Ham and Lentils
A few weeks ago I bought a bag of lentils from the grocery store, which is not an usual occurrence for me. In fact, this is the only time I have ever purchased lentils. Unsure of what exactly to do with them, I buried them in my cupboard and mostly forgot about them. Yesterday I was doing a bit of kitchen reorganizing, found them, and decided to troll the Internet for something lentil-y to make for dinner. I found several recipes for Ham and Lentil Soup, which looked lovely, except it’s not quite cold enough for soup. I thought I could probably tweak it a bit (less chicken stock, more bacon, more veggies, more spices) to make it more of a side-dish and less soupy, and what I ended up with was absolutely delicious!
Margherita Chicken Salad
The invention of this dish goes back to my craving for Margherita pizza and my absolute lack of desire to make the dough. That being said, I feel like this is one dish I will be whipping up for a quick dinner over and over again, it was delicious! This recipe is enough to use as a main dish for a quick dinner, although it would be a lovely side-dish for any Italian or garden meal.
Margherita Crostini
I have been craving Margherita Pizza for weeks now, but have yet to get around to making it. It just seems like a lot of work to make pizza dough on a weeknight. That being said, I have several garden tomatoes and a pile of fresh basil waiting to be used. As I was staring at a loaf of french bread the idea occurred to me that I could make mini-pizza crostini’s with my fresh tomatoes and basil and call them “appetizers”, or “lunch” or something. They were absolutely delightful!
Baked Blueberry French Toast
I have heard rave reviews around the Internet concerning baked french toast, so I thought I should give it a shot and see how it turned out. Honestly? I wasn’t terribly impressed. Perhaps my problem was that a) I used wheat bread instead of white bread, b) I don’t *really* love blueberries, c) I forgot the whipped cream and d) I half-expected delicious gooey-in-the-middle french toast texture. Sadly, the wheat bread and the baking didn’t produce gooey-in-the-middle goodness, and the blueberries are just “meh” to me. But, if you like blueberries and goo-less french toast, this is for you! Keep in mind, this must refrigerate overnight, make sure to include some extra hours in your planning time.
Homemade Oreo Cookies
I don’t know about you, but I have always loved Oreo cookies, which is a little strange because I don’t typically love hard cookies. I have had this recipe for months and months, but hadn’t actually whipped them up until last week. People–they are heaven! And enormous! I highly recommend your next dessert (or lunch, or snack, or whatever) is these cookies! They only take about a half hour from start to finish, including baking time, so get cracking!
heidikins cooks 