Delicious lentils

We've been eating lots of lentils recently. There were several half-used packets in our cupboard, along with a bunch of other random bits and bobs of food, which I've been trying to use up. It turns out that lentils are really delicious and versatile. So far I've made a lentil and sausage hotpot which was a real hit, and a vegetarian lentil lasagne which will surely become a staple when we have veggies over for dinner!

Sausage and lentil hotpot
300g green lentils
12 pork sausages
1 onion, diced
4 rashers smoked bacon, cut into strips
2 carrots, cut into chunky pieces
4 sticks of celery, chopped
Dried thyme
1 litre chicken stock

Fry bacon in a large lidded casserole until browned. Add the onion and fry until soft (add a bit of salt to speed this up). Add the carrot and celery and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the lentils, stock, sausages and thyme. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 45 minutes.

We ate it with rice but I think it would go well with baked potatoes.

Spicy slow cooker chilli con carne

I managed to put this together in the 30 minutes that Sophie napped yesterday - yes!

Preheat slow cooker. Dice an onion. Fry with a little oil and 400-500g minced beef until the beef is browned. Transfer to cooking pot and add a chopped red pepper, four sticks of chopped celery, a tin of chickpeas, a tin of kidney beans, and generous sprinklings of hot chilli powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, and dried basil. Cook for 4-5 hours on high, or 6-7 hours on low. Eat with rice, tortillas, or jacket potatoes.

Christmas 2012 - stuffed turkey leg for two

Christmas 2012 was special for us: it was our first Christmas at home, and our first as a family of three. We had a lovely day of presents, relaxation, food, walking, and remembering the wondrous and amazing truth that Jesus was born as a tiny, vulnerable baby, to save and to rule and to reign.

For our Christmas lunch, we created a delicious and easy stuffed turkey leg. I bought an organic turkey leg from the butcher and had it boned. We chopped a handful of dried apricots, and mixed them with two de-skinned pork and leek sausages to make a stuffing. We placed the stuffing down the centre of the leg, rolled it, tied it with string, and roasted on a roasting rack for 1 hour 45 minutes with lots of thyme on top, covering with foil for the last 30 minutes. It was so juicy and delicious that we did not need gravy. We served it with roasted sweet potato, carrot and parsnip, and brussels sprouts pan-fried with smoky bacon. Yum.