Guest Post by Lindsay!

Today we continue our theme on how to be a vegan on the go! Below is a post written by a fellow vegan who lives in New York. She's a busy artist in graduate school who doesn't have time to fuss with complicated recipes. Lindsay proves that it's easy to be a vegan on the go if you put a little thought and planning into it.



TIPS ON BEING A TIME EFFICIENT VEGAN
Being a gluten-free, soy-free (even coconut-free) vegan is not always the easiest thing
when you are out and about all the time. Plus, I am a full-time student commuter. Fast
food or even supposed “health food” venues are not always friendly to my way of eating.
I have, however, come up with the perfect way to pack food and prepare for the day that
stays within my restrictions, tastes yummy, and treats my body right…in just one hour (I
do a variation of this EVERY morning…so if I can do this, so can you). Think of it as a
morning food meditation. If you set your alarm one hour earlier tomorrow, and continue
to do it one day at a time, by the end of the week you will be used to it, and you will
naturally start going to bed earlier. This way, you won’t be grabbing unhealthy
snacky foods, wasting money on food out, or wasting time trying to read every
label in a store to find something you CAN eat.

Let’s go through this step-by-step.

1) Put brown rice and water into rice cooker (this takes one hour). I cook 2 cups of dry
rice (with 4.5 cups of water) at a time, and it stays good in my fridge for 3-4 days. I can
eat brown rice (in lieu of oatmeal) as a breakfast cereal, add it to my salads, or throw it
into an evening stir-fry to make fried rice. I can even make a quick rice dessert pudding.
It is ridiculously easy and good for you. Make sure you always have some on hand. To
make it extra delicious, soak the rice overnight, and the texture turns out creamy. You
wont be able to go back to using non-soaked rice. It also adds to the nutritional value of
the rice and ensures that it is clean (we’ve been hearing in the news about all that arsenic
in rice, so it’s never a bad idea to do an overnight soak). In an extra hurry?? Put on rice
first first thing before you even brush your teeth, and it will be done before you know it.

2) Put on oatmeal water. I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Oats. One
serving needs one cup of water. When it boils (after about 3 minutes), I add ½ a cup of
oats, and let it cook until most of the water has evaporated. Then I let it sit for 2 minutes.
While this is cooking, I prepare my fixings. I add these things to a bowl: 1 tablespoon of
chia seeds, 1 tablespoon of ground flax, 1 tablespoon of cacao powder, 4-6 strawberries, a
banana, two tablespoons of SunButter, and a sprinkle of salt. Then when the oatmeal has
finished sitting, I add it to my bowl, add a little almond milk, and the effect is divine. It’s
like dessert for breakfast, but every ingredient is good for you. I use Himalayan sea salt
and unsweetened almond milk. Take your vitamins with this and drink some green tea,
and you will be ready to face even the toughest of days.

Note: If I’m really in a rush, I eat my breakfast while I am preparing my food for the day.
The macrobiotic people would censure me, but we’re talking about efficiency here!

3) Packing snacks. I need to pack at least 2 snacks each day. Usually I pack some
conglomeration of: raw nuts and dried fruit, an apple or any other fruit (sometimes with
nut butter), some carrot sticks or other vegetables (sometimes with hummus), a health bar
(the brands that I like are Macrobars, Luna Bars, Pulsin' Bars), and rice, corn, or kale chips.
And the amount that I need depends on whether I make a smoothie or not as I leave the
house…I’ll get to this in step 8.

4) A cooler and lots of food storage containers. You are going to need a cooler of some
sort if you are going to be gone all day with no access to a refrigerator. As a student I
don’t have any fridge access. I use a cold compress and an aluminum water bottle filled
with ice inside of a soft cooler that I got at Whole Foods. It keeps the contents cold and
food safe for at least 8 hours (as long as there’s no dairy or meat…but if you are vegan,
you have no need to worry).

5) 2-4 BIG salads at once. Always make more than one salad at a time. Salads take a
long time to prepare, and it’s way easier to just cut up a few extra vegetables than it is
to pull out all the vegetables again and again. If I have leftovers from the night before,
I only need to pack one salad for the day; otherwise, I eat one for lunch and dinner. To
put into your salads: any kind of vegetable that you want. Be creative. If you aren’t
creative and need help, today my salad consisted of: mixed greens, chick peas, avocado,
red onion, kalamata olives, carrots, and cucumber. Anything goes. Dressing lately has
been balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, and flax oil with a few herbs from my spice rack.
Simple yet delicious.

6) While you are waiting for your rice to finish: read the newspaper, empty the
dishwasher, check email, write out your to do list for the day, check your Facebook, go
to the bathroom, take a shower, put on your makeup, brush your teeth etc, etc. Pack up 2
servings (3-4 cups) in a preferably glass container and continue to step 7.

7) Putting it all together. So, today, you are going to eat:
breakfast: oatmeal and fixins
snack 1: green smoothie (step 8)
lunch: fun salad with brown rice and balsamic vinegar, an apple
snack 2: raw cashews, raw almonds, dried figs & gogi berries (or any other snack
from the list)
dinner: leftovers from last night OR fun salad #2, with brown rice and balsamic
vinegar, and an extra fun snack.

Put all of these things into your cooler. Pack a fabric napkin and metal silverware (let’s
be good to the environment too). And you are almost ready to go.

8) Just before you head out the door, make a GREEN SMOOTHIE. The most efficient
way of doing this is buying a pre-made green drink (my favorite is the Bolthouse Farms
Green Goodness, but Odwalla and other companies make them too), and throw it in a
blender with a serving of protein power. This becomes your morning snack that you can
sip on for an hour or so while you are commuting, or in my case during my first class of
the day. There are thousands of green smoothie recipes to be found online if you feel
more creative or have 4 extra minutes (I don’t always).

Please note: If you are sick of brown rice, you can use other grains to supplement,
such as making a quick cold quinoa salad with chick peas, red onion, cherry tomatoes,
cucumbers, turmeric, and cumin.

There are thousands upon trillions of variations to my morning routine and food listed here, but this serves as a basic day. Sometimes I buy a veggie sushi at a local supermarket for my dinner and eat it with a bag of chips.

Also, please note: If you are wondering about all the dishes this creates, sometimes I
have time to wash them and throw them in the dishwasher right at the moment, and other
times I don’t, so I fill them with water and leave them until I get home at night (at 10pm
sometimes?!?). I tell myself that soaking the oatmeal pan, oatmeal bowl, and blender is
the best way. How you do your dishes is up to you, but if you do this every day, you’ll
find the dishes do themselves.

9) Go about your day as usual and wait for people to be impressed with how prepared
you are for your life! Remember efficiency is key. Time is money.

Lindsay Garcia
www.lindsaygarcia.com
lindsaydgarcia@gmail.com

Vegan Lunchbox!

Today's lunch:

Rice wrappers filled with avocado, carrot, mint, kale, and zucchini. A small salad of kale, mint, and cucumber. Spicy peanut dipping sauce: a spoon full of peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, and garlic chili paste (sorry - I just winged it and didn't measure).

Really light and refreshing lunch for hot days when your apartment feels like it's 900 degrees and you don't want to actually cook anything!

Vegan Lunchbox!

1/2 - 1 cup red kale massaged with about a teaspoon of flax seed oil with raw cauliflower, orange bell pepper, celery, cucumber, edamame, clover sprouts, hemp seeds, and dried cranberries. And a bunch of olives on the side - I'm on a super olive kick lately!

Vegan Lunchbox!

Raw carrots & green beans with creamy cashew/tofu dip; Rainbow Salad; and pecans, peanuts and dried cranberries.

Vegan Lunchbox

Rainbow Salad
2 carrots, julienned
3-4 baby portebelloes, chopped
1/4 red onion, diced
1 cup green beans, slivered
1 cup snap peas, halved
2 stalks celery, diced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/4 cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup clover sprouts
1 sheet of nori, ripped into small pieces
 salt & pepper

Dressing:
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
1-2 garlic cloves, minced

Mix everything together!

Serves 6-8

Cashew Spread Veggie Sushi
Post Punk Kitchen's Cashew Spread (made without scallions & red pepper)
1 carrot, julienned
1/4 avocado, sliced
1/8 yellow bell pepper, sliced thinly
1/8 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup clover sprouts
1 sheet of nori

Serves 1

Vegan Lunchbox

Feels Like Summer Salad1 cup arugula
1/2 carrot, chopped
1/8 yellow bell pepper, sliced thinly
1-2 radishes, sliced thinly
1 tsp hemp seeds
1 Tbsp crushed pecans
1 Tbsp dried cranberries
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Combine everything!

Serves 1

Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary & Thyme
2-3 Russet potatoes, cleaned and chopped (leave the skin on!)
2-3 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
Salt & Pepper to taste
1-2 tsp rosemary
1-2 tsp thyme
2-3 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 425. Combine all ingredients in a roasting pan. Bake at 15-20 minute intervals, pulling the pan out to mix the veggies so they don't stick as much to the pan. Bake until browned and crispy, about 45 minutes.

Serves 4

Quinoa Salad with Toasted Almonds Lunch

So my photos are crappy, but this was a super yummy lunch! It's part of the Detox Week 4 lunch menu. Totally recommend this recipe; we didn't have the thyme or scallions, but it was still delicious and super hearty.

I'm on a quinoa kick today! 

Vegan Laptop Lunchtime!

Spinach and Kale salad with chickpeas, kidney beans, carrots, yellow bell pepper, broccoli, red onion, and chia seeds and a dressing made from raw garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper; carrot sticks; homemade hummus topped with a little olive oil and chickpeas; sea salt pita chips.

I've been really sick for the last maybe 8-9 days with an infection I've been getting for the past 9 years. Some doctors say it's staph, some say shingles, some say it's a mold allergy - who knows?! All I know is that I'm uncomfortable and unhappy, dang it! So today's lunch is the "Immune System Booster" lunch. Kale, broccoli, spinach and raw garlic are HUGE immunity helpers and I'm trying to get down 1-2 raw garlic cloves a day. Of course this means I smell like I'm warding off the vampire apocalypse as I leak garlic from every pore. Hopefully no one around me notices/cares....although - why should I care anyway? If it's helping me get better, then, "More Garlic!" I say! 

Laptop Lunchtime!

Post Punk Kitchen's Pesto Soup with Gnocchi, Beans & Greens; couscous wtih potato, savoy cabbage, broccoli, chickpeas, & carrots, and seasoned with cumin and tumeric; red bell pepper; sesame seed squares

Laptop Lunch Time!

Happy Herbivore's Greens Quiche, Veganomicon's Porcini & Wild Rice Soup, and a local apple with soynut butter

Vegan Laptop Lunchbox Time AND Happy World Vegan Day!

Snap peas and yellow bell pepper with plain hummus and an awesome Israeli couscous salad made with seitan, carrots, onion, zucchini, mushrooms, and veggie stock.

AND

Happy World Vegan Day, everyone!

What is this World Vegan Day, you ask? It celebrates the founding of The Vegan Society in 1944 and kicks off Vegan Awareness Month. Lots of events are planned all over the world to celebrate plant-based diets and increase positive awareness of the benefits of being vegan/vegetarian.

I encourage you, even if you're not vegan/vegetarian, to celebrate with us and to try it for a day or a week. 

Laptop Lunchtime

Wrap made with roasted veggies (see below), hummus, and mixed greens; apple from a local orchard & soynut butter

Roasted veggies in the fall rock the casbah. There are SO many different combos, but last night's was pretty sweet, so here you go!

Several red russet potatoes, roughly quartered

1 yam or sweet potato roughly chopped

1 turnip, peeled & roughly chopped

3 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped

1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 chili pepper, minced - with or without seeds, you decide how how you want it

salt & pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 Tbsp olive oil

Bake at 375 for 90ish minutes, stirring things around every 20-30 mins or so so that they don't get stuck to the pan. Serve over salad, by themselves, pureed in soup, in a wrap, in a sandwich, in a train, on a house....any way you want! Wooo!



Vegan Laptop Lunchtime!

Mixed lettuce & barley-quinoa salad (recipe below) with apple picked on Sunday and soynut butter

Barley-Quinoa Salad



Ingredients:

1 c. uncooked quinoa

1 c. uncooked barley

1 can garbanzo beans

3/4 chopped zucchini

2 med. chopped carrots

5-6 kalamata olives, pitted, and diced

1/4 c. dried cranberries

5-6 crimini mushrooms, diced

1/2 c. broccoli, chopped very small

1/3 c. seitan, diced

1/4 - 1/3 white wine

Prepare quinoa and barley as directed. After they're ready, mix together in a large bowl. Add garbanzos, zucchini, carrots, olives, cranberries.

In a small skillet, saute the mushrooms, broccoli, & seitan in white wine until wine is cooked off. Add to the salad. Mix everything thoroughly and allow it to chill in the fridge for an hour or two.

You can serve this salad over greens and add a vinaigrette. I had it over mixed greens with a fig dressing for lunch and it was divine :)



Vegan Laptop Lunchtime!

Herb salad mix with cucumber, summer squash, grape tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, assorted seeds, cranberries, and balsamic; some plain hummus; doctored up Tofu Fried Rice from Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap

Vegan Laptop Lunchtime!

Left over tofu scramble from Sunday morning's brunch (lovingly prepared by Justin), Randall's Orchard apple with soynut butter, and some kalamata olives

My latest work snack: Dry roasted & salted edamame. It's really yummy, lower in fat than the pistachios I was eating and look at all that protein! It's the perfect afternoon pick-me-up :)

Vegan Laptop Lunchtime!

Taboule salad, Field Roast Italian "Sausage" with mustard, and an apple picked by yours truly from Randall's Orchard yesterday with some soynut butter. YUM!

Vegan Laptop Lunch!

Apple with soynut butter, taboule salad, and half of a left over bean burrito with Daiya cheese

Laptop Lunchtime!

Yellow bell pepper and zucchini with hummus, tabouli, strawberries, and Sunday Supper Frittata from Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap

Vegan Laptop Lunch!

Spinach, tomato, and yellow pepper salad with balsamic, strawberries, and Veganomicon's Seitanic Red and White Bean Jambalaya

Laptop Lunchtime!

Herb salad mix with tomato, summer squash, crimini mushroom, kohlrabi, sunflower sprouts, and balsamic; amazing pasta creation made by Justin last night (recipe will follow this evening); fresh local blackberries from our landlady's friend's backyard.

I've told you guys about Laptop Lunchboxes before, yes? Well, I'll repeat myself and say that this is one of the best investments I've made in the last year. It's small and easily transportable, comes in a variety of colors, has awesome little containers so you can make more interesting lunches, cuts down on lunch trash (no sandwich bags or disposable utensils), and it's BPA-free! Win! I think it ran me about $20 at Whole Foods during back to school season (which is coming up...) and after a year it's still good as new. There are many other lunchbox/bento options and Laptops has a million different designs and color choices. You can order them online or find them locally. Think about investing in one and cut down on your lunchtime trash!