In need of soothing.

Lunch I had a cup of this:

Mint soother. I needed soothing. 

This had chamomile in it, and I usually hate chamomile, but in combo with the mint it was, actually… soothing.

My sink is clogged, and in an attempt to bail out the water I used a big pot to transfer it into my bathtub… but now I think I’ve clogged that. And then my roommate was whining about it, and it was like “Did I see you having any bright ideas?”

Grrrrrrr.

It’s also rainy and blah out, which doesn’t help.

I started today with more peanut butter and banana oats. Then I headed out for a good workout (30 minutes elliptical, 5 minutes stairmaster- I want buns of steel but man I hate the stairmaster- and 10 minutes of the sitting down kind of stationary bike). I had Elle to read, that was nice.

Lunch did somewhat cheer me up, cause it was tasty.

Spinach and lentils! Mid cook. This recipe is a rough adaptation from a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey. If you get a chance, get Madhur Jaffrey's World-Of-The-East Vegetarian Cooking‎. One of the greatest cookbooks ever. EVER. Everything she makes is so simple but delicious and perfect. She really honors the integrity of the ingredients. I did tweak this one, a little bit (plus only made it for one)

1 cup fresh spinach (you could also use frozen)
1/8 medium onion, diced
1 tsp. vegetable oil (Madhur uses a lot more! In the original recipe for 6, she uses 5 tbsp. It’s probably really good!)
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup dried lentils, washed and drained 
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
crushed red pepper flakes (my addition, Madhur Jaffrey just uses black pepper. She also uses salt, which I omitted because I had canned tomato in there, which has a lot of salt already)

the last 3 tbsp of my crushed tomatoes (my addition, optional but good)

splash of lemon juice (again, optional but good)

Wash spinach. If using frozen, follow thawing directions. Chop coarsely. Heat oil in casserole type pot on medium heat. When hot, add onion and garlic. Stir and saute for 2 minutes. Then add lentils, tomato, and 3/4 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat, and simmer 25 minutes until tender. Add spinach, crushed red pepper, and cumin. Stir, and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer another 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add splash of lemon juice and serve.

I topped this with a microwave poached egg, which was an… experiment.

Especially given the sink situation, I didn’t want to dirty up another pot poaching an egg, so I tried a microwave method that said fill a mug halfway with water, break the egg in, and heat on high for one minute. My microwave is sluggish, but it was… not done.

This is the plate with the lentils and the egg on top. I needed to microwave this in 20 second increments like 3 or 4 times before the egg was done enough… I like runny, but not raw!

My accompaniments were Trader Joe’s spelt bread toasted with some cran-apple butter and half an apple. I also had another, smaller piece of bread while I was waiting for everything to cook, cause I was starving by the time I went to the gym, worked out, bought groceries, and walked back. In the rain. Oi oi oi.