Lentil and Rice salad

I'm part of a quilt group that meets monthly and at the end of our morning meetings we have a pot luck lunch.

One of our members can't eat anything with wheat, so I've been trying to come up with recipes that she can eat too.

This one was what I took this month, and I really like it, so I thought I would share the recipe here.

Ingredients:
For Salad
3 cups water
1 cup dry lentils
1/2 cup long grain rice (note: I used basmatti, brown rice would NOT work here without serious cook time changes)
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/4 cup sliced green onion (or finely diced red onion)
1 cup diced tomatoes (I used a can of ready cuts)
lettuce leaves

For dressing
4 Tbls olive oil
4 Tbls lemon juice
2 tsp snipped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt

Preparation:
Rinse and drain lentils.

Transfer lentils to a medium saucepan and add water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer with the lid on for 5 minutes.

Add uncooked rice, cover and simmer 15 minutes more.

Remove pan from heat and let stand for 10 minutes.

Drain, rinse with cold water and let drain again.

In large bowl, combine lentil/rice mixture, red pepper, carrots, onions and tomatoes.

For dressing, mix together in a jar or plastic shaker: olive oil, lemon juice, salt and basil. Shake well.

Pour dressing over salad, stir gently to coat.

Chill for 4 to 24 hours (like many of these kind of salads, it improves with time to "meld")

Serve on lettuce leaves (a romaine leaf with some of the salad rolled inside is a tasty "salad burrito")

Quitata? Friche?

This is not really a fritata -- its in a crust.

And its not really a quiche -- it has flour in it and a lot less cheese

Either way, its pretty guilt free for those of us on low fat diets, it tastes great either warm or cold, it looks beautiful, and it makes a wonderful breakfast or lunch (with a green salad as a side dish!)

For those of you that aren't watching the fat as closely as I am, I've included a "real egg" amount along with the other ingredients

Ingredients:

recipe for 1 crust pie crust (to be honest here, we use one of the refridgerated rolled ones from the grocery -- they taste as good as any we make at home!)

1/3 cup bacon bits (about 6 slices of bacon)
1 1/2 cup egg substitute (or 6 "real" eggs)
3/4 cup frozen cut spinach -OR- broccoli
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tomato

Process:

Cut the bacon into 1/2 inch dice. Fry until crisp and drain well. Set aside to cool.

Rinse the spinach in warm water. Press into a sieve to remove liquid. Set sieve on a terry cloth towel to wick away any additional water. (if using broccoli, rinse and drain, cut into small pieces and set aside)

Line pie tin with crust.

Mix together the eggs, salt and flour - blend well.

Add cheese, cooled bacon and prepared spinach (or broccoli) and mix well.

Slice the tomato into thin slices.

Pour mixture into pie pan, decorate top with tomato.

Bake in preheated 450 degree oven for 30 minutes or until a table knife inserted close to the middle comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!