Lentil salad

Renewing our effort to live a healthier lifestyle, we are trying to take some of the emphasis off food.  Still, you gotta eat.  Today for lunch, we boiled up about a cup of lentils, threw them together with Roma tomatoes from our garden, green onions, parsley, salt, pepper, mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil.  This is a terrific way to enjoy your lentils in the summer.  They were tender but not mushy.  They were filling, but not heavy.  And preparation couldn't be simpler.

Lentil Tomato Soup with Fried Halloumi

This was a quick lunch using red lentils and half an aseptic pack of Pacific natural foods organic creamy tomato soup.  I also happened to have a jar of fire roasted red peppers in the fridge, so I chopped one of those up and threw it in.  Red lentils take about 10 minutes to cook through completely.  I threw a giant clove of garlic in while the lentils boiled and mashed it in with the back of my spoon.  Once the lentils were ready, I poured in the tomato soup, a 1/2 cup of chicken broth, and the chopped red pepper.  After administering a bit of oregano, salt and pepper, I fried up some cubes of halloumi.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of the process because I think most people don't believe you can fry cheese until they see it.  Halloumi is a stringy/spongy sheep's milk cheese that turns a lovely golden brown when fried in a simple non-stick pan (no oil necessary).  Think decadent croutons.

This was a satisfying lunch that contained very little carbohydrate and loads of flavor.  Lentils and legumes in general can be found on most "superfoods" lists.  Tomatoes and peppers are usually in the top ten as well.  I think this lunch made my Mr. Superfood happy today.

Mexican red lentil stew a la Kalyn's Kitchen

The extremely talented and generous Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen shares this recipe on her blog.  Michael loves anything vaguely Mexican, so we gave this a shot.  We were both impressed.  I didn't follow her recipe to the letter, but then, what cook ever does that?  And as you can see, I've piled it high with cilantro.  Once it was all blended in, it was heavenly!  Yes, South Beach can be enjoyable  I think we're starting to get the hang of it.