Weekly Recipe Round-up August 18th

How are we already in the third week of August? Is anyone else surprised by this? Time is flying by waaaaayyy too quickly. Although since it is winter, I don't mind spring and summer coming early by any means.

Here are the recipes I've got for you this week:

• Chana Masala: When I first made Chana Masala, I used this recipe. Christian and I really liked the flavors of this dish and neither of us had ever had it before. This time around I used inspiration from that first recipe I found, plus this recipe too. In the end I served the Chana Masala with brown rice. I suggest making this recipe the day before you eat it as it gets even better when the spices can sit overnight! If you are looking for turmeric, try La Chakra on Mariano Sanchez Fontecilla (hint: it is called cúrcuma in Spanish). That is where I found mine!

• Lentil Tacos: I got the idea for this from this recipe, but I didn’t actually follow this recipe. I have made snobby joes (a version of sloppy joes but with lentils instead of ground beef) and so when I saw this recipe, I thought it’d be fun to try. Christian wanted ground beef so he made his meat as usual, adding in the taco spices. I boiled the lentils, and then drained them when they were done. I added some EVOO to a pan, threw in the lentils and stirred them so they could get covered with the oil. Then I added in the same taco spices and coated the lentils. We ended up having simple tacos that night—the meat/lentils, lettuce mix and guacamole in flour tortillas. Man, these were sooo good! It is pretty cool that you can substitute lentils for meat in some dishes and you really can’t tell a difference. I will definitely be making this again.

• Lentil Spaghetti Sauce: Well, we certainly had a week full of lentils. After having successfully made the snobby joes and lentil tacos, I figured this would be the same. I made the sauce using the bags of Italian tomato sauce from the grocery store, adding in garlic and spices as well as zucchini. I’d have to say it only turned out más o menos (so-so). Christian did not like it and I couldn’t decide if I did or not. Sometimes you couldn’t tell a difference in the flavor as normal spaghetti, but sometimes you could and those were the moments in which I did not like it. So I’d say it is a toss up as to whether or not I’ll make this again.

• Aloo Palak (Spinach with Potatoes): The author of this recipe states that it isn’t the most traditional Aloo Palak, but honestly for us it didn’t make a difference because we’ve never had an “authentic” version before. For some reason, I was intrigued by this recipe and decided to make it for lunch. I followed the recipe as is. She doesn’t list turmeric on the ingredient list, but in the instructions she does, so make sure you have some on hand. Both Chris and I loved the recipe, but we served it by itself and I think next time I will serve it with something on the side.

• Healthy Carrot Cake Power Scuffins: These are to die for! OMG! So good! I followed Angela’s recipe pretty closely, except for the maple syrup I used the imitation pancake syrup that we have. Unfortunately maple syrup is hard to find here and really really expensive, so I had to go with the Good Value brand of pancake syrup. I know, it is disappointing, especially since this syrup has high glucose corn syrup, but it is what it is. Next time I might substitute honey for the syrup and see how they come out. If you are looking for the spelt flour, check out Organisk in Providencia. That is where I picked mine up. I also stirred the coconut slice into the batter instead of sprinkling it on top. These got a big thumbs up from both me and the hubs. I took two to work to let some of my co-workers try and they all loved them too! Way to go Angela, thanks for posting such a delish recipe! I snapped some pictures of how mine came out (the picture above is of the scuffins too!):

I tried to just eat 1....but it proved to be impossible!

Here is seven of the eight scuffins that survived until the photo shoot!

¡Buen Provecho!