Jessica Seinfeld's my new B.F.F.

Alright, not entirely true, but I did make her Lentils with Tomato and Thyme dish tonight, and I feel closer to her this evening.  In addition to that, I wrote on her Facebook page that I liked her new haircut and she wrote back, "Thanks, Leslie."  Yup, that's right, she used my name, my GIVEN name, and I'm flaunting it.  BAM! 
Truthfully, I find her very inspiring and accessible, and I make meals from her website and cookbooks quite often.  They fall into my favorite category, E-Z, my middle name!......(wait, I didn't mean that the way it sounded.)  I'm sure if we were to meet in a well-lit alley, we'd become really terrific friends, texting cute little thoughts from coast to coast, if I tweeted, we'd twit, we'd email cute pictures of our kids with food on their faces, Gwyneth would start feeling left out and jealous, then Gwynie and I would meet and there'd be a whole new love-fest goin' on, and oooooooooh, we'd share recipes from our blogs.  It would be a fun, no-drama friendship, full of laughter, eating, occasional tears....I digress.  For now, I'll just steal a recipe directly from her blog.  That's legal, right?  Between friends?

This is a great dish, something I'll always keep in my refrigerator in the future.  The savory taste of thyme takes it to a whole new level.  Plus, it's healthy!  High in protein, fiber, and iron.

The recipe below serves 4, but I doubled it because we eat like cows here in my house.  Look at her close up, ain't she beautiful??

Ingredients:

1 cup green lentils

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium red onion, chopped

2 medium tomatoes, diced

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Fill a medium saucepan with water (about 8 cups) and bring to a boil.  I used my dutch oven for the whole deal, (and here's where my brother can't help but make a joke about a "dutch oven.")

Me and my brother, telling stupid jokes

Rinse the lentils, add them to the boiling water, cook until tender, (about 25 to 30 minutes), then drain.

Meanwhile, prepare and measure the remaining ingredients.  Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  (Again, one dutch oven, one item to clean, but that's just me.)  Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, thyme, and salt, and cook, stirring until the tomatoes break down, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the lentils, parsley, pepper, (12 turns on a pepper mill), and vinegar and reheat.  Serve warm. 

Voila!  In ze' mouth!

My hubby downed two bowls of it over quinoa, immediately after hearing the dinner bell, humming the entire time he ate.  My lil' one luuuuuuuuuuuurved it too, as a side dish with halibut and quinoa.  Success!

See it?