Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

The weird meat-looking thing on the lower right is Indian pickle. I like my lentils best when they are broken down into mush, and I like bean/rice combination recipes, and I like when the beans and rice are mixed together so the leftovers can be stored together and maybe even cooked in one pot. And obviously, I love any excuse to try something new in the Instant Pot. And so, when I came across khichdi on Pinterest, I was pretty excited. I'm kind of surprised I've never had it before, because from my reading it sounds like it's a pretty common Indian dish. And there are lots of variations. I chose a variation that made it into a totally uniform porridge-like mush, and I used urad dal and jasmine rice because that's what I had, though I'll definitely try it with basmati rice in the future. Apparently khichdi is commonly served to people with sensitive stomachs - sick people, babies, etc. It was already in my meal plan for the week when I ended up with s

Next time it'll have roasted broccoli, too. In an effort to minimize dairy because it makes me itchy, I decided it was time to jump on the cashew sauce bandwagon. I know I like these sauces, but I haven't made them before because I've read that they really require a good high-speed blender. My blending appliances are the food processor, magic bullet, and immersion blender, and I'm not sure any of those would cut it. After some googling, I found the expensive secret - buy pre-made cashew butter and use that instead. The substitution is to use half the amount of cashew butter that you would have used raw cashews. This recipe used half of a $13 jar, and it made 5-6 servings, which for now is more reasonable than buying a new blender. The consistency is pretty much like fake nacho cheese except less gross. Specifically, it doesn't congeal or separate into weirdness like fake nacho cheese does. The flavor isn't exactly like cheese, but it's definitely

New Year's Day Lunch This recipe comes from  Carve Your Craving , thanks to another Pinterest search for Instant Pot recipes. I am still amazed at how much better garbanzo beans are when prepared from dry beans, versus the canned version. Another thing I really like about this recipe is that you mash the chickpeas a bit and then cook it more, so the chickpeas act as a natural thickener. It gives it really good texture and heartiness. Once all of the ingredients are prepped (onions/garlic/ginger chopped, spices measured, chickpeas soaked), it's mostly hands-off. If I make this on a weeknight, I'll prep the ingredients in advance so I can just throw it together that night. Normally I prefer dishes like this served over rice, but this has such good texture that it works without the rice too. With naan of course. My only changes from the original recipe are things that the Carve Your Craving post suggests as options: omitting the chickpea flour and the green