Face Face

Looks like my favorite fruit is back and in full effect.  Take a look-see:

• herb turkey and light provolone cheese on a TJ's sandwich slim
• sugar snap peas
• cara cara oranges!!

I have professed my love for these oranges in the past and my love for them has not changed.  I got a big bag of them this weekend and I've already eaten about half the batch.  Lunch was supplemented with 2 hardboiled eggs today.  I've been trying to get more protein with my snacks lately, so I popped an egg around 10:00 a.m. for a late breakfast.  The second egg was devoured around 3:00 p.m. when those familiar hunger pangs/cravings kicked in.  I felt satisfied, so I guess there is something to this thing about eating healthy/filling snacks.  Who woulda thunk it!

Oh yeah, "cara" means "face" in Spanish, hence the clever title of this post. 

Leftover Slump

Classic leftover lunches this week.

• garlic chicken (here's the recipe)
• mashed potatoes
• sugar snap peas
• clementines
• cinnamon Puffins

Coming back from a vacation to a short work week is a blessing and a curse.  I had to catch up on some stuff from the week I was gone (boo) but I'm only working 3 days this week (yay).  So I kept it simple with my lunches this week.  I ate this yesterday and today and I will eat it tomorrow.  Anyway, have I told you guys about my love for Puffins?  I had a love affair with then as a lunchtime dessert/snack over the summer.  Well, now I'm all about the cinnamon flavor.    

I've been having a bowl of this stuff in the morning before I leave for work.  But I love it so much that I eat them dry after having my savory garlic lunch.  It's a perfect palate cleanser.  Sweet and crunchy and not too much sugar and a bit of fiber.  Ugh, do I sound like I'm advertising for them? Sorry. I'm just a girl standing in front of a box of cereal and asking it to love me.

The upcoming holiday is the Super Bowl of lunch leftovers and I'm going to try not to bog down my box with a bunch of turkey and fixins.   I want to be more creative and lunch specific in the coming weeks.  I love the food I eat but I feel like I'm lacking variety because a lot of times I eat the same lunch and dinner 2 or 3 days a week.  Leftovers are easy (and delicious) when you know your food is great from meal 1 to meal 5.  On the flip side, it can get really boring and predictable when I open my box and see the same chicken dinner from the night before staring back at me.  Hopefully I'll get my creative mojo back after turkey day.  Wish me luck.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'll Fly Away

Lunch is a simple affair today as I'll be boarding a flight directly after work to take a family vacation:

• 2 turkey bologna sandwiches with light provolone cheese on multi-grain flatbread
• a whole bunch of clementines

Hopefully one of the sandwiches will be used as a snack/dinner before the flight.  I cleverly stashed my sugar snap peas from yesterday's lunch in the office fridge last night, so I'll also have those for today's lunch as well.  Since I'm trying to be as unencumbered as possible today I chose this for my lunch bag:

 

It works for today.  Have a great weekend!

Repacked for Today

This is what I had for lunch today:

• pulled chicken on a hamburger bun
• sugar snap peas
• clementines
• extra BBQ sauce

Yep, it's exactly the same as yesterday.  And let me tell you people at work were Jell-US!  Everyone was asking what smelled so good.  Don't worry tomorrow will be something different because we're all out of pulled chicken.  My lord and master made a vegan broccoli potato leek soup that's probably very tasty and healthy but it's pureed...and green...and, well, I call it the "glue soup."  That color and texture is so unbearable to me.

Anyway, tomorrow is Friday and I'm on vacation for a week.  Yippee!

Bun Baby Bun

Today was one of those days.  I won't expand on it, but I will tell you what I had for lunch:

• BBQ pulled chicken on a hearty bun
• grapefruit cocktail
• sugar snap peas
• clementines

I actually had 4 of those clementines.  They are only about the size of a golf ball so 2 didn't seem like enough. 

 

 

I loves these hamburger buns.  They are hefty and have little bits of seeds and stuff in them that I like.  The flavor is great too.  I found out about their existence by scanning the "Our Products" section of the Food for Life website (internet coupon hunting on a Saturday night...jealous of my wild lifestyle yet?).  I made it my business to find them and try them out.  The only place that I've seen that sells them here in NYC is Fairway (cold section).  Anyway they are really good with salmon burgers or grilled portabello mushroom caps.  Yum!

Pulled In Two Directions

Today's lunch was inspired by a forbidden passion of mine.  Let me unburden myself to you:

• pulled chicken wrap
• steamed broccoli
• strawberries
• grapefruit cocktail

I've been having a torrid affair for the past few weeks.  Well, sort of.  A few weeks ago I decided to treat myself (because I was late in the morning and didn't pack a lunch) to one of Pret's sinful BBQ Pulled Pork Wraps. It was the first time I had it and I knew that as soon as it touched my lips I was in trouble.  Now, I should be clear that the Pret wrap is NOT the most tasty or well prepared BBQ sandwich in the world.  In fact, it's pretty mediocre.  But I fell in love with the IDEA of eating a close facsimile of real American barbeque in the middle of the day.  I love barbeque!!  Ribs, brisket, chicken, tri-tip, anything slow cooked over a smokey grill and dripping with sauce needs to get. in. my. belly! 

  

So, instead of letting me go to physical and financial ruin, Mr. Man made batch of this delicious slow cooked pulled chicken.  He used the recipe from our well worn cook book.  But since he's a health nut he used chicken instead of pork and didn't add barbeque sauce.

I mixed 2 tablespoons of fancy organic barbeque sauce over 1/3 cup of the shredded chicken and rolled it up in a hearty whole wheat tortilla.  I can honestly say this was way better than the Pret wrap (which costs over $7).  It definitely was not as good as or even similar to what I would get at an all day Kansas City BBQ contest, but it did the satisfies my craving.  Besides, I've never been to Kansas City...heaven help me if I ever do go there or any other barbeque city. I'd never be able to go back to my version.

Oh Baloney!

Let's just make a fresh start, shall we?  Good.  Today's lunch was kind of ...meh. Checkah, check it out:

•  turkey bologna and light provolone cheese wrapped in a TJ tortilla
• fat free vanilla yogurt with unsweetened cocoa powder
• double watermelon (all the way)

I've been boring lately.  Everyday it's been more or less the same ol' same ol'.  Our CSA has been getting down to the nitty gritty lately and it's pretty much just potatoes and onions now.  We are signing up for a winter CSA soon and hopefully that will bring more interesting stuff for me to be afraid to eat.  Until then, I might continue to retreat in the safety of bologna and fruit.