Kid-friendly, budget-friendly Lentil Stew

[velvetpage]

At least, this was friendly to my kids. YMMV.

2 cups water
1 cup broth
1 can tomato paste
1 cup cut-up, cooked meat (I used leftover roast; there's no reason why leftover chicken wouldn't work equally well)
4 carrots, chopped, or about a cup of frozen carrots
1 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 cups chopped cabbage
1/2 cup barley or quinoa or rice (I used barley)
1 cup red lentils (if using green ones, you'll need to cook it longer)
salt, oregano, and a bay leaf, all to taste; pepper is not a favourite of my daughters so I left it out.

Variations: Got a quarter cup each of four different frozen veggies that's just slightly past the point where you want to use them outside of a stew? Toss them in. Ditto with last night's leftover beans. This stew is the-more-the-merrier.

Throw it all into the pot and cook until everything's tender. Makes a lot. This is the first time I've gotten my kids to eat lentils without a fuss. Serve with a slice of bread. Recipe would likely be just fine without the meat, especially if your grain of choice were quinoa. Moreover, this recipe is extremely cheap: you can feed a family of four on it for two nights running for under five bucks.

I'm off to cool this down and freeze it in 1 1/2 cup portions for (my) school lunches. I'm working on a bunch of similar easy lunches that I can pull out of the freezer and microwave for lunch.

Comments

[idemandjustice.livejournal.com]

We need to try to switch to leaner meats, ourselves (I just can't give it up completely, and according to some opinions, my blood type shouldn't give up meat). But I don't need meat in every meal, and this sounds yummy. Maybe with some fresh baked bread to go along with it. Yay carbs.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

My kids were quite happy to dip bread in it, and it's thick enough that you can use a heavy bread as a spoon. It would probably work with pitas, too.

I probably could give up meat now, since I'm no longer in posession of an iron-depleting baby-factory organ. But I don't want to. I like meat. I'm quite okay with reducing its quantity and making more sensible use of it, though. Like, a meat-based meal one night followed by a meat-as-a-flavouring or vegetarian meal the next night would work for me.

[idemandjustice.livejournal.com]

My husband actually used to be vegetarian, and he went back to the dark, meat-eating side when I was pregnant with Simon, just so it would be easier to cook family meals. I admit I'm pretty relieved. I pretty much was vegetarian too during that time, because it's just not practical to cook separate meals just for one person all the time.