Delicious Dish: $5 Dinners' Spicy Chorizo and Lentil Soup

So, I have the cooking bug again. Maybe it's because of listening to my friend Alexis talk about her latest deliveries from Door To Door Organics, or maybe it was attending her bridal shower and seeing all the fantastic kitchen accessories she got. Either way - I spent the weekend thinking of how to balance mom duties after work (it's really hard with only a few awake hours with Baby F after a long day...) and cooking, which really makes me happy and helps me feel like I have a really important role directing nutrition for our family!

Photo Credit: 5DollarDinners.com

I started following Erin Chase of $5 Dinners awhile ago but had never made one of her recipes - so I decided to give it a whirl last night, and I'm so glad I did! I selected Spicy Chorizo and Lentil Soup as my first foray, particularly because it's gluten free and I'm starting to toy with trying to get back on that diet to support my PCOS (that's a whole other blog post someday...)

The dinner was delicious and we have some good leftovers that I'm excited to break into tomorrow evening (tonight we enjoyed a chicken that I roasted last night while we ate dinner to get myself ahead, as a roast chicken takes too long to make on a normal work night!) Since chorizo isn't the healthiest of proteins, I made it a little more lean by rinsing the chorizo under super hot water in a colander after browning it - a tip I learned while researching heart healthy recipes after my father-in-law had a triple bypass a few years ago. That technique might have stripped some of the flavor, but we didn't notice a difference and still found the dish spicy and flavorful. I served it with a whole grain tortilla and a side of steamed asparagus. Delicious!