Millet is rich in iron and high in protein. You can use millet instead of white rice in most recipes — it’s much more flavorful and nutritious.

Creamy Millet Casserole

This healthful vegan dish is easy to prepare, keeps well in the refrigerator, and makes great leftovers. The ingredients are simple and inexpensive, so you won’t need a credit card or a payday loan to get them. Broccoli, carrots, and onions, in a creamy tahini sauce served over a bed of millet, will satisfy the biggest of appetites.

1-1/2 cups water (including vegetable-cooking liquid)
1 cup millet
2 medium carrots, sliced into 1-4-inch-thick coins
2 broccoli stalks, cut into small florets, and stalks sliced ½-inch thick
1 medium onion, finely chopped
½ cup raw tahini
2-1/4 Tbsp brown rice miso
3 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Put the carrots, broccoli, and onions in a large sauce pan with ½ cup water. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid. Stir the tahini and miso into the vegetables and set aside.

Add enough water to the reserved liquid to make a total of 1-1/2 cups, place in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the millet, cover, and return to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat, and simmer until the water is absorbed, 20 to 30 minutes.

Put the millet in to a 1-1/2-quart baking dish. Pour the tahini-vegetable mixture over and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top. Bake uncovered in a preheated 350° oven until heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

This vegan vegetarian lasagna is my all-time favorite dish.  I began creating this recipe several years ago. Every time I make it, I tweak it just a little, so it’s an evolving thing. It’s not a quick or easy dish to make. And it’s not inexpensive, especially if you use the best fresh and organic ingredients.

Mom really is worth the trouble, but according to me, you may need a payday loan just to buy the right pan for this recipe. And the ingredient list is enough to put you in line for credit repair. So before you get too involved, consider buying the pan for Mom and tucking a copy of this recipe inside.

She’ll probably do the rest. Isn’t Mom great?

Eat for a week

This is a huge dish and it makes some of the best leftovers I’ve ever come across. It freezes very well. But it also keeps in the refrigerator long enough for just one or two people to polish it off while it’s still at the peak of freshness and flavor.

Make it a work of art

If you can find yellow, red, green, and orange bell peppers, this is an especially beautiful and festive dish.  For the best results, I recommend baking it in a deep, rectangular, enameled cast iron lasagna dish with straight sides. Most pans are 13” long and 3” deep – but if you search, you can find them even larger, and larger is better. My second choice for a pan would be one of those big, light-weight, commercial-grade, rectangular roasting pans. In any event, the pan needs to be big, deep, and rectangular.

Tell Mom it’s easier if she does all the prep work one day and assembles and cooks it the next. It also works well to cover the assembled dish, refrigerate it overnight, and cook it the next day.

Short-Term Loan Lasagne

In preheated 350° oven, toast:

½ Cup ground or finely chopped walnuts on baking sheet for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Transfer to bowl and set aside.

In a food processor, finely chop:

3 bunches washed and well-drained, fresh, uncooked spinach leaves
3 bunches fresh basil leaves

Be careful not to liquefy the leaves by over-grinding. Transfer to bowl and set aside.

In a food processor, blend until smooth:

2 16-oz packages firm tofu, drained and pressed
4 garlic cloves
4 Tbsp lemon juice
6 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Stir into tofu mixture:

½ Cup chopped Kalamata olives
1 Tbsp capers

Transfer to bowl and set aside.

Lightly steam:

1 Cup mushrooms, sliced
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 Cup broccoli, cut into small florets
2 Cups bell peppers, deseeded, deveined, and chopped into 1/2″ pieces

For best results, steam each ingredient separately. It doesn’t take a long time to do this. You can keep using the same steaming water, but each ingredient takes a slightly different time to steam to perfection. Err on the side of under-cooking. The reason for steaming is not to cook the vegetables, but simply to soften them so they won’t break as you fill the pan and to allow you to make denser layers. Combine steamed vegetables in bowl, and set aside.

Combine in a large sauce pan:

1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
8 to 12  Roma tomatoes, chopped
Plenty of fresh thyme, oregano and marjoram, ground or finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper with seeds, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp ground black pepper

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Set aside.

Soak lasagna noodles briefly in hot water

You will need two boxes of noodles. Do not cook them according to package directions. Instead, soak them in a big bowl of hot (but not boiling) water just long enough to make them flexible. The idea is not to cook the noodles, but to keep them from breaking as you layer them into the pan and to allow you to make denser layers. Soak enough noodles at one time to make one layer. Then soak another batch when you’re ready for the next layer, and so on.

Layer into pan in the following order:

A thin layer of the tomato sauce
A layer of noodles (placed side by side or slightly overlapping as needed)
A layer of the tofu mixture (1/2 of what you made)
A layer of noodles
A layer of the steamed vegetables (all of them)
A layer of the tomato sauce (spread it right over the vegetables)
A layer of noodles
A layer of the tofu mixture (the remaining ½)
A layer of ground spinach (all of it – press it firmly on top of the tofu mixture)
A layer of noodles
A thin layer of the tomato sauce
A layer of the toasted, ground walnuts, spread evenly on top of the tomato sauce

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 40 to 50 minutes

Remove from oven, cool slightly, cut into huge servings, and enjoy!

Cowboy-cut means "a cut of steak with the bone in, for true cowboys to use as a handle."

You might just be looking for TodayShow.com recipes because they sound delicious, but TodayShow.com recipes could end up saving you money, too. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since moving out of our dear old mum and dad’s, it’s that walking around the grocery store tossing everything that strikes my fancy into the cart can end up being very expensive.

Planning meals out in advance is a great way to save money because that way you only buy what you need. You don’t end up needing an emergency payday loan because you spent more  than you planned at the grocery store.

Seeking inspiration

The one thing that’s tough about planning all of your meals in advance is that sometimes it’s tough to find inspiration. No one wants to eat the same meals over and over again, not even your picky kids. OK, maybe them. I think I survived on nothing but tacos and spaghetti when I was in elementary school.

Still, it’s good to have as many recipe resources as possible, and TodayShow.com now has a recipes section for you to utilize. However, you must know what you are looking for before you get there.

Using TodayShow.com recipes section

The TodayShow.com Food & Wine section features the recipe for the dish that was prepared on the show that day. For instance, today the recipe for “Cowboy Cut” ribeye is displayed.

However, if you want a different recipe that has been on the show before, you have to type in a search term. There’s no comprehensive list of recipes that have been featured on the Today Show. Here’s where I think the site could make an improvement and help out viewers and cooks.

As it is now, the best way to seek inspiration is to type in a generic term such as “chicken,” “pasta” or “vegetarian.” Broad terms will return a big list of recipes.

More resources

The great news is, there are thousands (millions?) of web sites out there that do have lengthy lists of recipes. If you are seeking inexpensive recipes, check out 5dollardinners.com.

If you’re looking for low-calorie recipes, go to Hungry-Girl.com. That site can be a bit confusing. If  you click on “Chew the Right Thing,” you’ll find tons of low-calorie recipes.

VegWeb.com has plenty of vegan recipes, and VegCooking.com has both vegan and vegetarian meals. Recipe Zaar has more than 6,000 Kosher recipes, and a total of 359,000 recipes overall. That should keep you fed for a while.

Check out the TodayShow.com recipe for Cowoboy-Cut Ribeye.