Leftover Lentil Loaf

Today for dinner was another Clean Out the Fridge Night.  We are leaving tomorrow for NJ – we will be there through Monday for my cousin Katie’s wedding on Sunday. 

For dinner I had some leftover lentil loaf from Sunday.  Today I transformed the lentils into a sandwich melt. 

Using a toasted Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Deli Flat, I smooshed lentil loaf and covered with mozzarella cheese.  I then broiled the halves until the cheese melted.  MMMMM melty cheese. 

Look at that charred cheese – delicious. 

I think that may be the only time the Lentil Loaf is made in the runleangreen household.  It was good – not great.  Matt likes Snobby Joes much better and I think I agree.  This was pretty bland – I would need to do some recipe tinkering before recreating this again. 

I was intrigued by the Montana Whoppers cookies floating around the blog world.  Showing Matt the recipe was the only thing I needed to do to convince him that we needed to make them.  Fortunately Matt was off today, so he kindly made the batter while I was at work.  Matt would like to add that the batter was one of the best in the world.  Check out the original recipe here. 

Matt used soy nut butter so I was able to enjoy them (much appreciated).  He loved the batter so I am imagining these taste very PB like.  For chocolate, Matt used M&Ms, Chocolate-Caramel Swirl Chocolate Chips, and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. 

We baked these delights after dinner.  Look at them (Matt made some of them rather large).  

Oh.my.gosh.  Let me just say – this may be one of my top 5 favorite cookies.  I am VERY glad we are going to NJ tomorrow – we need to get these out of our apartment before they end up in our bellies. 

Simple Changes September 

September 18, 2009: Switch to On-Line Bill Pay

My secret is out of the bag.  I still get paper bills and mail checks to pay them.  Could I be stuck in the dark ages any more?  I must admit, I like seeing my bills and sitting down once a week and writing out checks.  I clean everything off my desk and get a feeling of accomplishment.  I realize that all this paper I am generating is pretty wasteful when I can pull everything up on my computer. 

Using this website, I am able to calculate the environmental impact of my paper bills.  Look at the results:

That’s not as bad as I thought – but it’s still something.   

I am committing to on-line bill pay – and joining the 21st century. 

TOPIC CHANGE WARNING:

Did anyone catch Caitlin’s discussion about the “vegetarian” label this afternoon.  Recently, I have been thinking about some of the points brought up – in the last few months I have cut back on the amount of meat I eat.  Before I really got into reading food blogs, I had decided to reduce my meat consumption to only once per day (fish to me do not count as meat – I would eat fish and meat in the same day). 

Since beginning Simple Changes September, I have committed to eating meat only twice/week max.  This week in particular, I am having troubles with it.  Knowing that Matt and I are going to NJ this weekend and staying with my sister (where they are meat eat eaters), I decided to “ration” my two meat servings to this weekend so I wouldn’t cause issues eating in someone else’s home (there are 6 adults and one small child there this weekend).  However, Thursday was turkey day in the cafeteria – if you remember correctly – turkey is one of my favorite things!  Therefore I denied myself something that I really enjoy just so I could “save” my meat portions for this weekend.  Is that really what I want? 

I saw Food Inc and have seen how poorly animals are treated.  I realize how a meat-based diet is horrible for the environment.  Already I have done wonders with my diet – Matt and I have tried MANY new recipes and we both are eating less meat.  Do I need to feel guilty about wanting to eat turkey for lunch – especially when turkey is one of my favorite things? 

I don’t think I could ever become a complete vegetarian – I would safely say I am a flexitarian (only eats meat occasionally). 

What are your thoughts on food labels?  What would you consider yourself?