Recipe Randomness

We have been working hard on that "try-not-to-buy-more-groceries-until-every-last-thing-is-used-up" dollar won saving strategy...not the most fun way to cook but it definately stretches the imagination right along with dollar won and is a great way to get creative in the kitchen and put the culinary skills to the test.

Many days I think "it is just not possible to pull another meal out of this random assortment of food items" and I'm always surprised.  Allrecipes.com has a life-saving feature that allows you to enter in the food items you do have and the ones you don't have and it pulls up recipes that fit your search.  This has been a wonderful tool these past months.  I am also often surprised at how a seemingly odd assortment of ingredients can come together quite nicely.  We have also found that curry is a life saver (for us anyway).  As Steve likes to say, "curry makes anything taste better."  True story.

As I searched through our freezer and cupboard today, I actually found more than I was anticipating (always a nice thing).  I found some chick peas and some lentils that a dear friend had gifted us, I found some pre-made brown rice in the freezer and some frozen spinach (another gift), and some carrots that needed desperately to be eaten.....about 30 minutes later we had dinner on the table and Steve said our kitchen "smelled like India."  He would know.

It always happens to me when we cook this way (using up random ingredients and not following a recipe) that occasionally we will make something delicious quite on accident but are never able to repeat since it was thrown together.  So I thought I'd write it down here on the blogdiggity where I could actually find it again.  That and I am always ever-so-thankful when the blogs I stalk follow post a good recipe.

Here goes:

- In one pan I reheated the soaked brown rice with a little coconut oil to make it crisp up and some garlic for flavor
- In another pan I combined cooked lentils, cooked chickpeas, chopped carrots, garlic, and spinach (quantity depends on how much you want to make...I did about 2 cups of each of the beans and spinach and 3 large carrots because that is what we had).
- I added coconut milk (I used half a can because it is a precious commodity in Korea that I use sparingly but I would recommend a whole can) to the beans/carrots.  And then got crazy with the spices.
- In decending order (not measured, to taste):  curry, tumurec powder, cumin, paprika, pepper flakes, salt, ground cloves, cinnamon....If Caleb was better at tolerating spice, I would have added more pepper.

Best part? 

Caleb ate it up,

 literally.

"More Pleeeeeeaaaaasee"

Clean Plate club.

Who says nutritious can't also be delicious?

PS  When I make this again, I'd for sure add onions.