Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Scheduling Insanity

Did you ever notice that right before your schedule eases up it has to get super crazy? Mine is no exception. Through a rare stroke of scheduling brilliance, I'm slated to work at the gym until 5pm and then do a fitness program at the Girl Scout Council, across town, from 5:30pm - 7:30pm. The only good news is the Girl Scout Council is 2 minutes from my house. Its another, slow cooker night.

For tonight, I'll be making a lentil & rice casserole inspired by the one in Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy. I usually make this in the oven but it will work just as well in the slow cooker, although since I am using the slow cooker, I will use barley instead of rice. I prefer French lentils to regular lentils because they have less of a sandy texture and they maintain their shape through cooking. The original recipe doesn't call for vegetables, except onions, to be added. I always add in whatever I have on hand; root vegetables work very well. I skip the cheese that the original recipe calls for.

Click here to see my review of Jonni's book.

2 comments:

Ruthie said...

Katie,

Is this the same recipe as the one in the Tightwad Gazette? I tried that lentil rice casserole and found it OK but bland. I was thinking the addition of veggies and soycheese sauce would really bring it up to par.

Ruthie

Katie said...

Ruthie,
Its a very similiar recipe. It can be a bland recipe without adding veggies. I have sprinkled Fake Fake (a cheese substitute that uses walnuts, nutritional yeast and garlic powder) over the top before serving but I've found that just adding veggies is usually enough.