Tofu sandwich and leftover burrito lunch

Tofu sandwich (tofu, avocado, pickles, vegan mayo, hot sauce)
Leftover New Seasons burrito (tofu, refried beans, cilantro rice, mango salsa, pico, guacamole)
fresh berries
dates
bell pepper
carrots
hummus
pistachios
dried cranberries
grapefruit
habanero pickles
tortilla chips

I made extra lunch so I would have enough food, unlike yesterday.

Tofu Bahn Mi

Tofu Bahn mi (baked tofu, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeno, vegan mayo, french bread)
cucumber
apricot
carrots
hummus

This was not enough food. I ate it around 10:30am and had to buy second lunch from the work cafe.

Fruit, veggie, cracker lunch

Crackers
Papadum crisps
dried cranberries
dates
apple
habanero pickles
hummus
apricot
carrot
cucumber
bell pepper
sugar snap peas (not pictured)
strawberries (not pictured)

This is my favourite type of meal, lots of variety and very filling.

We have had that pumpkin since last fall when we bought all things pumpkin at Trader Joe's and it hasn't moulded yet!

Spring time lunch

Peanut butter roll up
Herb crackers
Papadum crisps
dried cranberries
hummus
snap peas
bell pepper (under the peas)
dates
carrots
strawberries
apricot (under the strawberries)

Tempeh Sandwich Lunch

Tempeh sandwich
habanero pickles
apricots
strawberries
dates
carrots
sugar snap peas

BBQ Jack Lunch

BBQ Jack (made on the stove top, so much faster than the crock pot!)
Coleslaw (cabbage mix, vegan mayo, mustard, pepper)
tortilla
kiwi
cucumber
bell pepper
carrot
hummus

Orange Chi'ken lunch

Trader Joe's Orange Chi'ken
Rice
Chard
Carrot
Bell Pepper
Cucumber
Kimi
Hummus

Tofu Wrap Lunch

Korean seasoned tofu, lettuce, avocado, sriracha, tortilla
saltines
kimchi
carrot
apple
waffle cookies
pineapple

My wrap got a bit squished by my bento box. Nothing can peek over the side of the box.

Beet Burger Lunch

Beet burger recipe here: http://www.theppk.com/2012/02/quarter-pounder-beet-burger/. These are so fantastically tasty. We try to make them every time we have beets in the house. This time we added about 2 tablespoons of vital wheat gluten and the burgers held together so so well.

Served with kiwi, apples, carrots, celery, and hummus.

Tempeh Rice Lunch

Ingredients
Rice
Cilantro
Lime
Tempeh
Onion

Method
Cook rice in rice cooker. After cooking, add chopped cilantro and lime juice.

Cook up a couple of tempeh bacon slices and onions on the stove top.

Notes
Served with kimchi, carrot, avocado, hummus, and blood orange.

Bonus picture of a tea sample I have from Upton. This tea from Indonesia is amazingly tasty. I had everyone smell the tea after I opened it. Too bad I can only have a 1/2 cup a day due to my caffeine intolerance.

Winter Rice Salad lunch

Ingredients
Rice
Chickpeas
Chard
Butternut squash
chipotle powder
olive oil

Tahini Sauce
2 parts tahini
2 parts soy sauce
1 part black vinegar
1 part rice vinegar
0.5 part hot sauce
1 partish water

Method
Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut butternut squash is half lengthwise. Clean out seeds and place cut side down in a baking dish with high sides. Fill the bottom of the dish with water to cover about 1/2 inch of the squash. Bake for about 30 minutes until the flesh is soft.

Drain and rinse chickpeas, saving brine for Aquafaba experiments, if desired. On a baking sheet covered in parchment paper lay out chickpeas and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and chipotle chili powder or any other spices desired. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until chickpeas are firm. They crisp up more as they cool down.

Cook rice in rice cooker. Can you cook rice any other way? I argue that there is only one way to cook rice and that is with a rice cooker.

Chop up chard into bite size pieces.

Whisk everything together for the tahini sauce adding more water if needed to get tahini to blend nicely.

In a bowl place rice, a couple of spoonfuls of butternut squash, chickpeas, chard and drizzle with sauce. Mix until blended together.

Notes
This was super tasty and a great way to use up the butternut squash that has been sitting on my counter for the past 3 months. The tahini sauce was adapted from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook.

This is what it looks like before mixing everything up. The squash sort of disappears in the dish.

The salad was served with carrots, apple, and hummus.

BBQ Tofu Lunch

Ingredients
Extra Firm Tofu
BBQ Sauce

Method
Heat oven to 400F. Press tofu, if desired, I have this press. Chop tofu into 1 inch cubes. Place tofu in a baking dish big enough for the tofu to lay in a single layer. Smother with BBQ sauce and mix until everything is covered. Bake tofu covered with foil for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 more minutes until tofu is firm. I'm still playing around with the baking times, so adjust to what tastes best to you.

Notes
My lunch also included: kimchi, avocado, cucumber, bell pepper, carrot, apple, and hummus. We ate the rest of the BBQ tofu leftovers today on toast with vegan mayo and avocado.

Tempeh Wrap Lunch

Lunch in my new Monbento lunch box. This bento box holds enough food for lunch and either a morning or afternoon snack.

Today's bento includes:
Tempeh, avocado, hummus wrap
carrots
hummus
cucumbers
pineapple
orange
Trader Joe's dark chocolate peanut butter cup



This is what the bento box looks like when it is closed up. Each level has an airtight lid. I like this bento box a lot!

Veggie Noodle Lunch

Ingredients
1 zucchini
1 carrot
3 chard leaves
1 stalk celery
1/4 avocado
1-2 strips of tempeh
peanut sauce (I used Fire on the Mountain Spicy Peanut sauce)

Method
Using a spiralizer, mandolin, or serrated vegetable peeler, make noodles out of the zucchini and carrot. Place into a bowl. Chop up the chard, celery, and avocado into small chunks and add to bowl.

Cook tempeh in a cast iron skillet for about 2-3 minutes per side until browned. Chop into chunks and add to the bowl.

Drizzle everything with peanut sauce.

Add anything else that would taste good raw - bell pepper, cucumber, apple.


Notes
This was super tasty the day when it was freshly made. After the vegetables sat in the peanut sauce over night, the texture became super mushy and not as appetizing. I would eating this quickly after adding the sauce and devour entirely. It is fantastic when it is fresh! If you use pasta noodles instead of just vegetables, I bet the noodles would taste better after sitting overnight in peanut sauce. It was nice to have a dinner consisting of mostly vegetables. Winter time is coming to a close!

The small dip container holds toasted onion hummus for the carrots and celery.

Rice Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Today, I was working from home because we needed to take our kitty to the vet. Nothing major, but she is 20 years old and needs a check up every so often.

I'm almost convinced that this cat is going to live forever.


Taken with my Rolleiflex camera. I just needed to adjust the focus a biiiiit more.

Anyway, so both my husband and I were at home today, he is trying to get over sickness and I was trying to work in a quiet environment. I looked at the clock and realised that we hadn't had lunch yet and it was almost time to go to the vet. I looked through our fridge and decided on rice noodles with peanut sauce. I have been craving Thai food lately and none of the "Thai" restaurants around here are cutting it. While this isn't even remotely authentic, it fulfilled a bit of my noodle craving.

Ingredients
rice noodles
vegetables (I used onion, garlic, carrot, broccoli)

peanut butter
sriracha sauce
hoisin/oyster/black bean/other dark sauce to give a little umami taste
hot water, to blend

Method
Boil enough water to cover the rice noodles. When the water is boiling, add the noodles and cover for 5 - 8 minutes until almost done.

In a wok or frying pan, saute onion and garlic with olive oil until softened. Add carrots and broccoli (and whatever other vegetables you want, unless it is a green - spinach, kale, etc - add that at the very end) and any water to make it not stick to the bottom and to steam the vegetables a bit.

While the vegetables are cooking, make the peanut sauce. I used about 1/4 cup of chunky peanut butter with a few squirts of sriracha and a few drops of oyster sauce, and added enough hot water to make a thin, whiskable sauce.

When the noodles are almost done, add to the pan with the vegetables. Add the peanut sauce and stir until everything is coated. Cook everything together until the noodles and vegetables are the desired tenderness. Add water to prevent too much sticking.


Notes
Both of us thought this was good. I didn't think it was "good" food, but it was exactly what I wanted, so it was great and quick.

What I ate Wednesday

I thought I would document what I ate today, for funsies.

Breakfast, part 1: Strawberry, banana, raspberry, almond smoothie

After drinking my smoothie, right as I was getting up to school, I could feel my blood sugar drop and I needed something a bit more substantial to eat.

Breakfast, part 2: Everything bagel with hummus and sriracha

Lunch, after eating some dill pickle chips and pumpkin ice cream (not shown)

Carrot sticks, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, banana chips, pear, chocolate, mini bell peppers stuffed with cashew cheese

Dinner: Rice noodles, broccoli, tofu, peanut sauce

Notes
This is a typical day of food I eat. I also had some Teeccino Chai herbal coffee today and of course a lot of water.

Hummus Board

My husband and I are more grazers than set meal eaters. When we eat smaller meals, we are generally in better moods and have more energy. This is one of our "meals".



Ingredients
Homemade hummus - crockpot cooked chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, sriracha sauce, salt, pepper
pita bread
cucumbers
carrot sticks
celery
avocado
pickles
strawberries
peaches


Notes
We love making our own hummus. We add a lot more garlic and spice it up with the sriracha. It tastes so much better than store bought.

Almond Veggie Pate

Recently, I have been toying with doing a raw food diet. I have book marked lots of recipes, checked out several books from the library, and I'm slowly starting to make more raw foods. I'm doing it mostly because I enjoy the challenge of making tasty food in nontraditional ways. Also, the arguments I have read for adding more raw foods to your diet seem to make sense to me.

I came across the following recipe and thought it looked good. I made a month or so ago and my husband and I still talk about it. Very tasty!



Ingredients
Adapted from Ani Phyo Website

3/4 cup almonds
1 cup cashews
1 T grated ginger
3 cloves garlic (this was a little high even for me and I love garlic, I would probably do two cloves next time)
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/3 cup dried plums
salt
pepper
juice from 1/2 lemon
sriracha sauce

lettuce leafs
bean sprouts
cilranto
cucumbers
carrot sticks

2 T orange champagne vinegar
1 T sugar
1 T water

Method
Process the almonds and cashews until they are powdery. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until combined and the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Using lettuce as a wrap, place a tablespoon or two of the pate with the other toppings and eat.

For the dipping sauce, over low heat heat up the vinegar, sugar, and water until the sugar is dissolved, whisking continuously. Take off the heat and serve.

Notes

The original recipe called to wrap the pate up in nori, but the nori I had in my cupboard was a bit stale and chewy and after trying a few in the nori, we decided to just use lettuce as a vessel for the pate. My husband really enjoyed this.


He couldn't wait until I was done taking a photo!

Sweet Potato Spring Rolls

I was looking through my 200+ food blogs I am subscribed to and found inspiration from Bean Figz and Katz for a lunch my husband and I had this week. They are women after my own heart with their love of sriracha!



Ingredients
1.5 sweet potatoes
cumin
chili powder or chipotle powder
1/2 small cabbage, shredded
1.5 carrots, julienned
sriacha sauce
cilantro
spring roll wrappers
warm water

peanut butter
hot water
sesame oil
sriracha


Method
Begin by peeling and cubing the sweet potatoes. Boil, until tender, about 10 - 15 minutes. Drain and mash with cumin and chili powder to taste along with salt and pepper.

Put a spring roll wrapper in warm water (I usually use a pie pan for the water, it is about the same size as the wrapper) until it is softened. Place the wrapper on a plate lined with paper towels. Add sweet potatoes down the middle and top with some cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and a few squirts of sriracha. Roll up like a burrito. Repeat with the remaining spring roll wrappers until the sweet potatoes are gone.

For the peanut sauce: in a bowl combine 1 - 2 spoonfuls of peanut butter. Add 1 t of sesame oil with a couple of squirts of sriracha. Add a few tablespoons of hot water until the peanut butter mixture can be mixed easily. Stir until combined. Eat with spring rolls.


Notes
Both of us loved the spring rolls with the peanut sauce! Unfortunately, there was not enough food in this lunchbox to sustain us all day, but it was really good. We were both starving when we were going home. Hmm, I need to pack more food.

Also included was carrot sticks, kiwi fruit, pear, and blueberries.

Vegetable Lentil Soup

Tonight for dinner, I wanted to make something quick with vegetables we have from our produces boxes. I decided on soup because I can throw anything in it and it usually comes out well



2 servings

Ingredients
1/2 onion, chopped
3 - 4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 yellow carrot, chopped
1 regular carrot, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 smallish potatoes, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, diced
1/4 cup red lentils, washed
1 t better than bouillon veggie broth paste
water
black pepper
1 t curry powder (it got a bit lost, I would probably increase this next time)

toasted bread, to serve

Method
In a 2qt sauce pan, add a bit of olive oil and allow to heat up. Add onions, garlic, and celery and cook until softened. Add carrots and potatoes and stir to cover in oil. Allow to cook a bit, then add broth paste. Mix until all the vegetables are covered. Add enough water to cover, and turn the heat up to high. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, cook until vegetables are nearly at desired doneness. Add lentils and allow to cook until tender about 5 - 10 minutes. Mash up everything with a potato masher or immersion blender. Adjust seasoning and serve with toasted herb bread.


Look at our fantastic CSA potatoes, so good!

Notes
Both my husband and I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was a tad bit salty because I added too much broth paste, other than that an easy, tasty soup.