Monday Night Family Feast

I've decided to start a new tradition:  Monday Night Family Feast.

Monday tends to be a fairly light day for me and I'm able to spend a little more time in the kitchen so I decided to treat my family to a bigger than usual meal.  A "feast" for us.  Our usual meal normally consists of a big salad and a vegetable dish which is not only healthy but time saving.  But with no classes and no deadlines on Monday nights, I decided to do something different.

The menu was:

Mushroom Lentil Stew

Brown Rice

WHO Bread

Salad

And for desert, Yogurt Bread and Strawberries

I say "was" because I never made it to the salad part.  When I poured the hot stew into the terrine and lifted it to take it to the table, the enire bottom cracked and dropped out. Ahhh!  I was able to salvage half the stew but spent the next half hour cleaning up.  So we had some leftover edamame from lunch instead. (Anyone who knows me would know that this kind of thing happens to me on a regular basis so I just take it in stride now.) :)  Regardless, it was a very nice meal.  Recipes follow.

Lentil-Mushroom Stew (from the aforementioned Whole Earth Cookbook)

1 1/2 quarts stock or water        

2 C lentils, washed                     

1 onion, sliced and chopped       

1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced           

1 tsp dried basil                         

1/2 tsp salt

2 stalks celery and tops, chopped

2 carrots, sliced

1 can stewed tomatoes (I used fresh chopped)

1/3 C oil (I used a tbsp olive oil for sauteing)

2 tbsp vinegar (I used balsamic)

Bring stock to a boil and slowly add lentils.  Reduce to a simmer and cook 1 hour.  Meanwhile, saute onion, mushrooms and basil in oil.  Set aside.  Combine all ingredients, except vinegar, (I had to add a little more water at this time) and cook at least 1 more hour (I cooked it less), or until lentilsare tender.  Add vinegar before serving.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serves 4 well. (Unless your soup terrine breaks.)

The WHO bread, which I'm not sure but I would guess stands for Wheat, Honey and Oats, is from  SouleMama.  Since the recipe is for a 1 1/2# loaf, I changed it for a 2# loaf in my Zojirushi. 

Here are my changes:

1 1/2 C water

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 1/4 C flour (I used 1/2 home ground red winter wheat and 1/2 All purpose)

1 tbsp sucanat (instead of brown sugar)

2 1/2 tsp yeast (I always use SAF Instant in my bread machine)

The Yogurt Bread Recipe is as follows:

6 oz. yogurt
2 eggs
1/4 C oil
1/4 C apple sauce
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C sugar ( I used 1/3 C honey)
1 1/4 C flour (I used Home Ground Whole Wheat - HGWW)
1 heaping tsp. baking soda

Mix (whisk) together yogurt, eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla and sugar.
Stir together flour and bakin soda in seperate bowl.
Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients, add fresh fruit (optional)
Bake at 350 for 30 min.

*Flavors of yogurt that work best are: lemon, peach, raspberry, and strawberry/banana with fresh mashed bananas.

Pick a day of the week for your own Family Feast.  I'll do my best to keep my tradition going too!