Her blog is so much more detailed, that I almost gave up on mine. I'm keeping at it anyway. Its good practice for me.
I had the tacos with a salad. Our home grown lettuce is doing great, and we had our first yellow crookneck squash. I added a tomato from our weekly box. Its going to be a while until we get our own tomatos. I spent an hour yesterday wrestling our tomato plants into cages/frames. You're supposed to do this when the plants are small, not when they are sprawling all over and 3' tall. Better late than never. The first sprouts are coming up in the new garden bed. It seems too soon - maybe they're weeds? Its fun eating "free" food. Oh, and we harvested 3 plums from our ignored tree. The one I ate yesterday was possibly the best plum I've ever had. Maybe we need to move the trees to a sunnier place where they could thrive.
Recipe
Rice and Lentils
You can use this for any bits of vegetable you have on hand. It may seem like a lot of ingredients, but I just tossed in what I felt like.
1/2 C lentils (red and yellow lentils cook faster than brown or green ones), 1/2 C brown rice (or white), 2 C water, 1/4 onion, 4 carrots, 2 T butter or olive oil, 1/4 t cumin, 1/4 t chili powder, 1 T soy sauce, 2 cloves garlic
Grate the carrots and the onion and toss everything into the rice cooker (or a pot) except the soy sauce. If you're using a rice cooker, then turn it on and let it do its thing for 30 minutes or until it clicks off. If you're using a pot, bring it all to a boil, then down to a simmer, and cover, leaving it cook on the lowest heat for 20 minutes. Add the soy sauce when its all done.
