Dinner without photos and gross negligence on following a recipe

I was really in the mood for split pea soup, but when I pulled out my jar that holds split peas, I discovered it was empty. I really dislike having to come up with two dinner ideas in one day, especially when the first idea seemed like such a good one.

The lentil jar was next to the split pea jar, so I thought I'd make lentil soup instead. I couldn't remember what recipe I've used for lentil soup in the past, so I started looking through my cookbooks, and found this one.

Mediterranean Lentil Vegetable Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil
6 carrots peeled and sliced
4 ribs celery, with leaves, chopped (I didn't have celery, so I dumped in some celery salt- I really need to dehydrate celery so I always have some on hand...)
2 medium onions, chopped (I used dried onions)
4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped (again, I used dried minced garlic)
8 cups chicken broth (I cut it down to 6 since I was using the crock pot. I probably could have gone with 5, but it was good)
1 can plum tomatoes (I used my home canned tomatoes, chopped up) with juice
1 cup dry red wine (I didn't have any on hand, so I left this out) :)
3/4 C lentils (I put in 1 cup because 3/4 seemed like not very much)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp allspice (I didn't have allspice, so I left it out)
2 cinnamon sticks (I was nervous about cinnamon in soup, so I only put in one stick- which turned out perfectly)
salt and pepper

Cook carrots, celery and onions in olive oil until onions are wilted. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Add everything else and cook until lentils are tender. (I actually just dumped everything in the crock pot and let it cook)

I adjusted amounts, mostly of water and lentils, since I was cooking this in a crock pot instead of on the stove, but it turned out really well. The kids were skeptical at first, but once they tried it, they finished without complaint. We also made chapathis (3 C flour, 2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 C water- mix, rest for several hours, shape into 12 balls, roll out, and bake like tortillas (although they puff up better if you use a dishtowel wadded up to push down on them while they're baking.)), and what was REALLY good was to break off a piece of the bread and use it to scoop up the lentils.