Lentil Salad

I had a very busy weekend, but it was so much fun! I went with my dad and brother to Chatham to celebrate my aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary. It was a great turn out and wonderful to spend that time with family. I don't remember when was the last time we all got together and danced the night away, so it was a really great night! Since I have today off, I thought I would get a few things ready for the week and it started with a lentil salad.

In a pan I put 1 cup of lentils, and 1/4 cup of barley with 1.5 cups of vegetable broth and cooked it until tender. In a food processor I added half a red onion, 1 carrot, 1 clove of garlic and a bunch of cauliflower, I basically did a nice layer on top around the food processor.  I pulsed until it was small like rice and then I added it to the lentils/barley with a tsp of herb and garlic spice (Epicure). Once completely cooled I added a splash of basil olive oil (or put olive oil and fresh or dry basil), 2 splashes of apple cider vinegar, and 2 tbsp of honey mustard. I added a small dash of salt, some pepper and a half tsp of turmeric and mixed it all. I always eye ball, don't really measure, I taste and add more of whatever I feel is needed. I also took the time to put a bento box together for my lunch tomorrow

So I have my lentil salad, regular salad, a few slices of cucumber and some kimchi. I'm still trying to avoid meat as much as possible (except seafood) to avoid pain from endometriosis, and I'm also working on eating more vegetables since they are very healthy for us. This will be a delicious lunch and I can't wait to eat it!

Note that if you don't have Epicure spices, you can easily just add ground or minced garlic, some herbs of your choice, or omit it and just do a simple dressing that you really enjoy. 

I also did some baking today, and decided to have the Orange blueberry muffin tops from the Pioneer Woman. You can find the recipe here. I did make some minor changes to the recipe. I didn't have an orange to zest so I added some almond extract (about a tsp), and the only "milk" I have is almond milk so I used that instead of the buttermilk. Everything else was the same but instead of the juice of the orange, since I didn't have one, I added a bit of orange juice. They turned out great and will make a really great snack during the week. Her recipe says it makes 12 but I ended up with 18 of them. They are pretty big to so not sure why I had more but they are great and can't wait to eat them!

One thing I would like to do is try to come up with more interesting bento box lunches, keeping it healthy of course. I don't have to many ideas right now but I'm sure I will end up finding some.