Blessed meal

How is it that I've been gifted with a meal from someone I hardly know? I have been blessed by this friend-of-a-friend before.


I just had to accept the gift with grace, because we often don't deserve the things we've been given. At least I don't.


Through my drywalling friend (and there's another blessing I don't deserve), this friend-of-a-friend...

Hang on. This is too hard. She needs a name. Because I don't know how she feels about being named in this public (!) space, I'll call her...Deidre.

Start again.


So, through my drywalling friend, Deidre has been hearing about my bathroom reno. Knowing the stress that renos can cause, Deidre thought she'd forward a care package so that at least one meal this week would be off my mind. She's very generous and thoughtful that way. I can learn much from her. I still had to cook it, but it was easy to prepare. The main thing for me was that all of the thinking was done and all of the ingredients provided. It's the planning and thinking about meals that tires me out, so this was perfect.

Deidre has only met me on a few occasions, so she probably doesn't know that we don't really eat many lentils. It's one of those ingredients I'd love to love (like squash), but I haven't enjoyed them much in the past. I did, however, just buy some mixed lentils last week to try again. I keep trying.

The recipe included simply said "Lentils". I didn't know if I should expect it to be like a vegetable side dish, or soup or stew. Just "Lentils". Whatever. Like a good girl, I followed the instructions exactly. Still full of doubts about the taste, I made two big pork chops to accompany the dish in case we didn't like it or it needed something more to fill out the meal.

There was no need. This meal was awesome and filling and full of good nutrients. I ate my pieces of meat, but I won't bother next time. And there will definitely be a next time. I think we all had seconds, even a picky six year old and a guest who'd never had lentils, and Beth requested a bit saved for her lunch.

Our guest went home with the recipe, and enough cumin and lentils to make this for herself later. I can't give you the ingredients here, but here's the recipe:

Lentils

2-3 cups red lentils
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 - 28 oz can of tomatoes
1 box vegetable stock
cumin and coriander to taste
salt and pepper if you like

Wash and rinse the lentils.

Saute the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the washed lentils. Add
the rest of the ingredients.

Simmer until done (mine took about 1 1/2 hours). How easy is that? Eat and
enjoy, even if you don't think you like lentils. You will be converted.

We ended the meal with a cheesecake that our guest brought with her. Could things get any better? It was a great meal and I had nothing to do with it.

This is the bag it came in. It was almost perfect, but it should have said this: