Red Lentil Curry

I love Indian food so much and this Red Lentil Curry was amazing! My mom was in town yesterday and we had a very fun day at the zoo. Before we left to head to the zoo however, I wanted to put something in the crockpot for our dinner so I didn't have to whip something up when we got home. I am so glad I did - we came home to delightful aromas!! This dish was fantastically delicious. I served it atop jasmine rice with naan, cabbage and fresh fruit to the side. I tweeked the recipe as usual :-)I forgot to take a picture until I had put the food away so this is a picture of leftovers of it! Not as pretty as the original dinner plate but gives the general idea!

Red Lentil Curry (adapted from Allrecipes)
1 cup red lentils
1 T canola oil
1 large onion, diced
1-2 tablespoons curry paste ( I used about 1 T and it was spicy but not too spicy.
 2 T will likely give you a VERY spicy dish so add according to your taste)
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
 1 teaspoon minced garlic
 1/2 t dried ground ginger
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 10 oz can diced tomatoes and green chilis (like Red Gold or Rotel)
1 cup water
 In crockpot, combine all ingredients except lentils and water. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Cook lentils according to package instructions (usually they take about 15-20 min to cook). Add lentils and water to crockpot during the final 15 minutes of cooking to heat thoroughly. Serve over rice.

First Harvest!

This year I purchased the coolest thing ever - a Tower Garden. This vertical garden is seriously an awesome contraption that makes gardening a breeze - and I harvested my first batch of lettuce this week. Delicious and fresh! If you have never seen a tower garden, they really are awesome...I have included a couple pictures. I love to make meals out of things I have grown. Yay for easy gardening!

Easy Tempeh Salad

I have discovered that I absolutely love tempeh! Not only have I found out how easy it is to make my own tempeh bacon (and how delicious it tastes!), but I have also realized several other ways of enjoying it. The flavor is so nutty and yummy. I recently made a fabulous salad with some some leftover tempeh cubes. I used the cubes in another dish - I simply rolled tempeh cubes in some flour and then browned them in some oil in a skillet. For the salad, I heated the tempeh cubes and then tossed them with some Louisiana hot sauce. I made a salad of baby cucumbers, tomatoes, petite peas and peppers (any veg combo will do!) and then tossed the salad ingredients with the tempeh and a bit of vinaigrette dressing. Sounds a bit strange but it was fabulously simple and absolutely delicious!!