Day 2, lentils finally in the right place

Day 2

Weight 80.6kg, 177lbs

Exercise- 20 minutes swimming non stop, front crawl and breast stroke, and 4 lengths just kicking.

Food intake

Breakfast- egg noodles with 3 won tons, half a portion of noodles as Jasmine wanted the other half. Mustard greens

Lunch- roast chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli, stir fried courgettes with onions

Dinner- spiced red lentil and butternut squash soup with croutons, french bread, guacamole. 1 small homemade burger.

homemade burgers

my homemade guacamole

Finally, the lentils end up where they should be, not in the washing, or on the library carpet but in my kitchen, in a pot, making a lovely soup!

Lentils are legumes along with other types of beans. They grow in pods that contain either one or two lentil seeds that are round, oval or heart-shaped disks and are oftentimes smaller than the tip of a pencil eraser. They may be sold whole or split into halves with the brown and green varieties being the best at retaining their shape after cooking. 

Lentils, a small but nutritionally mighty member of the legume family, are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. Not only do lentils help lower cholesterol, they are of special benefit in managing blood-sugar disorders since their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal. But this is far from all lentils have to offer. Lentils also provide good to excellent amounts of six important minerals, two B-vitamins, and protein-all with virtually no fat. The calorie cost of all this nutrition? Just 230 calories for a whole cup of cooked lentils. This tiny nutritional giant fills you up--not out.

The above was taken from http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=52

Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata), also known in Australia and New Zealand as Butternut pumpkin^[1], is a type of winter squash. It has a sweet, nutty taste similar to that of a pumpkin. It has yellow skin and orange fleshy pulp. When ripe, it turns increasingly deep orange, and becomes sweeter and richer. It grows on a vine. The most

 popular variety, the Waltham Butternut, originated in Stow, Massachusetts. (Wikipaedia)

Spiced Lentil and Butternut Squash

I make this soup quite often as I love the combination of the lentils and butternut squash and the spice gives the soup a little oomph. I had some left over mashed potato and carrots from lunch which I added to the soup. You don't need to have left overs obviously, just add potatoes and carrots.

Ingredients

1/4 butternut squash, peeled and seeds scraped out as necessary

1 cup red lentils, rinsed.

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 tbsp chopped coriander stalks and leaves

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp tumeric powder

2 -3 potatoes (or left over mash)

1 carrot

1 stock cube or equivalent

1 tbsp olive oil

1 litre water, shorten cooking time by boiling in kettle, ready to add

Spring onions chopped for garnish, croutons if you like them to garnish too.

chopped spring onions

Heat oil in a heavy based saucepan, add chopped onion, fry until softened and slightly caramelised, add cumin and tumeric, fry until fragrant. 

Add butternut squash, carrots and potatoes, stir for 1-2 minutes, add lentils. Add coriander leaves and stir for a minute. Add boiling water. Do not season at this point as apparently adding salt to uncooked lentils make them tough. I have never actually tested to see if this were true though.

Bring soup to the boil, then lower heat to a simmer, for about 15-20 minutes or until lentils and vegetables are all soft and cooked through. Add stock cube, I use vegetable as Dave doesn't eat meat, but you can use what ever stock cube you wish. Check seasoning, add salt and pepper as necessary. 

simmering soup

softened lentils and vegetables

If you wish you could blend the soup to make it smooth, or mash with a potato masher if you want a chunkier texture. I have not got a blender or food processor at the moment, so have mashed the soup in the pan.

spring onions added

croutons to finish

Serve with crusty bread, yummy. My children would not eat this soup when I first came up with the recipe, they complained that they did not like butternut squash, they did not like lentils, they did not like spice, it was like curry, so on and so forth. As you can see, I persevered and continued to serve this, alongside some alternatives and

today, a breakthrough, they actually said they loved it, Mitch had seconds too. Everything in the soup is healthy and nutritious, so am glad that the children's taste buds are maturing and they are beginning to enjoy the food that I love.