I Like My Recipes Healthy, Cheap and Easy

Welcome to the "I Like My Recipes Healthy, Cheap and Easy" blog. This blog is in overwhelming response to requests for my quick and easy eating solutions, that is, my recipes.

I cook with five basic principles:

1. My ingredients should not require someone with an advanced degree in chemistry create them.
2. My food should be delicious.
3. My food should contribute, not take away from, my quality of life.
4. Unless I really want to spend all day cooking and cleaning, my recipes should be simple to make so I can taste what they are made of and not have to wash ten pots for one dish.
5. I should be able to eat like a gourmet without breaking the bank.
   

That being said, life is a game of give and take. You eat healthy 98% of the time so you don't have to flog yourself like Dimsdale when you give into temptation and have take-out one night. So, occasionally you will find the recipe here that pushes the limits of those principles, or at least (1), (3) and (4), but rarely. I promise you, though, that everything you find here should be delicious.

Sometimes you'll get full meals, but mostly I'll be providing you recipes for single dishes, things you can whip up in a hurry for dinner guests or things that are perfect to make the night before in order to have a hearty and healthy packed lunch. Also, these recipes often pull from the same base ingredients which means you don't have to have a shelf full of spices growing old because you only use them once in a blue moon. Instead, using a pretty standard répertoire you can create dishes with enough variety that you and your discerning palate don't get bored with what is on the dinner plate each night.

Also, a YouTube Channel is in the works to demonstrate some of the techniques and dishes that are given here, as well as some bonus recipes are well. I'll let you know once that has been launched. In the meantime, I leave you with one of my most coveted recipes (and most often handed out), my Red Lentil and Smoked Paprika Soup. This soup is heavy on umami--the combination of salt, the smokiness of the paprika, and the balsamic vinegar make this soup an absolute cheap and easy hit.

And just a quick note--you can often find smoked paprika much cheaper at Middle Eastern or Eastern European food stores than you can in the grocery store, but rest assured, this is a recipe you won't mind eating a couple of times a month and smoked paprika will resurface in some other recipes in the near future.

Red Lentil & Smoked Paprika Soup

Long Version:

1.5 cups Red Lentils

½ cup brown rice

4 cups water (add more as water reduces for a soupier soup)

½ white or yellow onion

2 cloves garlic

2 small tomatoes

2-4 shiitake mushrooms (fresh or rehydrated--to rehydrate soak dried mushrooms in cool water 30 minutes)

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (more to taste)

1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

Short Version:

1.5 cups Red Lentils

½ cup brown rice

4 cups water

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (more to taste)

1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

(You can also lose the brown rice and reduce the cooking time by 20 minutes, but it won't be a complete protein)

Combine rice and water and boil for 20 minutes. Then combine all remaining ingredients except balsamic vinegar and cook until lentils are cooked (20 minutes more or so). Add a dash of balsamic vinegar to pot after heat is turned off and add teaspoon on top of each serving when serving (or when you put it into your lunch box). This should make two very generous servings or three smaller ones. In case you want to increase the recipe, just add more lentils and rice, then salt and smoked paprika to taste.