Monday Bloody Monday

I did not want the weekend to end. Or, more accurately, I didn't want this week to begin. I'm already looking forward to Friday. Here's the menu for today's lunch:

• 2 blood oranges
• GUMBO!!
• peaches
• fat free vanilla yogurt with dried cranberries

My gentleman friend made a this delicious chicken and sausage gumbo last night. It was so great! The blood oranges were good too. Overall, it was a tasty lunch but it was woefully lacking in vegetables. Also, even though I keenly aware of this, I am eating way too much sugar. Even if it's in the form of fruits. I wonder if I could get hypnosis for sugar addiction. It's getting to be really horrible. Every single meal I have has some sort of sugary thing going on. Even this lunch is mainly made up of sweet components. I'm going to try to work on this.

Wrapped In Snow

Not the best picture today because I was in a hurry to get out of the house. We had another massive snow dump last night and I had to trudge through 19 inches of the stuff to make to get to work this morning. But I made it! Here's what I ate:

• ancient grains salad
• sugar snap peas
• 2 clementines (1 not shown)
• fat free vanilla yogurt with a dried cranberry happy face
• sliced turkey, low fat cheese, spinach and light mayonnaise on a whole wheat tortilla

This was a great one. Very filling and hit all the taste/texture marks. Well, maybe I could have used something with a crunch. But otherwise, great. Not much else to say about it actually. Until next time.

Gobble Gobble

A portion of last night's dinner made its way into my lunchbox again today. It was delicious! Plus a little makeshift dessert.

• turkey bolognese with whole wheat rotelle pasta
• 2 small blood oranges
• sugar snap peas
• 1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt with 1 teaspoon Mexican hot cocoa mix on top

So many new (to me) items today. I went to Trader Joe's the other day and picked up some random stuff. Most of them were things I knew I would like (dried cranberries, clementines, low-fat cheddar slices). I took a chance on the blood oranges and the their frozen turkey meat sauce. I'm not a pasta fan so I usually only eat it when it's covered with meat and/or cheese. This stuff made the pasta way less yucky and was much healthier than what I could have done with it.This is not my photo. I lifted it from here.

Success! The blood oranges were sweet and juicy. As you know, I'm somewhat of a citrus snob so I'm always a little wary of buying oranges outside of my hometown. Also, even at home, blood oranges were a bit of a rarity and I didn't grow up eating them. When I tried them in the past they were sort of sour and dry. Not these babies. Juicy and filling.

The final newbie was that sprinkle of Mexican hot cocoa mix on top of my yogurt. Genius! Try it yourself.

Peachy Keen

Today's lunch was pretty good. Not spectacular, but solid. The reliable details below:

• salad with 3 oz grilled chicken (romaine lettuce, carrots, bell peppers)
• balsamic vinaigrette
• thawed frozen peaches
• fat free vanilla yogurt
• clementine

Am I the only one that finds salads sort of difficult to eat? I always want to get all of the the ingredients on the fork so I end up stuffing my face. Well, there are harder trials in life.

I got a new bag of frozen peaches this weekend and I broke it open for the first time today. Mmmm. I really think I will never get sick of eating these peaches. They are definitely not as satisfying as eating a fresh, perfectly ripe peach. But, they remind me of eating canned peaches. I'm sheepishly proud (is that even possible) to say that I used to love canned peaches, pears, and the ultimate in bastardization, "fruit cocktail" as a kid. I remember my sister and brother and I would fight over who got the highly prized and all too rare maraschino cherry. The worst part was the squishy grapes, which I always picked out. Anyway, it's weird how my little peach pots reminds me of such a specific time in my life. Food memories, people!

6!!

It was 6 degrees when I left for work this morning. SIX! I really almost called in "cold" to work. Anyway, I put on a million layers of clothing and headed out the door. It's days like this that I'm glad I don't have to leave the office to scavenge for food at lunch.

• 1 cup grapefruit cocktail (fresh grapefruit, ginger juice, honey)
• turkey sandwich (light whole-wheat bread, fat free mayonnaise, 3 slices deli turkey)
• 3/4 sugar snap peas
• 3/4 ancient grains salad
• clementine

The new addition today was this ancient grains salad. It's made up of wheatberries, kamut, black barley, pearled barley, bell pepper, waterchestnuts, carrots, carrot juice, tofu, onion, sesame seeds, mirin, rice wine vinegar, tamari, agave nectar, ginger, and dijon mustard. I picked it up at Whole Foods this weekend solely for health reasons. I've never had a desire to eat something like this before. Mainly because...well...KAMUT! I don't even know what that is. I don't know what most of these "ancient" grains are.

As you know, I'm not very adventurous with food, so I figured getting this salad was a baby step. I have almost no aversions to the things in this salad. Except for maybe waterchestnuts. In my head, a waterchestnut is a nut, so I don't like the idea of it being wet. Anyway, I picked it out. Overall, I'm not in love with the ancient grain salad. I only ate about a third of it. I'll try again tomorrow.

Freezing Friday

I wanted to pack a hot lunch today because it's snowy and cold outside. I made it half way:

• 1 cup homemade chili (kidney beans, veggies, shredded chicken)
• 1 cup sugar snap peas
• 3/4 cup frozen peaches
• 3/4 fat free vanilla yogurt

So the lunch was hot and cold. Hot chili and hot veggies (after nuking them for a minute). I spaced out the meal and had the yogurt around 4:00.

I got a comment asking for the recipe for the vegan pumpkin apple muffins that I had last week. It was adapted from this recipe. But here is how I ended up making it:

Vegan Pumpkin Apple Muffins

16 ounces pumpkin puree (I roasted a small pumpkin and pureed it)
3/4 cup applesauce (I boiled 3 apples and blended it until smooth)
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups flour (1 cup white whole wheat + 1 cup unbleached all purpose)
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 large apple, peeled and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put paper muffin cups in your muffin tin. In a large bowl mix wet ingredients and spices and salt.

2. Stir the flour and baking soda into the wet and mix with a spoon. Fold in the peeled and chopped apple.

3. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake for approximately 50 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Obviously, if you don't have the threat of rotting apples and pumpkin looming over you there is no reason to make the pumpkin puree and applesauce. Just buy it from the store.

Anyway, it's Friday and I'm really looking forward to the weekend. Who cares if it's going to be 20 degrees!

A Measurable Difference

I'm cleaning out the fridge, one lunchbox at a time. The tidy details below:

• 3 oz. grilled wild salmon
• 1/4 cup brown rice
• 1/4 cup pigeon peas
• clementine
• 1/2 cup frozen peaches

This was a pretty good one. Similar to what I've been eating for the past couple of weeks, but still, filling and satisfying. I think I need to add more vegetables to my lunches next week. I just have to get off my keister and go to the grocery store this weekend.

You may have noticed my new penchant for weights and measurements lately. I'm trying to get a more accurate understanding of how much I'm actually eating with my lunches (and my other meals too). Anyway, my great friend Marcie got me these cute little measuring cups that look like Russian nesting dolls.
They are so cute and fit perfectly in my lunch packing station. Speaking of which, does anyone want to my set up? I get the feeling that most people read this blog solely for the box shots. Let me know if you want to see anything else.