Power Food Salad /// Lentils + Kale + Bacon Salad with Warm Sautéed Cherry Tomatoes /// Green Joy

Our little veggie patch is giving us a lot of cherry tomatoes this year. The tomato plants have grown so much in such a short amount of time that I couldn’t be happier!  !!! We’ve been having a lot of success with tomatoes and baby beetroots but not so much with radishes, just a few radishes this year :( … Also not good with courgettes and the onions still growing. I’ve been picking tomatoes from the 'little huerta' - little orchard almost every day, this week. But yesterday was incredible! I’ve got about forty cherry tomatoes!!! That’s the picture below. This means a world for a beginner in gardening like me.  Someone said; Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes. And that I found incredibly amusing and inspiring because besides growing my food and eating the freshest tomatoes of the summer season, I found out gardening is a very therapeutic hobby. The process of gardening and growing fruits and vegetables is just fascinating to me! You don’t need a lot of space, just a few tools, some seeds or plants and a bit of patience… and you can start your veggie patch. I started doing some gardening about four years ago, we didn’t have alot of space, so I used containers and pots to plant seeds. The first time we didn’t have much of a success, but the second year we’ve got a lot of beautiful radishes and not much of a success with tomatoes. 
After a while, we decided to try other veggies too, different combination of soil and a couple of years ago we learned about coffee grounds. Our neighbor told us that spreading used coffee grounds in the garden would improve the quality of the soil too. So this year we put all our little knowledge about gardening in good use and  decided to grow more veggies! I don’t know but digging the earth and watching my veggies grow little by little every day, give me the most joyful feeling. Oh…I’ve already been thinking in all the foods that I can prepare with tomatoes, lots of different ways to use this delicious fruit. I’m thinking on making tomato marmelade this weekend. Lunch yesterday lentils salad with sautéed cherry tomatoes! I couldn’t think in a better way of combining tomatoes. It tasted just delicious. I hope you enjoy this lentils salad as much as we did. Also here is a link for you about the health benefits of Lentils, you would be surprise about the benefits of this power food bean. Happy Upcoming Weekend!

Lentils + Kale + Bacon with  Warm Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Power Food Salad
3 C. Brown Lentils, cooked
2 C. Kale, finely chopped
2 Slices Cooked Bacon, diced / or any ham of your choice
2 C. Cherry Tomatoes
1 Garlic clove, chopped
Olive Oil or any vegetable oil
Salt to taste
Preparation:
In a frying pan heat oil over medium high heat, add tomatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Saute shaking frying pan frequantely or using a wooden spoon. After a couple of minutes add chopped garlic and cook for a couple more minutes, until tomatoes are soft and skin start to wrinkle. When ready set aside. On a serving dish add cooked lentils, kale, bacon, add a bit of oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add sautéed on top. Serve with toasted bread!