What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?

To unironically embody the conversation in this thread, I've been making a ton of congee.

I started going through the DuoLingo Chinese lessons, and one of the first words it taught was zhou, or porridge, and I thought "well, that's weird; how often are they eating porridge that it's the third word I'm learning?"

Then I noticed a porridge button on my Zojirushi rice cooker (super entry level, NS-WXC10, use it daily, love it more than my dog), and I decided it was time to do some research.

I've been making rice porridge every morning. I'm a big fan of gruel to begin with, and expanding my options is exciting. For about a week, I've been making half a cup of white rice (5 cents!) into porridge and mixing it with random stuff in my kitchen. I cook a lot of Asian food anyway, so I've already got a number of standard congee ingredients: fermented garlic, chili crisp, fermented bean paste, and a wide variety of soy sauces, vinegars, and bouillons. Just like with oatmeal, though, my favorite so far is soy sauce and curry. I love how the savory saltiness of soy sauce sets off the curry. Honestly, I think it might be the greatest flavor combination in the world.

Been pretty good and consistent in packing my lunch for the office instead of buying junk food at the food court. My go-to has been: pita, hummus, and fresh veggies. Two of the smaller pita breads (wholewheat) seem enough for me. I buy the thin ones, not the fluffy ones. A small container of hummus from the store goes straight into my lunch bag, and I'll eat maybe half of it for lunch. The box of veggies includes: 1-2 cucumbers (the small ones, not the giant one), a handful of cherry tomatoes or 1 regular tomato, carrots (a handful of "baby" carrots - or equivalent regular carrot, cut), some olives, and if I have it, a 2-4 slices of smoked tofu (this is a new discovery, but limited availability at the regular stores; may need to check some of the Asian supermarkets for better options). This has proven to be a decent enough lunch that does not even need heating up, and since it is free of meat and dairy, it feels light and doesn't make me sleepy or too full.

I've also been quite consistent with my breakfast for a while. It's overnight oats, using oat milk with zero sugar (preferably). I add a couple of spoons of a seed mix I make myself: chia, hemp, flax, and pollen granules (if I can find them - I can only find this at the farmers market usually, and frankly it's VERY expensive, so I do not have this all the time). Maybe I should look online to see if I can find any sellers that sell this for a more reasonable price. I don't mind supporting the local businesses of course, but this item in particular seems very very expensive given the quantity you get. In the morning, I add some fresh fruit to it and some walnuts. My favorite fruit to add: apple, blueberries, or banana.