a slice of this girl's blessed, blessed life

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

recipe: italian lentils

maybe someday i'll post a recipe that doesn't involve the crock pot but until then i'll keep putting them out there.  last week i saw this recipe and knew i had to try it.  i'm always looking for different recipes and this one spoke to me.  here's my spin:

what you'll need

1. one pound of green lentils
2. two cans of chicken broth
3. one jar of marinara sauce
4. one sweet potato
5. butternut squash (i used frozen.  how awesome is it that they sell frozen butternut squash?!  amazing)
6. green beans (i used frozen)
7. peppers (any color and i used frozen)
8. onion (i used frozen.  they came in the same bag as the peppers.  i think i single handedly keep the frozen section of my grocery store in business).
9. optional: buffalo chicken meatballs (from costco).

what you do

1. peel and chop sweet potato
2. put all ingredients except the meatballs in the crock pot
3. crank on low for 8-10 hours (ours cooked from 6:20 a.m. until about 6:45 p.m.).
4. with about a half hour to go add meatballs
5. eat and enjoy!

i really liked this recipe.  it is so versatile.  if you're a meat eater, you can bulk it up with the chicken stock and meatballs. however, it can also be vegetarian if you use water or veggie stock and omit the meatballs.  in fact, i was so excited to eat leftovers next friday because i don't eat meat on fridays during lent.  then i remembered the chicken stock.  rats!  i got to thinking i should make vegetarian crock pot recipes during lent and add meat to them during the week and then eat the meatless leftovers on fridays.  i'll give it a whirl.  if you have any good vegetarian crock pot recipes please feel free to send them along.  i'm not exactly a genius in the kitchen.  yum!!

7 comments:

  1. well thanks so much for linking my blog! you're awesome and i'm so happy you enjoyed the recipe..it's a good one :) we're trying to be more veggie conscious but I can totally see this recipe w/ meat...

    good idea about how to get around lent! like it.

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    1. Thanks. Coming up with interesting meatless options for my meat loving husband can pose quite the challenge. It keeps me on my toes though!

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  2. I guess I need to pick up a crockpot sooner rather than later...

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    1. I'd highly recommend it. It is a working person's dream and now that there's two of you it could come in handy.

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  3. This sounds really good! I'll have to try it out sometime soon. I've never seen the buffalo chicken meatballs at Costco (but they sound amazing!), so I'm thinking I could add chicken or turkey sausage to the crockpot.

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    1. I think chicken or turkey sausage would be delicious in this. I think what I like about the crock pot is you can use whatever you have.

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  4. no shame in crock pot recipes! keep em coming! I am in a total crock pot phase at the moment so I seriously appreciate any inspiration I can find.

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