Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Mujadara and Banana Soft Serve

Warning: This is going to be a long post.

Mujadara

Ingredients:
1/2 c. uncooked brown lentils
1 c. uncooked rice (I used long grain rice, but you can use brown or white)
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 or 2 tbsp. olive oil
a dash of cinnamon
a few dashes of cumin

Instructions:

- Chop onion (not too finely) and add to a deep skillet with the olive oil. Let this cook for 30-40 minutes on low heat, stirring the onions every so often. Stirring the onions is important so they brown evenly.
- Follow instructions to cook your rice. I used Uncle Ben's long grain rice -- which called for 1 cup of rice boiled with 2 1/4 cup water, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the lentils to another sauce pan and boil them with 1 cup of water. Once the water starts to boil, turn it down and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Whoa, check out this madness
I timed everything so it all finished together. Once everything is done, mix the onions, rice, and lentils (with leftover water) into the onion pan along with the spices. Stir and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Once finished simmering, plate then eat! Yum!


Well, I practically inhaled this. I probably could've cooked the onions longer but I was impatient and hungry. I should never cook while already hungry, haha.

The good thing about mujadara is that you can customize it to your own needs. Some people make it without rice or spices. I personally like it this way the best. You can also speed up the process by not cooking the onions as long, using instant rice, etc. I think cooking it slowly like this makes all the flavors very strong and delightful!



Banana Soft Serve
("That shit is bananas... B-A-N-A-N-A-S" - made famous by Gwen Stefani but recently quoted by my lovely boyfriend)

Ingredients:
3 frozen bananas
2 tsp. agave
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Instructions:
Place ingredients in food processor and let it run for about 5 minutes. Make sure to scrape the sides every so often so every bit of banana gets in the blades.

Scoop out into a bowl and enjoy!

(Sorry for the bad quality picture)

This is one of the best things ever. It's so smooth and creamy and tastes just like soft serve. It's also so simple and easy to change up. I probably didn't really need the agave, but it was still good with it. I was going to add some cocoa powder but decided against it. Just a tip... 3 bananas worth is probably way more than enough for one person. I was already quite a bit full from the mujadara but this tasted so good and I couldn't stop eating it! Good thing it was bananas and not sugar-filled ice cream. Also, about 3/4 of the way through I realized I had already eaten a banana today. I had to stop and put the rest in the freezer. I doubt it'll be as good as when it was first made, but oh well. That makes roughly 3 bananas eaten today. I don't know what happens if you eat too many bananas in one day, but uh, I sure hope it doesn't happen to me!


4 comments:

  1. Mmm that mujadara looks right up my alley. I always have lentils and brown rice in the pantry. I'm always looking for cheap stuff to make when I'm broke...which is pretty much always :D

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  2. Yeah! It requires very few ingredients and they're all cheap! Sometimes mujadara is used with cracked wheat instead of rice. You can also add some garlic to it to add a little something else. The possibilities are endless!

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  3. YUM!! How did I not know about this blog before? Hannah told me about it! LOVE IT! Making the banana soft serve today! I always have to sing that song to spell "banana" correctly, by the way!
    Maureen

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  4. Yay! I just started it a few days ago so maybe that's why you haven't heard of it, haha. So glad you love it :)

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