Hearty Home-Cooked Convenience

When I do our grocery shopping, I usually forget how much it wears me out, and that any remaining energy has to be spent putting away all my recently acquired edible treasures - instead of actually eating them.

Even if I make sure to fill my belly before I go to the store ("Never shop on an empty stomach!"), I'm running on empty by the end of the day. I usually go with a friend, and she buys these family-size bags of potato chips every time, and I'm always tempted to buy one, even though I know that I will not have the fortitude to stop partway through.

So today before I left, I put a pound of black-eyed peas (plus water and seasonings) into a clay pot and placed it in the oven, set it to 375° F and left, hoping nothing terrible would happen before my return.

I came home to a mouth-watering aroma, and a Japanese donabe full of perfectly cooked beans. I took one into the bedroom to show The Dude: "Look what I MADE while I was SHOPPING!"

At first he was like, "What the heck is that?" because I usually just buy beans and add them to my collection, rather than bother to soak and cook them. (I've recently changed my mind about the soaking issue after reading some articles on the subject, but I didn't waste his time explaining that - just yours!)

"Eat it!" I urged him, and he raised his eyebrows as he did.

"This is good! I wouldn't mind a bowl of those..."

"I think we've still got some mushrooms in broth. Want me to heat those up and add them in?"

I like to buy several packs of pre-sliced mushrooms, and instead of putting them away in the fridge when I come home, I pop them into the crockpot. They can cook almost indefinitely, but if I catch them at the right time the next day, I get a huge batch of delicious mushrooms plus a fantastic broth to keep them in (if I leave them too long the broth evaporates and all I'm left with is tasty mushrooms, alas...).

Guys. This meal was super tasty, super hearty, super cheap, and INSANELY convenient. Hands-on time in total was about a third of the time it took me to tell you about it. A fifth, if you include the hoops I jumped through to upload the accursed photo!