Smoky Sauteed Lentils for #MeatlessMonday

It’s been just a month since I made a big change to my workout routine and joined a new gym that offered a great personal training program. Friends, I have never squatted so much in my entire life as I have in this last month. Squats, lunges, mountain climbers, burpees, ropes, kettle bells, sled pushing…these were all slightly foreign to me before this month. I definitely feel stronger, and I’m hooked on getting 4 workouts in each week. The early mornings (4:20 wake up call) are getting a lot easier too (the key for me is to have my clothes laid out the night before, like laid out right next to my bed, things run more smoothly once I get my workout clothes on).

(nothing beats how good it feels to be done with your workout before 6am, truly)

One thing that I’m a little discouraged about is that I literally have not lost any weight. I know my body is changing, and yes I am gaining muscle. My biggest problem lately is that I am not truly focused on what (and how much) I’m eating. I’ve been totally slack with meal planning and our busy family schedule this past month has really thrown me off my game. I’m trying to lighten up my meals a bit and experiment with more meatless options like these Smoky Sauteed Lentils I’m sharing today.

This all being said, last week I tried to prep a few things early in the week to make things easier at meal time. I am always amazed at those that do a lot of meal prep on the weekends for their week. Lindsay of The Lean Green Bean is a major inspiration to me with her food prep (she’s seriously an incredible resource in this category). I’m sitting down today and making a game plan for this week, any bit of meal prep you can get in truly does help – I learned this first hand last week.

What I did last week was pretty basic and really not much. I prepped up some roasted sweet potato halves, roasted broccoli, deconstructed a rotisserie chicken and cooked up some lentils as well as a sprouted rice and quinoa blend. It all just kind of happened and I didn’t really have a plan, but it definitely made meals easier during the week. I highly recommend trying some sort of food prep to help you make healthier choices during the week!

Let’s talk about these Smoky Sauteed Lentils. I picked up this bag of lentils from Costco recently and couldn’t wait to try them. I’ve had lentils plenty of times – in soup and salad – but this time I tried something totally different and instead sauteed them up with garlic, onion and some spices and served them as my main protein in my meal. I loved this meal so much! I didn’t serve the lentils to the rest of my family, they instead had paninis one night and chicken sausages another night with their sweet potatoes and broccoli.

This sweet and savory combination from the sauteed lentils and the sweet potatoes was just perfect. Meet my new favorite vegetarian dinner.

Print Recipe

Smoky Sauteed Lentils

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked lentils
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large sweet onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• big pinch coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute for 3-5 minutes until soft and fragrant.
2. Add cooked lentils to skillet. Season with smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5-7 minutes until warmed through and slightly browned.
3. Serve as a side dish, or as your protein for a vegetarian meal.