Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Cheap. Easy. Comfort food.

So I mentioned us having colds. That is a good time for soup, right?

Yesterday I put a package of big ol' chicken breasts in the crock pot. Usually when I use the CP I have a plan, but not so yesterday, so I just salted & peppered them generously and added a cup or two of water. Since they were still partially frozen I set it to 'high' and let it go for the day.

Later on in the day I started thinking of lentils and rice, thanks to a
group of youtube videos my blog friend Heart of a Mommy linked to. They are of 90-something year old Clara who explains how to cook Depression-Era meals, along with her own memories of that time.

I LOVE those videos. LOVE them.

One of them is a "
poor-man's feast", which includes a lentil & rice dish (along with a small piece of meat and a salad).

So I had the lentils on my mind.

About an hour before eating time, I poured all the cooking juices from the crock-pot into a big pot on the stove, and added enough water to make .... 6-8 cups?

As it heated to boiling, I added in half a pound of lentils (rinsed) and about a cup of long grain white rice.

I cooked those together for half an hour or so, adding more hot water as needed.... just enough to keep them a little soupy.

As they began to get soft I added in a can of Italian-style diced tomatoes (undrained). It also needed more water at that point, so I microwaved my tomatoes and water in a measuring cup so they'd be hot when I poured them in.

Just before serving I deboned and cubed one of the chicken breasts from the crock pot. You could add more chicken if you wanted, but I guess I was in Depression mode and went light on the meat. :)

It was SO GOOD.

I think partly it was because it was so simple! Usually I like to add in lots of stuff, but this was really good and simple and cheap and easy and yum.
Well I didn't say it was pretty. But I can guarantee it tasted a lot better than it looked!

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

It is definitely soup weather (hope the colds are gone soon) and yours looks yummy and hearty! Thanks for the tip about the videos - I've never heard of these. Will enjoy checking them out. Take care -

Mommy said...

Ooooh! It looks pretty to me! AND delicious! I'll have to try it! ♥

I also love your bag dispenser. cute!