Weekend Recap, Ham and Lentil Soup

Friday:
Ladies' night! Margaret, Amanda, Mary, Mary-Grace, Meghan, Molly and I met up for dinner and drinks at O-Ku Sushi. Can you believe how many M names were in our group? Naturally Amanda was renamed Mandy and I was renamed Mina.

For dinner, Margaret and I split two rolls. I chose the Potato Wrapped Roll: shrimp tempura, avocado, shoe-string potatoes, eel sauce, and mango remoulade. Amanda and Mary raved about this roll, so I knew I had to try it. It was a really interesting combination of flavors and I loved the extra crunch from the potato.

 Margaret ordered the Harvest Roll. I can't remember exactly what was in this roll, but it was topped with fried Fuji apple! This roll was way too intense and had too much of a deep-fried flavor.

On the way to the bars after dinner, I ran into my favorite hot dog vendor men! They call me "Cookie Girl" because every time I've had too much to drink, I try to convince them to let me sell my cookies at their stand. They always tell me that cookies don't go with hot dogs, but I think they are being silly. I took a pic with them anyway.

Saturday:
I think I half died yesterday. Awful. I haven't decided if it was a 24-hour bug or from the shot of Wild Turkey, but I was yakking all day. Margaret even brought me to Chick-fil-A and I couldn't even it. That is crazy talk. These were my friends on Saturday night.

Btw, unflavored Pedialyte is NASTY. It tastes like salt water, but it works.

Sunday:

I finally felt better! I met Tyler for lunch at Mozzo, then Amanda picked me up so we could take some pictures downtown. A friend of hers that lives in North Carolina wanted us to take some pictures of a street sign that had special meaning to her fiance and her. The pics came out so pretty!

After our little photo shoot, we hit up Menchie's for some fro yo. I got the blueberry tart yogurt and topped it with cookie dough balls and heath bar bits.

For dinner tonight, I made a wonderful Ham and Lentil Soup that I found on Closet Cooking.

Ham and Lentil Soup adapted from Closet Cooking

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup red lentils
• 2 cups ham, diced
• 1 ham bone
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 handfuls spinach
• pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a large sauce pan. 

2. Add onions, carrot, and celery and saute until tender, about 10-15 minutes. 

3. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or two. 

4. Add chicken broth, lentils, ham, and ham bone. Simmer, covered, on low heat for an hour. 

5. Remove from heat and stir in spinach.

This soup is awesome. It's packed with veggies, and the lentils absorb so much of the broth that the soup actually thickens up. Next time you bake a ham, SAVE that bone and make this!