It’s been challenging for us to find slow cooker meals that we love. I want to love them because throwing everything in the slow cooker in the morning for dinner that night is a miracle. But many of the recipes are too bland for us.

Until now.

Enter Red Lentil Dahl from Monica at The Hidden Veggies. This was easy, tasty and a great way to use greens.

Howdy, cowboy

We tried the Banza chickpea pasta in this Cowboy Butter Spaghetti recipe by LaDonna Langwell.

Banza cooks up just like regular pasta and tastes great (we tried the penne). We added nutritional yeast flakes (1 tablespoon for a half recipe) and ½ teaspoon of herbes de Provence, and sauteed some onion and garlic with the butter. We added chopped leftover steamed broccoli, and that was a good addition–and that’s from someone who isn’t crazy about broccoli. Definitely recommend making the butter mixture ahead of time, and then it goes together quickly. We used plant-based butter, coconut cream, and the plant-based shredded parmesan from Trader Joe’s.

Stay hydrated! 

We’ve had a few heat advisories in the past month, so electrolyte drinks have become a regular item at Chez Haiku. We like this customizable electrolyte drink recipe from Sam Turnbull at It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken. We don’t find we need to add a sweetener with most juices we’ve used for this recipe.