Leftovers for Dayz

This year most of the fam fled town for a holiday in the sun and sand, so that left three of us to celebrate and naturally I thought 7 pounds of prime rib would be appropriate.

Not that I'm complaining - leftover prime rib is never a bad thing.

With all of that saturated fat comes great sacrifice... the only two sides I made to accompany this beast were kale salad and sautéed brussels sprouts - because if I could eat only meat and mashed potatoes every day for the rest of my life, I would.

I started off the next day with the ol' meat lover's special and a side of leftover sprouts...

Then decided a lentil soup was in order for lunch and this combination seemed to be a winner -

Lentil Soup

You Will Need:

 1 pound green lentils

2 Tablespoons olive oil

3 ounces Canadian Bacon (or bacon, or pancetta)

3 stalks celery (diced)

3 carrots (diced)

1 onion (diced)

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2 bay leaves

1 can diced tomatoes

3 cans chicken stock

1 lemon, for serving

Directions:

First sort through your lentils removing any shriveled up nasty looking ones, then rinse and drain them. 

In a dutch oven or heavy bottomed stock pot, over medium heat, add olive oil, then bacon, celery, carrots, and onion. Sweat until onion and celery become clear-ish, about 5 minutes. 

Add the cumin, coriander, red pepper and bay leaves. And cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and chicken stock, then bring to a boil before reducing to a simmer, covering with the lid and cooking for an additional 30 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. 

Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with a lemon wedge. The sourness of the lemon makes this soup really sing!

With my trusty ol' kale salad and some sourdough for lunch :)

The rest of this weekend consisted of building a bicycle - my first since the last trusty bike I owned - a teal, purple and pink number with gorgeous matching tassels. This one's kind of more grown up. 

Yay!!! If you haven't checked out Priority Bicycles, you definitely need to! My bike was assembled in 15 minutes (BY ME!) and all I needed to bring to the table was a pair of scissors to open the box.

No photos of the finished product yet, because I'm waiting for some items to ship so that it can fully undergo the Zooey treatment. Wicker Basket, little bell, you know, the essentials.

And of course a weekend full of kale and lentils and brussels spouts wasn't for nothing...

I also found time for my favorite waffles

And a few too many of these cinnamon rolls, but more on these glorious things another time. :)