Hi!

Some things:

1. I went to bed by ten on St. Patrick’s Day in a lime square-induced coma. It was awesome.

2. The rest of my weekend involved lots of yoga, a cold and windy (but sunny!) hike on the beach, clam chowder after said hike and exploring a new bakery. Also awesome.

3. I teach my first yoga class in two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!! Just the thought of it makes me want to throw up. Help.

4. This recipe is another one of my attempts to eat through the lifetime supply of lentils that I won two years ago. Yes, I just said “lifetime supply of lentils”.

I don’t really know how it comes across on the blog (what does she reallyyyy eat all the time?!) but this is the sort of dish I eat the most often when I’m home alone and craving something simple, tasty and healthy for dinner. Sure, I eat my fair share of chicken and dumplings, enchiladas, thai food take-out and….cereal straight from the box (just keepin’ it real), but this is the type of meal I love cooking just for me.

If these photos feel as totally weird to you as they do to me, it’s because 99.9% of the time I shoot all food photos in the morning when the light is really good. I shot these photos at about 8pm after going out to happy hour with some girlfriends and used my back-up lowel-pro photography light on my kitchen floor. I always prefer to use natural light when I can, so this was a rare occurrence.

It was also a rare occurrence for me to actually cook after going out to a happy hour. Usually those are the nights reserved for the cereal straight out of the box or the scrambled eggs. You know!

Anyway….this is a lovely post-happy hour meal. It’s full of healthy and tasty little bits and is best served with a thick slice of crusty bread.

It’s really good for those nights when it’s just you, your cat and five episodes of Private Practice ahead of you.

Now go eat a cookie…or four.

Spicy Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Kale

serves 2-3

Print this recipe!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup green lentils

1/2 large carrot, peeled and small diced

1/4 cup small diced onion

1 tsp garlic,

1 stalk celery, small diced

1 bunch lacinato kale, chopped

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 serrano pepper

1/4 tsp sea salt (or, to taste)

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into small 1/4-1/2″ cubes

2 tsp cooking oil

2 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock

Directions:

Heat the oil in a medium sized pot. Once hot, add the onion, celery, carrot and sweet potato and cook for about six minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and kale and continue cooking until kale wilts.

Add the lentils, bay leaf, rosemary sprigs, serrano pepper and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until lentils are tender and have absorbed most of the liquid.

Season with salt to taste and remove the bay leave, chile pepper and rosemary sprigs before serving. Serve with crusty bread.

Time:

45 minutes