This was my first try ever eating lentils and rice let alone cooking them. I found a great recipe using the instant pot. It takes only about 20 minutes from prep to serving it up and it’s absolutely delicious.
This recipe that I made fed my family of three for one meal plus at least 2 to 3 additional meals. So you could obviously stretch this out for 5 to 7 lunches or dinners comfortably if you need to stretch things.
It is warm and delicious and my picky eater even liked it. Enjoy!!!
Lynn A. C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother
Ingredients:
Easy instructions:
*use as a side dish or as a main dish
*use leftovers in a soup or a casserole
Find me on YouTube – At Home with Lynn Wilson
Right now we are in weird times and everyone is scrambling to find budget friendly meals, and resources for these meals as well. Many people have not had to cook so many meals at home until this virus hit us. On top of having to cook the meals we are now finding that our resources are limited for meats, rice etc. Here are two books I can recommend not only give you a budget friendly recipes but also for alternatives for when you can’t find what you need.
I’ve included a great recipe for a yummy cake. This recipe is basic ingredients that you have normally at home and all you do is change up the extract to create a different flavor every time you make it. I hope you enjoy the show me a cake as much as I do. It’s moist and delicious and great deserve as a snack or dessert at any time. Be creative with the icings and toppings that you use for a different dessert every time you serve it.
I love watching You-Tube channels on home and organization. How about you? I sat one day and watched two of my favorite channels….Jamerrill Stewart and Parsnips and Parsimony. They are two large families, but the overall idea is the same. One family will fill their pantry once a month for the next month’s menu, with a few extras. The other family will fill their pantry with extras for when the budget is tight. They then have food in the pantry to pull from.
After watching the two of them, I took one look at my freezers and realized….what a mess!!! Not only was it a mess, but I would buy doubles of things I did not need, and not enough of what I needed because I was not organized. Another You-Tube channel that I love is Coupons to Provide. She goes on to say how she is a visual person…and oh how I could relate to that. If she puts it away in a closet, etc…and she does not see it….she forgets she has it.
Bingo…that gave me an idea. What I need is a place for a pantry that would be organized, simple (with my busy schedule I need this), efficient for the family to use, and visual for me. I need to know quickly what I have in order to work for meals.
So, I emptied my pantry….what a job. I sorted what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to give away. I was able to bless someone else with the things I will not use, and I created a great little nook.
Now every time I enter and exit my kitchen….I get to see my pantry stash of stuff, and I love it. If you are not a visual person, and/or a practical, functional homemaker….this would probably drive you nuts. But for me it is perfect.
So now it is time to clean up, and clean out my two freezers. Creative cooking will be happening in our home from now until Easter. Come and join in the fun; clean out your bits and pieces in both your pantry and freezer.
Lynn A.C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother
I decided to take on the challenge of dehydrating chili… And so many of my friends were critics that it couldn’t be done. So I sat and I googled ideas, of course there’s also Pinterest and YouTube videos to check into. And I found that it is something that can be done.
The people that I saw on YouTube were going backpacking or camping and so this was an idea that they would have to bring with them for a simple and easy meal to rehydrate. It might be something you want to use to keep in storage just for an extra meal, or if you live in an area where there’s frequent power outages due to weather conditions it’s something that’s a simple meal to make. For me I have a son with Autism and I don’t allow him to use the stove… So to have something that I make homemade, and he can add hot water to and rehydrate and have a nutritional meal that I prepared ahead of time …I think is fantastic.
I took my favorite chili recipe… then I let it cool in the refrigerator overnight to thicken up. Next I put it on my dehydrating trays. It took about 18 to 20 hours to dehydrate and it came out fantastic.
To rehydrate it all you have to do is to add 1 cup of hot water to 1 cup of dried chili let it sit for 10 minutes and you have a delicious meal.
You can use a Mylar bag with an oxygen absorber to keep it fresh for a long time until you need to use it.
Check it out… It might be something you would enjoy having on a cold winter night, by the fireplace… for when the power goes out.
Lynn A. C. Wilson- Resume of a Mother
I always like a good challenge… And I’ve heard more and more people tell me you cannot dehydrate frozen vegetables. So what’s a girl to do… Go on YouTube, Pinterest and all the rest and look up recipes. So I took on the challenge and I did dehydrate a bag of frozen green beans that I purchased at Trader Joe’s.
The ultimate goal will be to learn how to dehydrate as many vegetables including frozen… So then I can make soup mixes in a jar for Christmas presents this year.
I took the bag directly from the freezer, placed them on the trays, turned the dehydrator on… My dehydrator only has one setting, and then let it run all night. The next morning I got up and they were fantastically dehydrated. All ready for soup mixes, stews, and anything else that I need.
I think this is a fantastic way to preserve food and not to waste it. I find myself many times buying fresh produce and frozen things forgetting I have them and I end up throwing them out.
On to bigger and better ways to preserving food for my family, and to also save money.
Let me know if you’ve ever dehydrated green beans frozen or fresh and how they came out.
Lynn A. C. Wilson-Resume of a Mother
How many times have you been left with bananas that you justdidn’t know what to do with, or you saw a good sale and wished you could buy abunch of them… no pun intended, and keep them for future use. I know somepeople like to freeze them for smoothies etc., but here’s another great idea.
Why not dehydrate them? I was blessed with a dehydrator forChristmas… So now I am in my kitchen trying things fast and furious to see howthey turn out.
This was one of my first attempts. I saw a lot of recipes whereyou could dip the banana slice in lemon juice, but I decided to go completelynatural and they are absolutely delicious.
A great way to have a healthy snack… Or add to your oatmeal inthe morning.
Comment below if you have ever hydrated bananas and what yourexperience has been. Have you done it with or without lemon juice… addedcinnamon or honey? I’d love to hear from you!
From Lynn’s kitchen…
Lynn A. C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother
Resume Of A Mother 