Whenever finals roll around, I find myself searching for something that will take almost no time to prepare and feed me for 5-6 meals (minimum). Last quarter I chose to create the simple chicken, broccoli and rice dish, and this quarter I decided I wanted to put something in the crockpot.
One of my favorite parts: the simple ingredient list.
The process is easy: add all ingredients to crockpot, turn on.
Crockpot Red Lentils & Rice
- 1 quart chicken stock
- 1 diced onion
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 cup red lentils
- 4 garlc cloves, minced
- salt & pepper (to taste)
- oregnao (to taste)
- basil (to taste)
- cumin (about 1 tbsp)
Put all in the crockpot. Turn it onto low for about 2 hours, then turn it onto high, for a few hours (until most of the liquid has been soaked up. It will kind of look like a risotto. And its delicious to boot. Stir every once in a while, if you’re home.
It wasn’t the prettiest looking meal, but I liked the combination of flavors. While it was kind of a ‘mush,’ which isn’t my favorite texture, it was quick, easy, I had all the ingredients on hand, and the flavor combinations were great. I ended up adding salt at the end, but I prefer to under salt the dish and add if its necessary when I go to eat it.
I can’t wait to eat it during the long haul of the next five days. In case you’re wondering, as this is post goes up, I will be prepping for my first exam Monday at 3:30pm pst. And then I have exams on Tuesday & Thursday, and 60 research papers to grade for the course I TA for before I proctor that exam Friday at noon.
Basically what I’m trying to say is: have a great week, can’t wait to catch up on the weekend! And any luck/thoughts you want to send my way, I will take it all. Its going to be a long week, with little-to-no sleep.
What are/were your study tactics for exams in college/grad school? Mine differ depending on the class, but I like to read the entire text that was covered as well as review all problem sets/old exams, etc. But I’m finding this extremely difficult to do for tomorrow’s class….hopefully it goes better, but I’m kind of dreading this.
phdstrides.wordpress.com 
I really need to get a crock pot!
This post brought me right back to grad school and law school… yikes! I’m a big fan of outlining for exams, and also going through problem sets to get used to applying the material to real situations. This worked really well for law school, not so well for the term papers I had for my doctoral coursework in history. And I’m also a big fan of the reward system – whether it’s a run, a movie date, or a handful of m&m’s 🙂
Good luck – sending smartness vibes your way!
Oooh that looks yummy!