The Good, the Bad, and the Spicy

The Good:

Food pushers planned an ice cream social at the office yesterday, and I did not eat any ice cream.  Not even a cone, y’all – this is serious.  Given my overall lack of willpower and my infatuation with sweets, this is good.  Really good.

I’m not the only one who fought the urge to partake.  I’m not sure why companies don’t just offer fruit socials or tea time instead.  Many health insurance providers give discounts for employees’ healthy actions, so why is our insurer cool with this?  It just sounds hypocritical to me.

The Bad:

I am skipping today’s workout.  I hit the gym kind of hard yesterday morning, and my body was dragging the rest of the day.  I’ve been in a slump all week, so I think rest is more important.  I only hope I’m not getting sick.  I have started to hear coughs and sniffles in the office.  Yipes!

The Spicy:

Here’s a makeshift version of the recipe I promised yesterday.  I was inspired by the Whole Foods recipe I saw on Brittany’s blog.  It’s not hot n’ spicy; it just contains a lot of spice.  You could easily spice it up if you wanted though.

I’d love to provide the nutritional information for this, but my numbers are very different from Whole Foods.  This is partially because I used different lentils and changed things a wee bit, but I’m still surprised at the size of the variance.

Indian Spiced Lentil Soup

My pepper thinks it's a star, and my lentils look like fish food.

Ingredients

•  8 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 TBS garam masala
• 1-2 tsp turmeric
• 2 cups orange lentils (Next Time I’d Use Green Lentils)
• 2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (More If You Like it Hot)
• 3 handfulls of kale leaves, torn into bite-size chunks
• 2 tsp cumin (I Didn’t Add This But Might Next Time)
• 1-2 carrots, chopped (I Didn’t Add This But Might Next Time)

Directions

1. Prep all your ingredients (washing, chopping, rinsing the lentils)
2. Put everything in your slow cooker except for the kale.  Give it a stir.
3. Here’s the hard part… turn the slow cooker to “low.”
4. Let the slow cooker do the work for about 8 hours.
5. Add the kale in the last hour of cooking.  It’s firm, but that’s better than mushy.

***I was running low on time and cooked mine for 3 hours on high.  I added kale for one additional half-hour.  This was okay, but I wish it had cooked a bit longer.

Why is this adapted recipe awesome?

If you don’t mind eating the same thing all week, this is a great lunch.  Although I ate it without sides, I think naan would pair well with the meal.

In addition, according to the American Cancer Society, turmeric might be able to slow the growth of some cancers, help lower “bad” cholesterol, serve as an anti-inflammatory, and more.  Gotta love spices!

Have colds started circulating in your area yet?  Do you love your slow cooker as much as I do?