Monday, February 7, 2011

Meatless Mondays: Honey Baked Lentils


This year I decided to try to save money and eat healthier. I didn’t really need to designate a meatless Monday as we eat very little meat anyways. Usually because meat is expensive and my boyfriend won’t eat meat with bones in it unless it involves BBQ ribs. He’s impossible to feed sometimes.
Eating pasta gets tiring after awhile (unless you’re my boyfriend) so I decided to find some alternatives. While perusing my SparkPeople recipe finder I came across this recipe. It looked simple and I happen to have all the ingredients on hand. I love baked beans and was willing to give this a try after the reviews saying it taste just like baked beans.

Lentils are a new addition to my grocery list. I had gotten to know them as an AmeriCorp member last year because we would all get together for lunch after our biweekly meetings. Quite a few of our members are vegetarians and so most of our meals were meatless. If it weren’t for them I would have turned my nose up at them and never tried them. Since I was hungry and there weren’t many options, I ate them and I liked them. They are also cheap. Did I mention AmeriCorp members are poor?

It didn’t take any effort to convince my bf to eat this dish. He loves honey. I discovered I don’t like it too much. I think if I were to make this again I’d put less honey and add some brown sugar and butter (not very healthy but so much yummy flavor!). It was very filling and all and all not too bad. It is also very simple to make. Did I mention that the BF ate it up!? A pleasant surprise, but really, he is a more adventurous eater than me.

Honey Baked Lentils

Ingredients:


1 cup lentils
2 cups water
2 tbsp honey (or maple syrup, agave nectar, etc)
2 tbsp soy sauce (or Bragg's, tamari, shoyu, etc)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ginger root, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
salt & pepper


Directions:


Combine all ingredients in a covered dish. Bake in a covered dish at 350 until tender (about an hour and a half).

I served this over rice as a main dish but it would make a wonderful side dish!

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