Nutty For Fall/Lentil-Nut Loaf

What a wonderful week I had! The sewing expo was a blast, a lot of work, but a blast. So many lovely compliments on my classes. 

After talking and standing on my feet for 3 days, I need a comfort day, a nice hot bath with lots of Epsom salts for my tired body, and a lentil-nut loaf to feed my soul.

This nut loaf recipe is something that I have been making for years. I absolutely love it! It's chuck full of protein, eggs, nuts, and lentils. Variations can be made. Shredded carrots make a wonderful addition, as does chopped and sauteed kale or spinach. 

The recipe is below. If it sounds good, just click on "printable recipe" and you'll be good to go!  

Lentil-Nut Loaf
printable recipe

ingredients;

2 cups cooked lentils
4 cloves garlic minced
3 stalks celery chopped
1 large onion chopped
1 cup bread crumbs
2/3 cup oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped pecans
6 eggs beaten
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
Salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cook lentils according to package directions.
Saute onions and celery until tender. Add minced garlic and saute for about a minute longer. 

Mix in lentils, basil, thyme, sage, salt, pepper and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add bread crumbs, oats, walnuts, pecans and mix well. 

Add lentil mixture and stir well. Add diced tomatoes. 

Grease 2 loaf pans and divide lentil-nut mixture between the 2 pans.

Place in preheated oven and bake for 1 hour, or until set. 

Slice and serve with sauteed mushrooms or your favorite tomato sauce. 

What I especially enjoy is that the recipe makes 2 loaves, so I have one for now, and one for later. Wrap well and store in the freezer until you're ready for the second loaf. 

I also make open face sandwiches out of the loaf. A little vegan mayo on a slice of good bread, some greens of your choice and a slice of tomato, and you'll have a wonderful lunch!

Hope you enjoy the loaf as much as I do if you give it a try :)
Rhonda 

Sunday's Salad/Fennel, Apple and Blue Cheese Salad

What a week, a week filled with good things, bad things, sad things, and very little blogging things. But, the good out weighs the bad, and the bad is behind me, so happily, I move on! 

This time of year is such a joy for me, my tomatoes are coming in and I have tons of basil, so tons of pesto. Nothing better than an open face pesto sandwich. Makes my mouth water just to think about it. All I do is toast a great piece of bread, spread it with a mound of pesto, and then add a layer of my fresh tomatoes. A little salt and pepper, and it's luncheon heaven :)

Another favorite item, other than soups, are fun salads. I have fallen in love with fennel! Earlier this past week, I had purchased fresh fennel. As I was looking in my refrigerator, thinking about what I might like to make, the thought of pairing an apple with the fennel and then tossing it all with mixed greens sounded perfect.  

I placed about 3 heaping cups of mixed greens in my salad bowl, and topped them with a thinly sliced red delicious apple. 

I then added 1 bulb of  fennel which I sliced. Please do not follow my lead, chop the fennel, it'll be easier to eat and much more enjoyable.

I then added 1/2 cup of crumbled blue cheese, and 1/2 cup of toasted chopped pecans.

Now, the dressing I made, was simple and fabulous. A friend gave me a bottle of blood orange olive oil, and a bottle of tangerine balsamic vinegar.
   

I used 1/3 cup of the oil and 2 tablespoons of the balsamic vinegar, whipped it together and then poured it over the salad. 

HEAVEN!!!

The nice thing about the oil and vinegar is that they are available to order. For those of you who live in or near Chicago, they have stores on Wells St. here in Chicago, and another in Evanston. 

If you would like to order the oil and vinegar, you can find them HERE, and HERE. Well worth the investment. 

Fennel, Apple, and Blue Cheese Salad
printable recipe

3 heaping cups fresh mixed salad greens
1 red delicious apple thinly sliced
1 bulb of fennel chopped
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans

For the dressing:

1/3 cup blood orange olive oil
2 tablespoons tangerine balsamic vinegar

Whip together, pour over salad, toss and serve.    

Something Sweet On Sunday/Nutella-Pecan Chocolate Cake with Nutella Frosting

There's something I am quite famous for...catching my stove on fire!!!! I am not exaggerating. As much as I love to cook, I have caught my stove on fire more times than I would like to admit. My favorite item to burn is pinenuts. I put them under the broiler to toast, start doing something else, turn around and they are on fire. As calm and cool as I am in most emergency situations, for some reason a stove fire sends me over the edge. I now have a fire extinguisher near by and I now toast my pinenuts on top of the stove in an iron skillet.
I now have a new item to add to my burning stove repertoire, cake batter. I found the recipe that I am sharing today and thought it sounded so good. Super sinful, but so good. So I decided to give it a try. Now to my benefit, the recipe says to bake the cake in a loaf pan or a 9" round pan, but only 1 pan. When I put the batter in the round pan, I thought it was an awful lot of batter, but what do I know? So in the oven it went. The cake was supposed to bake for 40 minutes, so off I went to do something else. I could smell the cake, but you're supposed to smell the cake when it's cooking, right? Believe it or not, my dog Gracie came and started barking and was quite excited. Just like a Lassie story, she turned and ran to the kitchen, so I followed and found cake batter burning in the stove. Not just smoking, but flames shooting up. The cake was ruined, but Gracie saved the day!
Now with all of that, you would think I might give up on the cake, but the bits and pieces that I could salvage from the first cake tasted so good, so I just had to give it another try.
SUCCESS!!!!!

I've been following Dust Jacket Attic, pretty much since I first started my own blog. She is just a great source of inspiration. Not only does she post some interesting fashion items, she also links to great recipes. And that's how I found this recipe for;

Nutella-Pecan Chocolate Cake with Nutella Frosting

Doesn't that cake look amazing?!! As long as you don't catch your stove on fire, it is!
Rather than me copying the recipe here, just pop over to THIS website and check it out. You won't be sorry. The cake is truly amazing.
Had I read to the end of the post, I would have seen that not only did she have enough batter for a loaf pan, she also made 12 muffins. Ohhh, now I know :)

So as you can see, the second time around, I divided the batter between 2, 9" round pans. I did a layer of icing in between the 2 layers and then iced the entire cake. 
Take note that the pecans are toasted. Mine were toasted in an iron skillet on top of the stove ;)
Enjoy the recipe and just be careful to not set your stove on fire!!!
Rhonda