For my soup tomorrow I'm thinking of dumping dried green lentils, roasted sweet potatos, jarred tomato sauce, uncooked rice, water, and curry powder/salt/pepper into the slow cooker in the morning. I figured I'd fine tune seasonings and add spinach when I get home. Sound like it might turn out okay? Should I cook the rice separately?

Sounds yum to me. For some reason I can't recall putting rice in any of my slow cooker concoctions, although I may have. I would think it would be fine. I have baked casseroles with uncooked rice and it was yummy so I would expect slow cooking would work fine.

It sounds kind of like a stew I made last week that was part of the 21 day vegan thing. It was very yummy. Since I am closing this laptop for the night I will paste the recipe in case you are interested. It said it was 6 servings, but if so they were LARGE servings. I can't eat onion so I just dumped in a bunch more garlic. I added spinach too just because I had some and I love it.

1 tablespoon water 1 teaspoon cumin seed 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds 1 teaspoon dried basil 3/4 teaspoon sea salt Few pinches cayenne pepper Freshly ground black pepper to taste 1 1/2 cups onion, diced 3-4 medium-large cloves garlic, minced or grated 3 – 3 1/2 cups yellow or orange-fleshed sweet potato, diced 1 can (14 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained 1 can (14 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained 1 cup dry red lentils, rinsed 3 cups vegetable stock 3 1/2 cups water 1 1/2 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

In a large pot over medium heat, add the tablespoon of water with the spices and salt. Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add the onion, garlic, and sweet potato. Stir through, cover, and cook for about 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions have started to soften. Add all remaining ingredients except ginger, and increase heat to high to bring to boil. Once at a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 20-25 minutes, until lentils are fully dissolved. Add fresh ginger, stir through, and serve.

eta: and of course I winged the spices some because really I don't have both cumin seed and ground cumin in the spice cabinet, and I hate fennel, etc.

well, good for you laura - sounds like things are going in a positive direction now.

and I love the talk of food and yes that includes pantries

and lack of sleep - -brings my anxiety to a level that I think I should do something - and then I get sleep and the hyper anxiety goes away and we are back to normal levels of worry about things.

Laura, you are good people.

I've never had rice turn out right cooked in a stew, smonster. Others' experience may differ, but slow-cooked, even for hours, the rice just stayed hard. Mmm, crunchy.

Laura, that's wonderful news about your brother. From a fraught morning, all kinds of family good. That's a good day!

I just tried some of my wonder woman costume and am pleased that it appears I will fit into everything. Have the corset laces in place and ascertained that I can get it over my head so it can be laced on.

Parades start in less than two days! (Won't be WW during the parades this week though.)

Random: I just realized I'm picturing my aunt in my head at an age younger than I am now. Oops.

Random: I just realized I'm picturing my aunt in my head at an age younger than I am now. Oops.

In about 5-10 years, I want Niecelet to do this. Not crazy young, just kinda where I stopped paying attention to aging. Vaguely "grown up" but nebulous. Because I am never going to be completely grown up, I fear. And she should not look to me for that. I'm good for a lot of things but not being a real grown up.

Glam, I go by the 7 minute rule from uni. Seven minutes in I hang up and an "I guess you need to reschedule" email. Cc'ing higher ups, depending on my level of annoyance.

Laura, I have nothing to add, except that you are awesome.

Bookmarked, Laura.

Nora, where are you headed MG Day? I am not sure, but I may be wandering the Marigny with D. But I really want to see your costume!!

Bev, that's interesting, I was worried it would get too mushy in the slow cooker. Hmm.

Y'all, omg. I spent a good chunk of today researching sacroiliac joint issues, trying stretches and exercises, using a heating pad... I know I need to strengthen my inner quads, and I'm going to do that, but tonight I decided to sleep in a weird position (but comfortable for me) to see if gravity could get my SI joint back where it's supposed to be... and it DID. My leg feels longer, the circulation is better, my weight is better distributed on that foot, my glute muscles have relaxed from tight enough to snap to mildly knotty. It's crazy pants. I think it's been years, maybe decades since it was right.

So now 1) I can feel for sure that my right SI is also out of whack, just not as bad and 2) I'm paranoid I'll wake up tomorrow with it messed up again and won't be able to duplicate the adjustment. But still YAY.