Talk About Using What You've Got...

There wasn't much for me to cook for dinner last night. No chicken, no onion, no fresh veggies... I felt lost. (But I did have bacon!) I looked in the cabinet and saw brown rice and lentils and I figured I could do something with them. Maybe the (often cringe-worthy) word casserole. I Googled "rice lentil casserole" and discovered that this is an actual dish! Pretty popular, I might add. According to the Internet anyway.

The basics are the right proportions of rice to lentils to liquid. Then whatever seasonings and add-ins you want. I found mostly Mexican flavors going on, but I went Italian instead...

What I Used:

• 3/4 c. brown rice
• 1/2 c. lentils
• 1 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 1 1/2 c. crushed tomatoes w/ basil
• the last bit of a can of cream of chicken soup
• a couple spoonfuls of tomato paste
• 3 cloves chopped garlic
• onion powder (I didn't have an onion!!)
• 2 chopped carrots
• oregano & parsley (just a little)
• peas

Put It All Together:

• Mix it all in a baking dish. 
• Cover and bake. Most of the recipes I found online said to bake at 300 for a little over an hour. But after about 40 minutes I checked on it and realized that would never work. So I upped the temperature to 325. It was in the oven for about 2 hours. ...It did come out a bit mushy, but surprisingly incredibly tasty!
• Oh and the best part: I topped with mozzarella, but didn't have quite enough so I grated lots of fresh Parmesan on top. (The good stuff, from work.) And then crumbled bacon!! This really made it.

I served it with salad & bread (rustic bread with prosciutto and provolone baked in).

*No photo... It's not exactly the most attractive dish.