Ground Beef and Lentil Soup

Oh, how I love fall.  For all of the normal reasons of course, but also because it is the best time to start bringing out those soup recipes, and of course for discovering more.

For this one, I had some ground beef thawed out for meatloaf, but then I remembered that I had lentils and really wanted to make a soup.  So, naturally, I went scrolling through Pinterest and found one that caught my fancy.  And then I made it my own.  If you're interested in the original recipe, you can find it here, but I did not agree with some of it, so I improved upon it.

I was actually unsure of how it would turn out at first, but it was a hit at my table.  Both kids and the husband ate every bite and loved it.  (Success!)

What you'll need:

• 1lb lean ground beef (I used 96/4)
• 1/2 an onion finely chopped
• 1 Tb minced garlic
• 1 Tb olive oil
• 1 Tb parsley
• 1 Tb thyme
• 1/2 tsp dill weed
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• approx. 50.7oz chicken stock (I used 3 16.9oz boxes)
• 1 crushed beef bullion cube
• 2/3 cup lentils
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice (I used white rice)
• 2 Tb soy sauce

What to do:

Heat olive oil in the bottom of a large stock pot on medium heat.  Add onions and saute until translucent (about 4 minutes).  Add garlic and saute an additional 30 seconds or until fragrant.

Add ground beef and cook until it is all brown.  Add parsley, thyme, dill weed, cumin, and turmeric and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.

Add lentils and carrots and mix into the ground beef.

Add chicken stock and beef bullion and stir it all together.  Bring soup to a boil (use high heat for this step).  Reduce to low heat and simmer for 25 minutes, covered, until carrots and lentils are soft.

Stir in the rice and bring to a boil (I used high heat again).  Reduce heat back to low and simmer for another 20 minutes, or until rice is thoroughly cooked.  Add soy sauce.  Salt and pepper to taste (be sure to taste before you add salt because of the soy sauce).

Serve it up hot with some crackers, and you've got yourself a hearty cold weather dish.

Yields about 6 hearty servings.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour(ish)

Enjoy!

Social Media is not Real Life

I love social media.  I am very active on my Facebook and Instagram accounts and post random crap almost every day.  I love catching up with people I haven't seen in a very long time (and, likely, will never see in person again), browsing through people's profiles to see how they've been doing (I enjoy this part because having conversations is very painful for me), and even shoving my nose in places it probably doesn't belong.  However, just because I love all things about it, does not mean I cannot recognize it for what it is: a shield.

Social media is such a good place to hide and pretend.  We can be whoever we want to be.  At least we can make people think we are the person we want to be.  We can pretend like we have our shit together, and everyone will think we're as happy as can be.  Or, on the other side, we can cyber bully anyone we want.  Who is going to stop us?  We can be mean and hateful with no consequences (other than a stream of angry comments).

My favorite, and probably the most common, are the healthy people.  They post all over social media about how they are going to the gym, how long they worked out, how much weight they've lost, and the super yummy salad they had for lunch.  In fact, it is actually very inspiring for other people who are trying to do the same thing.  However, what people fail to post about is the giant slice of cake they ate, Friday night's binge drinking, or how they vegged out on the couch all day.  I am way beyond the point of being guilty of this.  I used to log my calories where everyone could see, and if I didn't log it, it didn't count.  No wonder I didn't lose much weight.
Anyhow, many people actually are very healthy.  It was because of watching people on Facebook and pinning frenzies on Pinterest that motivated me to change my lifestyle.  However, I cannot in good conscience post about my healthy decisions when all I basically do is sit on the couch all day.  You know you're guilty of it.  And kudos to all of you who are actually succeeding! :D  Please don't stop posting! Even if you eat chocolate afterwards, you're still keeping me motivated.

Another situation is when people pretend to be super happy just so people will shut up.  I have seen women over and over again vouch for their significant other after people start talking about how he cheated, they fight all the time, he hit her, etc., etc.  They post things like, "It doesn't matter what you think, we are still in love and so happy", "I have never been happier", "We've worked things out and have never been better."  And then a week later they are changing their relationship status.  It makes me sad when that happens.  But what is even more sad is when we, as a society, feel like our relationship has to be validated by social media.  Personally, I don't really care what anyone thinks of my marriage.  I only post happy things about it on social media, because I know I will regret calling my husband a no-good-son-of-a-bitch-motherFer on a public forum.  Also, no one wants to know about all of the stupid crap we fight about.  (If you must know, we fight when he eats the last of the chocolate or watches movies without me.)

I also see a lot of passive aggression and not-so-silent cries for help happening.  I mean, it is easy to say something mean when you're hiding behind a computer.  "I love it when people invite you to go out with them, and then bail on you at the last minute," or  some other hurt and angry post right after a tiff with a loved one.  That person knows who they are, and now they're hurt that you posted all about it on Facebook, and they reply with a snarky comment.  Now the whole world knows who you're talking about.  Way to be subtle.  And then there's my favorite: "I want to just die right now. Don't ask.  I don't want to talk about it."

Personally, I am one of those people that likes to pretend my shit is all together.  I don't post unflattering pictures of myself, I brag about how happy I am about every single thing, yadda yadda yadda.  Also, I refuse to update any picture, no matter how flattering, if there is clutter or laundry in the background.  My Facebook/ Instagram life is perfect!  In reality, my laundry is never folded, I hardly ever cook dinner anymore, I don't exercise, I am ALWAYS stressed about something, and I spend lots of quality time feeling sorry for myself, and I'm almost always broke.  That is real life.