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If I had to pick my most favourite baby photo of all my lovely babies it would have to be this one – Keira eating pasta! Talk about a mess. It was straight in the bath after this one. Sometimes I make the little ones take off their clothes before we eat pasta in this house. Why am I telling you all of this? Well Finish Quantum has launched their ‘We Love Messy Meals’ campaign and it got me thinking about the messiest meals we have here.
And hands down, my lentil bolognese is definitely the messiest meal I make – the cooking, the eating and the cleaning up. It’s all messy. And if you have a messy meal at your house then you just have to enter the Finish Messy Meals competition. All you need to do is send in your funniest photos or videos of messy mealtime at your house and you could win $25,000 and feature in the next Finish Quantum TV commercial. What I would do with $25,000. New car? New kitchen? Family holiday? Finish will select the top 3 entries and then will be asking the public to vote for the winner. You can check out the competition and entries here at www.messymeals.com.au and be quick as you don’t have much time.
Now I also realised I hadn’t even shared my lentil bolognese recipe with you. If you love spaghetti and are looking for a vegetarian version then this is it. There are so many things to love about this recipe and it’s so good that we never make the meat version here. Ever.
My Lentil Bolognese
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic crushed (or a tsp from a jar)
2 cups red lentils, rinsed
1 large jar tomato passata (or a jar of pasta sauce)
2 jarfuls of water (from the jar you’ve just used)
1Tbsp stock
2-3 Tbsps wine (optional)
cooked spaghetti
grated cheese
pepper for seasoning
Heat a large saucepan with some oil, add in onion and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes. You have the option of adding in some wine now and cooking it off to add some flavour (totally optional but I love doing this with a bit of red wine). Now tip in the red lentils and coat in the oil and onion and fry for half a minute or so. Pour in passata and about 1 and 1/2 – 2 jars of water and your stock powder. Bring to the boil then simmer. Keep stirring for 20-30 minutes. Lentils will be soft and sticking to the bottom of the pan so you need to keep stirring occassionally. This dish is very forgiving, if it’s starting to look dry and your lentils aren’t cooked then add some boiling water to the pan. Retro daddy likes me to add tomato sauce while I’m cooking it and fresh or dried herbs like basil are also delicious.
The dish is done when the lentils are really soft, most of your liquid has been used and you have a nice thick saucy consistency. The little ones love their bolagnese on top of spaghetti with cheese on top. I prefer mine all mixed through my pasta with the cheese and lots of black pepper. Retro daddy loves tomato sauce all over his (don’t get me started on that!). This is my own recipe which I’ve been making for over 10 years and I just love it as a family meal.
BUT it is messy. Messy pans, messy plates, it sticks to the cutlery, the kids get it all over the table, chairs, floor and themselves. For some reason they weren’t getting too messy when I needed them to on this occasion…..so I asked keira to get messy and so she smeared some on her face.
If you have a messy meal at your house then you definitely need to enter the Finish Messy Meals competition. All you need to do is send in your funniest photos or videos of messy mealtime at your house and you could win $25,000 and feature in the next Finish Quantum TV commercial. Finish will select the top 3 entries and then will be asking the public to vote for the winner. You can check out the competition and entries here at http://www.messymeals.com.au/.
Now I must admit I use shock horror home brand dishwashing products but still have trouble with certain dishes – particularly melted cheese and have to either put them back in for another go in the dishwasher or wash by hand and give them a good scrub. I’m happy to report that just one go in the dishwasher with the Finish Quantum and they are all clean. Cheese, pasta sauce and everything came off. I was actually surprised and might need to ditch the home brand from now on.
So think about your funniest meal time or have some fun and make up a new one and you might be $25,000 richer and feature in the next Finish TV commercial. Just remember to enter here and be quick!
YUM, that looks so delicious! Did the girls get haircuts recently? They look beautiful xxx
Spaghetti is our messiest meal too – the kids like to fling the ‘worms’ around the room.
So hilarious. Definitely spaghetti bolognaise here too!! Only my youngest is nearly 8 so i tell you people, there is a future!! My 4 use the Italian spoon & fork (twirl) method of eating too, much tidier. My favourite shot of our twins is one of our perfect spotless girl, pristine in her high chair, next to our messy bohemian one, covered in tomato with chunks of mince, why do they have to rub it through their hair??!! Those meals, i literally took the high chairs outside & hosed them off, much to the puppy’s delight. Love Posie
I make a recipe really similar to this as I’m vegetarian, only I call it veghetti
I use my family’s traditional bolognaise, but use red lentils and also four bean mix, and you smush the beans up a bit before putting them in the saucepan. So yummy!
Sounds yummy! It might be messy, but those girls are the messiest cuties ever! Hugs1
Its great to have a meatless meal you can rely on and the kids love. I will have to try this for sure as we have spag bol at least once a week but our kids do love lentils so this would be a winner!! Love the plates they are eating off, polka dots are very cool !!
Our messiest meal here is would be stir fry vegies with noodles – those noodles get everywhere and stick to everything! I make lentil bolognaise quite a bit but can’t wait to try your recipe, sounds delicious!
thanks for the recipe, Corrie! might have to give it a try, although lentils do kind of scare me ….
can i ask about the polka dotty plates?? big love for polka dots in this humble home at the moment x