Mill City Mama

Yeesh. We had quite a time around here last week. Ada came down with a nasty cold and low-grade fever, which meant sleepless nights and days spent in jammies (for both Ada and me). By the time Saturday rolled around, Ada was on the mend and I was feeling a bit woozy. Thank goodness Tom was around to allow for some Mama naptime and Ada entertainment.

Saturday night I needed something filling and comforting to make it through, so I made my new-to-me recipe of the week, Maple-Baked Lentils from Oh She Glows. I love lentils because they are a cheap and excellent source of protein, but they can get a bit bland, so I will take any new lentil recipe I can get.

This recipe also incorporates blackstrap molasses, which I’ve been trying to fit into our diet since it’s a good source of iron. Other ingredients include maple syrup (duh), mustard, sweet potatoes, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and apple (yum).

As I cooked, Ada and Tom worked on lowering her crib. Since learning to crawl a couple of weeks ago, Ada learned how to pull herself on her knees, which has meant screaming every naptime because she’s pulled herself up and can’t get down. (She still sleeps in our room at night in a pack n play which we lowered about a month ago.) I might have shed a tear at lowering her crib.

I loved this dish already because it’s a one-pot dish (and here I’m putting a plug in for our Le Creuset dutch oven…a wedding gift that we use at least four times per week). Lentils get made in the pot, you mix in the other ingredients, and the whole thing goes into the oven.

Here is a totally gratuitous shot of our oven. I scrubbed this baby one night at 10 pm because the crusted on food was bugging me. How amazingly clean is that door?! I’m just ignoring the charred spot still lurking on the bottom (maybe I’ll get another 10 pm wind in a couple of months or so).

As our condo progressively smelled more delicious, Ada and I spun some lettuce for salad. Tom and Ada video chatted with Jaja and Busha (Polish-American for “grandpa” and “grandma”) and our niece and nephew in Phoenix. Ada showed them her best tricks and gave the keyboard a good smashing.

Dinner was ready too late for Ada to eat that night. I put out a spread for Tom and me after Ada went to sleep and followed Angela’s suggestion of serving it with a salad (I whipped up some Dijon vinaigrette) and a loaf of bread (my new favorite carb addiction, garlic bread from the Wedge Coop…whole cloves of garlic baked into bread…genius). P.S. Aren’t those Valentine’s Day tulips from Tom beautiful?

I thought that this was a really delicious dish and kind of had a baked beans smell and taste. Ada had leftovers the next day and she really loved it, too. It was smooshy enough for her to get some big bites in.

Ada’s pretty much over her cold (and I hope all of you are staying healthy), but now there’s a tooth coming in! It never ends…does it? I’ll sleep again in 2021.