Late Nite Cooking

Once a month, I go in for my IVIG infusion to strengthen my immune system and once a month I receive premeds that prevents me from going to bed and accomplishing my evening's goal of falling asleep, and every month I forget to take 2 benadryl in the early evening so I fall asleep somewhere around the time that I am supposed to fall asleep.

Black Bean & Lentil Soup Without Diced Tomatoes

Once a month, I either watch something stupid on HULU or Netflix or Amazon Prime that I am not interested or I decide to get ahead on my blogs researching, writing, and then set a publishing date sometime in the future...  But tonight, I decided to do neither of those activities after taking my 2 benadryl...  instead, I decided to COOK...  imagine that...

I measured out a cup of black beans and lentils and dumped them into our instant pot and after pouring in the required water, I closed the lid, set the device on top not to release the pressure and set the timer for 10 minutes.

During those 10 minutes, I cut up 2 onions, 1 pepper, and took our two frozen turkey burgers and placed them in a frying pan with olive oil and a generous amount of pepper.  As the burgers cooked on one side, I would turn them over and scrap off the top cooked layer until there was nothing left to scrap off.  

I poured in the diced onions and peppers and added a large tablespoon of minced garlic and put a lid overtop of the mixture so that greese would not splatter out and up onto our cabinets.

The beans cooked, I released the pressure and when it was safe to release the top, I did so and poured in the cooked mixture from the frying pan along with a can of diced tomatoes as I do not like big chunks of tomatoes in my soups.

Everything is pretty much cooked and chopped in around 15 minutes but I want to slow cook it for another hour for the juice to thicken while I wait for my 2 benadryls to complete their work on my body.

When that hour is completed, I will let the soup cooled down while I wash ewverything except for the inside liner pot of the instant pot.  Once somewhat cooled, the soup is then ladled into 4-5 plastic containers (it usually fills after 3 ladles) and I have just cooked enough soup to last for 4-5 meals with each meal either 325 calories or less.

Bean and Lentil soup is an excellent source of protein, an excellent way to warm the body on a cold or chilly day, and an excellent way to maintain my blood sugar levels so that I am not always craving food.  Actually the trick is to eat 5 small meals throughout the day or have some have suggested eat small portions every 3 hours.  For me that would be at 9:00 am, noon, 3:00 pm, and 6:00 pm with maybe an apple or banana snack at 9:00 pm although it is not a good idea to eat anything after 7:00 pm.

A easy remedy for me would be to simply start my 3 hour meal plan at 10:00 am instead of 9:00 am.