Announcements and Lentils

Okay, so before I get to the good stuff (i.e. the food) there are a few things I would like to share with you.

1) I have been added to the foodie blogroll!! I'm a REAL foodie now. Before I was just pretending, but now it's serious. If you are a food blogger out there, you should join too. It gives you the chance to be entered into a bunch of contests, and its also an easy way to find likeminded individuals within the blogger community.

2) I dyed my hair. As shown below. Its not that different than it was before, slightly darker and slightly redder. I chose it because the color was called Cinnaberry. I think I may stick with it for a while.

3) It was super warm here in boston today (above 50) so I ran outside! 6.1 miles in 53 minutes...that's 6.9 mph, including stopping for traffic lights, so maybe I might actually be faster. The best part is that my knee didn't hurt at all and I felt like I could keep going. I'm beginning to seriously think about training for the NYC half marathon, which is in August. You're not guaranteed to get in and registration is run by a lottery, but I'm definitely going to register for a 5M race in July. That won't even require any training!

4) I found out yesterday that I got into Columbia's MD/PhD program! I don't think it will change my decision about Cornell because I want to do cancer research and Cornell is affiliated with Sloan-Kettering, but it's good for my ego :P .

5) I won a contest over at Roni's Weigh...a backpack filled with $40 worth of Sensible Portions snacks. I am really excited, as this is the first time I have won anything within the blogging community, and it also means I get free food. Free guilt-free food. Yum.

Okay, now that I've teased you long enough, onto the food. After being so meat heavy earlier in the week, I decided to go for some vegetarian fare. I have a bag of lentils that has been sitting on my shelf for a while now, so I figured I'd better make a dent in it before they go bad. I had seen a recipe for curried lentils and caramelized onions a while back and decided to whip them up with some basmati rice. The spices were really good and I just wanted to meal to last forever. It was also really filling!

Curried Lentils and Caramelized Onions with Indian Cardamom Rice

Serves 2, adapted from The Savory Notebook

For the rice:

3/4 cup brown basmati rice

3 cardamom pods

2 cups water

salt to taste

In a dry skillet, toast the cardamom pods for about 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add in the rice and toast, continually moving the skillet for 2 minutes. Add in the water and salt. Boil the water and then simmer, covered for about 40-50 minutes.

These are the cardamom pods:

They made the rice taste exactly like the rice I order from Indian restaurants. I was pleased.

For the lentils:

3/4 cup brown lentils

1/4 cup cilantro

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp ginger

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup lite coconut milk

1 3/4 cup water

salt to taste

Heat the olive oil. Add the garlic, ginger, and curry powder. Saute for 1 minute. Add in the lentils, coconut milk, water, and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Uncover and raise the heat for about 5 minutes, until the lentils start to thicken. Add in the cilantro and adjust the seasonings to taste.

For the caramelized onions:

1/2 lb onions

1 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

Melt the butter in a skillet. Add in the onions, salt and sugar. Saute on high for five minutes and then on low for 15-20 minutes until the onions are caramelized.

Serve the onions over the lentils over the rice.