My colleague turned me onto a bit of brilliance.

You see, I generally try to keep it respectable during the week since it’s so obscene and offensive on the weekends.

By “it,” I mean my food choices.

This means that I try to keep my mid-week lunches relatively healthy and low fat.  This can be challenging, considering that I work in the Financial District with that little tart (I kid, I’m sure she’s lovely) serving sample pizza slices outside that one lunch locale conveniently located RIGHT around the corner from my office (STOP HANDING THEM TO ME!!!!  I WILL EAT THEM!!!!).  Anyway, I grapple with lots of temptations and a lack of time to prep much of anything during the week, so simple and healthy food when possible is a requirement.

Meet the crudité platter.

(I took this picture on my office floor…because I’m cool like that.  Don’t be jealous of my wicked photography skills.)

You are seeing this correctly.  It is a platter of sliced squash (raw), celery, carrots and toast.  All cuddling together around the scoop of garlic and chive hummus.

Of course that’s not all.  What do you take me for, a waif?

I dipped the vegetables and toast in this:

Beef chili from a local deli (Rebecca’s Cafe, as referenced on the soup cup).  I went for the Mix ‘N Match.  If you have never dipped vegetables in chili, you should really drop what you’re doing and get on that ASAP.  Chili makes everything better.

And let’s face it.  When it’s winter spring in Massachusetts, it’s nice to eat something warm.

So the best part about this situation is that it’s versatile.  (I suppose you could call it a lettuce-less salad, but I tend to separate salads and stuff that you dip…and eating a salad every day is Boring with a capital B.)  Some variations include:

• Your favorite cut up vegetables (I tend to switch it up with squash, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, bell peppers and cucumbers) with toast, hummus and falafel.
• Toast spread with something fun (like an herbed cream cheese or Whole Foods spinach artichoke dip that only has 30 calories a serving <—delicious), some hummus for dipping and a cup of soup.
• Don’t laugh, but I really like those Hidden Valley Ranch dip packets.  I HATE HATE HATE bottled dressing, and it’s impossible to find edible ranch dressing up here.  These packets mixed with light sour cream are the closest thing I can find to REAL ranch dressing…and yes, I know that’s sad.  Anyway, it’s great on vegetables.
• The usual vegetables and hummus served with toast smothered in cottage cheese mixed with low sugar strawberry jam.

The possibilities are endless, but the process is short.  Cut favorite vegetables.  Toast bread.  Slop favorite dressing/dip onto plate.  Add anything extra that tickles your fancy.  Eat.

Then, for God’s sake, go eat something with sugar in it to reward your exemplary behavior

• 23rd May 2011 at 12:51 pm
• Recipes, Tips
• 2 comments

My Thursday lunch was the best yet.  Things finally fell into place, and I felt 100% satisfied after eating.

On the menu: egg salad sandwich and cabbage slaw over kale.

The egg salad was ridiculously easy.  Ingredients:

• 2 peeled hard-boiled eggs
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• the tiniest bit of light mayo, just to bind the eggs (maybe a quarter teaspoon to a half teaspoon?)
• a “spicy” seasoning mix with cumin, coriander, chili powder and cayenne, to taste (use your favorite spice blend)

I also made the cabbage slaw Wednesday night.  This is one of my favorite recipes, and it works really well to let it sit overnight  because the acid from the vinegar pulls the moisture from the cabbage and makes a tasty dressing.  I used:

• 1 head napa cabbage, thinly sliced (I used savoy cabbage, but napa cabbage is far superior in this mix)
• 1 head fennel, thinly sliced
• apple cider vinegar (guesstimate: quarter cup – enough to loosen the mixture, but not so much it’s swimming)
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• the tiniest bit of sugar (1/4 teaspooon or less)
• a drizzle of olive oil

I hard-boiled the eggs Wednesday night and stuck them in the fridge.  On Thursday morning, I peeled and shoved two eggs in a tupperware container with the rest of the ingredients.  I didn’t even bother mashing or mixing.  I threw the tupperware in my purse with two slices of whole wheat bread in a baggie.  Then, I tore up some kale, spooned the cabbage slaw over it and sealed the entire mixture in another tupperware container.  This all took less than five minutes, and the results were fab.

When it came time for lunch, I shook the salad in the tupperware container and ate straight out of it.  I also mashed the eggs and other ingredients together with a fork and spooned the mixture atop toasted whole wheat bread slathered with whole grain dijon mustard. 

It was the perfect mixture of spicy from the eggs, sweet from the fennel and zesty from the apple cider vinegar.  The crust on the toasted bread contrasted nicely with the soft egg salad, and the crunchy kale and cabbage complemented it perfectly.

All in all, the perfect take-to-work lunch.

For today’s lunch (Friday, the last day of Week 1 of the KATR “I’m Poor” Lunch Challenge), I just had another samosa burrito and the remainder of the cabbage slaw.

Question: Do you have any favorite cheap and easy lunch recipes for the office professional?

• 25th February 2011 at 2:25 pm
• About Me, Lunch Recipes, Recipes
• 2 comments