What looks like a hot mess but tastes delicious?

Im challenging myself (as Executive Chef of the Graham Household) to use up the contents of our deep freezer and pantry. There is some weird bits and bobs in there. Among them, 50000 tortilla wraps, about 9oz of frozen black beans and a jar of mole sauce bought in Mexico about 3 years ago. A dear friend fed us this amazing budget bytes recipe when we were over for dinner in the summer. We loved it.

The corn tortillas did not thaw nicely, being rather freezer burnt, so they will get used for another round of green enchiladas. Fortunately I had over purchased wraps at Superstore last week  (it was the same price for 2 as for 1), so I used those instead. The mole sauce was a bit of a mess, I kept having to add a ton of water to it as I was making it up because it was too thick. So I didn't use it all... Plus it's too spicy for my delicate white girl taste buds, so I ended up scraping it all off the top before I ate it, leaving just enough kick and mole flavour to keep it from being completely bland.

Modifications:

-added 3 shredded carrots

-1 whole diced pepper (orange if you care)

-1 cup old cheddar (shoulda added more!!)

Wish I had added lime juice to the veggie mix, except that our citrus juicer thing went missing last summer and I only just replaced it yesterday.

I'm eating them on day 5, the avocados are starting to be a bit sad but everything else is doing nicely.

These are a good lunch option as they are nicely contained and can be picked up (unless your sauce is runny) or cut up with a knife and fork.

Lentils

I love lentils. I really do. I made my favourite dish last night for dinner (and this leftovers for my dinner at work today): baked lentils with cheese. Except I swapped out the cheese for yam tonight. Yuuuuummmmm.

This is a really great recipe that's quick to put together and you can toss it in the oven and mostly forget about it for awhile. The original recipe comes out if the More with Less cookbook, put out by the Mennonite church (association?). While I am not a Mennonite, the philosophy of this book hits the nail on the head. Mostly. But if you google it, you'll find the following recipe!

1 3/4 cup green lentils, rinsed and picked over

2 large onions (and they do mean Large)

2 cloves of garlic (yah right, try at least 7)

2 cups diced tomatoes***

2 cups water***

Salt (salt until it tastes salty, tomatoes take quite a bit of salt)

Pepper

2-3 sprigs of thyme

2-4 sage leaves

Bay leaf

(Original recipe suggests marjoram and rosemary, but I hate the latter and we never have any in our house).

Preheat oven to 375. Find a large baking dish (9x13 or larger). Mix all the above in a bowl, pour into the dish. Cover with a lid or tinfoil, bake for 30 mins.

Then add:

2 large carrots, sliced into 1/8" pieces

2 stalks of celery, diced.

Bake for another 40 mins.

Check for doneness, then top with grated cheese (2-3 cups) and broil until melted.

OR

Peel and chop 3-4 medium sized yams and steam them until they're cooked. Mash them with some butter and salt, spread on the finished lentils and toss em back in the oven for a few more minutes to dry out a bit on the top.

The secret to this dish is the insane amount of onion. No kidding. I made it once with less onion and it wasn't as exciting.

This also freezes well.

I would've taken more pictures, but alas I was too busy eating. ;)