Lentil Loaf with Romaine leaves

.....so I had a much needed "girl moment", as I call them, today in the car. I live with four boys and so it's really enjoyable for me to share this reality with them on a regular basis. We use sarcasm a lot in our family and tend to tease each other incessantly. This means that nothing is off topic and there are no big elephants in the room as they say....ever. Baby T and i get to drive an hour every day to pick up the big boys from school. There are a number of coersive tactics that I have up my sleeve to get him in the car but none work better than "snack" or "chocolate".....I know i know.....sugar and chocolate are not really healthy for a toddler but I figure he might as well be happy on the chocolate love while strapped into a bucket for an hour instead of screaming "mama mama".......yeah, remember that one? Here is a picture of Baby T in his happy place with cocoa drool and all:


He also ate some oats with chopped apple and brown rice with sunflower seeds and peas this morning......but..... On to my "girl moment" now. So we carpool. Like every good suburban mom should, and she just so happens to be a girl, this lucky carpool kid. My boys don't really understand girls, they say, because they don't have any sisters, obviously, and the majority of the people we are closest to are boys. So when this little girl gets in the car after school i have so much fun with her. She tells me the scoop about fifth grade and we talk about veganism and all sorts of other topics. Today I just so happened to be listening to Pandora and Adele came on and it was "Someone Like You".....you know it....you've belted in out at the top of your lungs before, admit it. That song transports me to another world....one where I am a broken hearted lovestruck rock star who has the voice of a goddess....apparently it transports this carpool girl there too because she was right there with me...passion and all. But, my boys on the other hand were mortified. I really don't care at all either because it was my "girl moment" and they were not taking it away from me....well they tried. J kept trying to turn down the volume but i persisted and they had to apparently suffer through it....it was pure bliss for me though. But at the end where she sings the chorus "nevermind I'll find someone like you...." i pushed pause and looked at E and said "Come one E....give me just one 'never mind i'll find....' you know you want to. it feels so good"....he said "No way Mom" and went back to reading his book. So I said "Come on! i'll give you $20"...and the sad thing is that i would have. He actually considered it for maybe a half second but resisted...he's got strong will power to resist Adele ;) Another day in the life of my three sons :) For dinner we had a lentil loaf and some steamed broccoli/cauliflower. I wrapped my lentil loaf into romaine lettuce leaves to add a fresh vibe and the boys gave it a "9" on a scale of 1-10 10 being the best. Baby T liked the veggies the best but I think we all need to be eating more fruit for the next couple of days....

Everything goes in the bowl: 2 cups cooked rice, 2 cups cooked lentils, one onion and two cloves garlic sauteed, tablespoon sage, 1/3 cup barbecue sauce or ketchup and the mash all of this up in a bowl and then cook it for an hour on 350~



This is a picture of the beautiful lentil loaf which almost got a perfect score!