Farmers Market Stir-Fry and an herb salad with yellow tomotos, cucumber, kohlrabi, and mixed sprouts, and greek hummus
Insights, quips, and queries on the vegan way of life
Showing posts with label Laptop Luncbox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laptop Luncbox. Show all posts
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Vegan Lunch Time!
Roasted root veggies over spinach, Tofu Salad (from Moosewood), and a plum!
Sorry for being MIA lately, friends. I was on vacation last week and will write you a tofuier (instead of meatier, oh, I'm clever) post later this evening. Until then - keep smiling!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Laptop Lunchtime!
Salad made wtih spinach and red cabbage, orange bell pepper, cucumber, zucchini, crimini mushrooms, snap peas, dill, garlic scapes, greek hummus and balsamic vinegar. Yums!
PS. Garlic scapes are my new favorite veg. Go find some - they aren't out for long!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Making do with an emptying fridge
Last night, after finishing my last baking order for the week, I peered into the fridge for dinner ideas. A lone cucumber, bag of carrots, and emptying jar of salsa stared back at me, daring me to make my move. As I uttered comments of discontent, Justin yelled in and said, "Let's just order out." I thought about it, but then I thought, No way! We need to save money because we may be moving in a month or two and we've eaten out too much lately (our original goal of one eat out pass per month has fallen by the wayside recently). I mustered up courage, flung the fridge back open, and rolled up my sleeves.
Our pantry is always well stocked with grains, so I pulled out the rice cooker and started a batch of brown rice. Then I heated a skillet with some olive oil and added the rest of an onion - less than a 1/4 cup, but hey, at least it didn't get wasted. After the onion was cooked, chopped up 3 carrots and threw those in. I followed with beans and some spices, and ended up with a really nice Mexican rice and beans dish. Ta-da! My man even went back for seconds. Here's my recipe:
Odds & Ends Mexican Rice & Beans
2 cups brown rice
olive oil
onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 tomato, diced
1/2ish veggie stock
1 can garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1/3-1/2 cup TVP
Mild - hot salsa
salt & pepper
chili flakes
chili powder
cayenne pepper
Heat the onion in olive oil over medium heat. Once onions are translucent, add carrots and cook until they are tender. Add veggie stock, beans, and TVP and cover. Let the mixture simmer covered for a while, allowing the beans to soften, stirring occasionally. You may need to add more veggie stock or water as it gets soaked up pretty fast by the TVP and beans. After 10 mins or so, add in the tomato (I did it here because I didn't want them soggy, but you could add them earlier) and salsa and mix. Add spices - I didn't measure, so just be mindful of how spicy you want it to be.
Serve the mixture hot over the brown rice, or mix it all together and then serve.
Makes 4-5 servings.
And of course after dinner, there were cookies left over from the 3 orders I had this week, so dessert was a cinch :)
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So I took some leftovers for lunch, and also brought some cucumber salad. Cucumber salad is SO easy to make and so refreshing when it's hot outside. Pick up some fresh dill and cukes at your local farmers market and just chop them up, throw them in a container with some white wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and let it sit in the fridge for a day or so. Yum!
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Today's lesson: Even when you think there's nothing in your kitchen, try to make it work and you might surprise yourself with a new recipe. You just need to think outside the box and let the ingredients you have on-hand inspire you!
Our pantry is always well stocked with grains, so I pulled out the rice cooker and started a batch of brown rice. Then I heated a skillet with some olive oil and added the rest of an onion - less than a 1/4 cup, but hey, at least it didn't get wasted. After the onion was cooked, chopped up 3 carrots and threw those in. I followed with beans and some spices, and ended up with a really nice Mexican rice and beans dish. Ta-da! My man even went back for seconds. Here's my recipe:
Odds & Ends Mexican Rice & Beans
2 cups brown rice
olive oil
onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 tomato, diced
1/2ish veggie stock
1 can garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1/3-1/2 cup TVP
Mild - hot salsa
salt & pepper
chili flakes
chili powder
cayenne pepper
Heat the onion in olive oil over medium heat. Once onions are translucent, add carrots and cook until they are tender. Add veggie stock, beans, and TVP and cover. Let the mixture simmer covered for a while, allowing the beans to soften, stirring occasionally. You may need to add more veggie stock or water as it gets soaked up pretty fast by the TVP and beans. After 10 mins or so, add in the tomato (I did it here because I didn't want them soggy, but you could add them earlier) and salsa and mix. Add spices - I didn't measure, so just be mindful of how spicy you want it to be.
Serve the mixture hot over the brown rice, or mix it all together and then serve.
Makes 4-5 servings.
And of course after dinner, there were cookies left over from the 3 orders I had this week, so dessert was a cinch :)
Vegan Linzer Tarts
Photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography
Lunch: Mexican beans without the rice, cucumber salad, grapes, and a small salad with radish and hummus.
Today's lesson: Even when you think there's nothing in your kitchen, try to make it work and you might surprise yourself with a new recipe. You just need to think outside the box and let the ingredients you have on-hand inspire you!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Vegan Lunchbox!
Tofu Scramble made by Justin, Grape Leaves and Golden Beet Salad from Whole Foods, and cantaloupe. Yum!
I love all of the earthy/sunny colors in this lunch - greens, oranges, and yellows - summer is here!
I love all of the earthy/sunny colors in this lunch - greens, oranges, and yellows - summer is here!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Lemon and Ginger Tofu with Beautiful Sauce
On Thursday night we tried a VegWeb recipe posted by "carltelefunk" from the UK - Lemon and Ginger Tofu with Beautiful Sauce. The results - fantastico! But we made a few changes.
First - I don't know about you, but I don't have time to think about marinating my tofu for several hours before I cook. It's just not happening with my busy schedule. So first, I started by cutting my tofu block into 8 rectangles and towel drying them (wrap them in paper towels and press). Then I cut each rectangle in half, and then in half again, but at an angle so that I had triangles. Next, I heated up a non-stick skillet (MUST be non-stick!!) and threw in the tofu pieces, allowing them to sizzle. I took a spatula and pressed on the pieces, which allows more water to release and sizzle in the pan. Then I flipped the pieces and let them brown on the other side.
After I had the tofu ready, I removed it from the pan and put the marinade from the recipe into the same pan. I allowed the sauce to come up to a simmer and then stirred in the 6 Tbsp of coconut milk. Then, rather than using composing the plate and pouring the sauce on top as the recipe suggests, I tossed in the tofu and allowed it to simmer for a while. I added in veggies - baby bok choy from the Portland Farmer's Market, yellow bell pepper, and broccoli - and allowed it to cook a while longer so that the flavors combined. Then I served the mix on top of jasmine rice.
It was really really yummy and if I make it again, I'm definitely doing it this way instead of the way the recipe instructs. The only big change I'd make to the sauce is to swap out lemon juice for lime juice. Although it was really good, I feel like lime juice tends to be a little less harsh and will blend in more.
I took leftovers for lunch the other day, in addition to a salad with some local Ariel's hummus and some cantaloupe.
And by the way, friends, you'll notice something new beneath my blog posts - a reaction section. Please take a sec to give me some feedback about my posts! As always, thanks for reading!
First - I don't know about you, but I don't have time to think about marinating my tofu for several hours before I cook. It's just not happening with my busy schedule. So first, I started by cutting my tofu block into 8 rectangles and towel drying them (wrap them in paper towels and press). Then I cut each rectangle in half, and then in half again, but at an angle so that I had triangles. Next, I heated up a non-stick skillet (MUST be non-stick!!) and threw in the tofu pieces, allowing them to sizzle. I took a spatula and pressed on the pieces, which allows more water to release and sizzle in the pan. Then I flipped the pieces and let them brown on the other side.
After I had the tofu ready, I removed it from the pan and put the marinade from the recipe into the same pan. I allowed the sauce to come up to a simmer and then stirred in the 6 Tbsp of coconut milk. Then, rather than using composing the plate and pouring the sauce on top as the recipe suggests, I tossed in the tofu and allowed it to simmer for a while. I added in veggies - baby bok choy from the Portland Farmer's Market, yellow bell pepper, and broccoli - and allowed it to cook a while longer so that the flavors combined. Then I served the mix on top of jasmine rice.
It was really really yummy and if I make it again, I'm definitely doing it this way instead of the way the recipe instructs. The only big change I'd make to the sauce is to swap out lemon juice for lime juice. Although it was really good, I feel like lime juice tends to be a little less harsh and will blend in more.
I took leftovers for lunch the other day, in addition to a salad with some local Ariel's hummus and some cantaloupe.
And by the way, friends, you'll notice something new beneath my blog posts - a reaction section. Please take a sec to give me some feedback about my posts! As always, thanks for reading!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Vegan Lunchbox!
Post Punk's Ancho Lentil Tacos (modifications: sub spicy salsa for tomato paste & hot sauce and sub cayenne pepper for ancho chili -- we were missing some ingredients and these subs worked well!); cantaloupe, and From Scratch & Sniff's vegan pineapple bar
Nom! Nom! Nom!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Vegan Lunch Time!
Spicy Bean Burger, Sauteed Fiddleheads from the Portland Farmers Market, Mom's Mango Chutney, and Kosher Dill Spears
Lunchtime WIN!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Vegan Lunch Time!
Super Spicy Vegan Chili made by my amazing fiance; herb greens, sunflower greens, carrot and cucumber; garlic hummus; fresh strawberries and blackberries
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Ground beef freak out
And what's worse - this meat wasn't just in the fridge that day, I had seen it in there for the last two days. An employee had grabbed it on their lunch break, intending to take it home for dinner, and had just forgotten it in there. Aside from the fact that leaving raw meat in a very small fridge for several days where people store their lunches is a very serious sanitary issue (sometimes those thin packages leak), I found it incredibly insensitive considering that everyone knows that I am vegan.
I sat at my desk and debated whether or not I should say something. Sometimes I feel silly complaining, as though I somehow don't have the right to say that I'm uncomfortable with something since I'm a minority. But that's ridiculous! I have every right to pipe up and say something. So I told my boss, who completely agreed that it was a sanitary issue, and although she didn't acknowledge that it would be offensive to me, at least she swiftly responded to have it removed. The employee did not understand why it was a problem and felt that my boss was overreacting about it.
I posted this interaction on Facebook and had some interesting feedback. My cousin felt that I should just let it go if it wasn't done as a practical joke or maliciously. I don't feel that it was - I think it was done out of shear lack of common sense and ignorance. But what does just "letting it go" mean? Does it mean I shouldn't ever voice my opinion? That it's not important to educate someone about what they've done so that they understand why it's offensive? I used to just let everything go and I found that I got walked on quite a bit. I'm tired of living that way and I won't keep my mouth shut. I'm not going to scream and yell, but I will provide valid information and try to open people's minds up.
Needless to say, I did not eat my lunch because all I could picture was raw, bloody beef and the squish beneath my fingers.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Valentine's Day Delight!
We stayed in for Valentine's Day because, let's face it, most resturants are jam-packed and many serve a "special," highly limited menu, which makes vegan options scarce. Besides, nothing says "I love you" like a homecooked meal!
I've been getting into stews, soups, and chowders lately. With the cold weather upon us, these hearty dishes warm us up in a jiffy. So last night we decided on Vegan Black Bean and Corn Chowder. One word: YUM. I packed some of the left over chowder for lunch today and had it cold - and even cold, it tastes delish!
Vegan Black Bean & Corn Chowder
1 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
1.5 cups frozen corn, defrosted
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
salt & pepper to taste
3 cups of veggie stock (make you're own! it's EASY!)
1.5 cups textured vegetable protein
In a large pot over medium heat, cook onions & garlic in some olive oil. Cover and let them get soft, about 5 mins. Add beans, tomatoes, corn & spices. Add veggie stock and simmer. Taste and add salt & pepper to your liking. Add the TVP and let the chowder simmer, uncovered, for about 30-45 minutes. The TVP will soak up a lot of the juice, so it will look brothy at first but then get nice and thick. Add more stock if you need to thin it out. Serve hot!
I prepared the chowder, my boyfriend prepared the drinks: champagne with a hibiscus flower floating on the bottom and some hibiscus syrup mixed in - gloriously romantic. It was certainly a wonderful Valentine's Day meal :)
I've been getting into stews, soups, and chowders lately. With the cold weather upon us, these hearty dishes warm us up in a jiffy. So last night we decided on Vegan Black Bean and Corn Chowder. One word: YUM. I packed some of the left over chowder for lunch today and had it cold - and even cold, it tastes delish!
Lunch: Left-over Chowder, Fresh cut veggies and a banana with peanut butter
Recipe? Here we go...this one's coming from my head so pardon any mistakes!Vegan Black Bean & Corn Chowder
1 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
1.5 cups frozen corn, defrosted
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
salt & pepper to taste
3 cups of veggie stock (make you're own! it's EASY!)
1.5 cups textured vegetable protein
In a large pot over medium heat, cook onions & garlic in some olive oil. Cover and let them get soft, about 5 mins. Add beans, tomatoes, corn & spices. Add veggie stock and simmer. Taste and add salt & pepper to your liking. Add the TVP and let the chowder simmer, uncovered, for about 30-45 minutes. The TVP will soak up a lot of the juice, so it will look brothy at first but then get nice and thick. Add more stock if you need to thin it out. Serve hot!
I prepared the chowder, my boyfriend prepared the drinks: champagne with a hibiscus flower floating on the bottom and some hibiscus syrup mixed in - gloriously romantic. It was certainly a wonderful Valentine's Day meal :)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Art of Packing your Lunch
Today's Lunch: A spinach salad with yellow pepper, tomato and cucumber with freshly ground pepper and lemon juice; green beans, snap peas and radishes with black bean dip; and celery with freshly ground honey roasted peanut butter. Not shown: 2 clementines for later :)
I have a theory: if lunch doesn't look exciting, I will find myself in line at Starbucks by 3pm asking for an overly sweet scone and a large coffee. This may not hold true for everyone, but I think it does for a majority of us whether it's Starbucks, the office cookie jar, or the local convenience store. The fact is, it's hard to find a satisfying and healthy snack on the fly these days, so it's super important to pack a lunch that will get you through quitting time.
I like to make my lunches look pretty. I'm a HUGE fan of bento boxes and actually own one of the Laptop Lunch boxes (not shown here because I was too tired to wash it last night <shame>). They allow me to pack a nice variety of foods, while keeping in mind portion control. I try to make my lunches colorful: Rule of Thumb: the more colors your meals include, the more nutrients you're getting, the more likely you are to get your fill of the daily required amounts. I also try to include veggies, fruits, nuts and legumes in all of my lunches. I know that carbs like bread and pasta make me laggy so I steer clear when it comes to lunch. Normally I pack leftovers, but last night was one of the first that we didn't cook up a really nice dinner; we just used various leftovers in the fridge to concoct 2 portions for dinner.
If you're trying to lose weight, or just trying to avoid spending money on "quick" afternoon snacks, I suggest getting creative with your lunch so that you don't feel tempted. Check out the Vegan Lunchbox blog for ideas to get you started!
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