A Dollar a Day

There are no free lunches. Or are there? Yesterday was $1 Lunch Day in Washington, DC. For a buck, Living Social customers received $10-$15 for lunch at local eateries.

I chose Naan & Beyond and ordered a vegetarian samosa and sandwich. The latter was one big culinary faux pas: spiciness instead of flavor, iceberg lettuce and a watered down ranch-like dressing. Really?!?

But the samosa, oh, the samosa. Deep fried deliciousness. The wrapping was just crispy enough, the dough had its own distinct flavor, and the filling was soft, moist, and pungent. It was filled with potato mush and peas, and whole coriander seeds infused the entire samosa with amazing flavor. It was little on the oily side, but I'm willing to forgive.

Conclusion: There are no free lunches. But $1 lunches aren't too shabby. Without the coupon, this meal would have cost $8.45. Only in America.

Dahl and Rice

Pesach. Pre-pesach cleaning, pre-pesach reflection and most importantly the pre-pesech tradition of emptying out your kitchen food cabinets and eating through whatever is not considered ok to have around the house during the weeklong holiday. In one word - Oy. In five - it's time to get creative.

There is a week left, and we are getting close to the bottom. There are 4 veggie patties in the freezer, about 5 tortillas, a half bag of sliced bread, half a challah from shabbat, 3 crackers, 3 yogurts (assorted flavours), 2 tablespoons of granola, a cup and a half of rice, quarter bag of couscous, some dried fruit, instant soup in a bag, 6 cans of tuna, seaweed (assorted) and a jar of orange lentils. I came home from work with about 45 minutes to cook and I knew exactly what I was going to make. Hint - see title of this post.

The recipe is from the net, but as usual I didn't follow it exactly:
Fry up onion and ginger, add cubed potato and carrot, add lentils and water and garlic, cumin, black pepper and salt. It also calls for fresh coriander, a tomato and cumin seeds, but I used what I had, and what I had time for. Cook until everything is soft and the lentils are a general mush texture. And it's ready.

Everything , including a cup of white rice (all the brown is gone by now) was ready just in time for me to turn off the stove and go dancing.

So, to sum up: When the going gets tough, the tough starts cooking. And isn't that a wonderful thing.
Looking forward to restocking the kitchen very soon, but maybe tomorrow I will make couscous with dried fruit and a yogurt sauce...
Happy Pre-Pesach creations to all! R