One thing that Chip has been a fan of for many years is a good breakfast sandwich. When he worked at a bike shop as a teenager, he would stop at Dunkin Donuts every morning, and they'd have his breakfast ready for him: a large coffee with cream and sugar, and a bagel with sausage, egg, and cheese. He ate this pretty much every day, along with plenty of Ho Hos, pizza, and frozen chicken nuggets. When we were bike messengers, we would stop at Song's Deli in Baltimore, this tiny little hole in the wall on the ground floor of 10 S Charles Street. We would get bagels with egg and cheese, and Mrs. Song mixed the eggs in a bowl and microwaved them to cook them. So...taking a cue from Mrs. Song, I made this bagel sandwich with two big pastured eggs, and a big handful of chopped veggies. Two minutes in the microwave, and lunch was quick, easy, and healthy.
Here it is all scrambled up:
And as lunch:
Whole wheat bagel with pastured local eggs, organic spinach, red onion, organic tomato, and organic red bell pepper, organic Fuji apple, organic raw cashews, dried cherries, and Annie's whole wheat pretzels.
OK, I'm not gonna lie...sometimes, when I buy things and don't like them, they end up in Chip's lunch. Exhibit A: this bagel. It was kind of sweet, even though it's supposed to be just whole grain. I don't do sweet bagels. Chip doesn't care though...even though he can be picky, I often feel like I can just throw anything into his lunch. He loves eggs, and loves breakfast sandwiches even more. This lunch was a huge hit!
Whole grain bagel with pastured eggs, organic mushrooms, CSA kale, and peppers from my friend Lori's garden, local early Jonagold apple from the farmers' market, organic Sultana golden raisins, organic dark chocolate chips, organic dried cranberries, and grilled veggies (zucchini from our garden, purple bell pepper from our garden, CSA green bell pepper, red onion, and organic mushrooms).
Breakfast for lunch! We have eggs to use up , so I decided to make an omelet. Then I read this post about making your own instant oatmeal, so I whipped up some of that (I skipped the salt though). I haven't included oatmeal in a lunch before because we don't buy the instant kind, and cooking the regular kind can get messy in a microwave. Chip will just add some boiling water to this and be done with it! Once I had those two things made, I added the apple. And then I nearly drove myself insane trying to figure out what else I could pack. I begged Chip to take some mandarin oranges. "I hate those things." Come on, Chip! "Why? It's not hurting you." Um, yes it is hurting me.
Chip saved the day, however, when I asked him if he liked cherries. "Well, I like cherry pie." Done. We have tons of cherries from our CSA, and while I eat white cherries like candy (and have pit-spitting contests with my dad), I'm not so into the red ones. Though they are really beautiful. I looked up a quick and easy recipe for cherry pie filling, which confirmed that it's really basic and easy. So I pitted a bunch of cherries, then added a pinch of evaporated cane juice and some flour to thicken. He can either dip the bits of bagel in the cherries, or spread the cherries on the bagel. It's ridiculous how excited I get when I learn that Chip secretly likes a fruit or vegetable.
Oh, and because everyone always wants to know about the apples: I squeezed a little bit of fresh lime juice on these apple slices. They were beginning to turn brown within about 10 minutes of cutting them.
Homemade instant oatmeal with organic local oats, organic Sultana golden raisins, evaporated cane juice, and cinnamon, organic Pink Lady apple, organic locally-made bagel, CSA cherries, and an omelet with pastured eggs, Cheddar, and organic baby spinach.
Here we go again. Chip leaves tomorrow afternoon for Holland, so this is the last lunch I'll pack for a while. I might be able to pack him some snacks for the plane, but I'm not sure yet if I'll do that. If not, I'll see you in two weeks! I'm hoping that Chip will come back with some treats that may make appearances in some lunches...or in my belly. Last year he brought back chocolate and waffles from Belgium, and on a different trip he brought back butter cookies from Holland. And after a trip to Spain he brought me back some regaliz. Oh man...Spanish licorice. One kind is red licorice filled with vanilla stuff, and the other kind is vanilla stuff wrapped around red licorice. I ate it all and then realized it's made with gelatin. I felt terrible. But it's so delicious.
OK anyway...back to lunch...
Salad with CSA lettuce, organic baby spinach, organic cucumber, organic red pepper, and Roma tomato from our garden, watermelon, organic Sultana golden raisins, locally made organic whole wheat bagel with natural peanut butter, and local green beans/green beans from our garden (steamed with Smart Balance, sea salt, and black pepper).
More leftovers in this lunch. I heavily adapted a recipe for Haitian style rice and beans. It was just OK...neither of us really loved it. We had tons of leftovers and were eating it for days. I liked that it was packed with good stuff (protein from the brown rice and the beans, whole grain in the brown rice, good fat in the beans, etc), but it just wasn't that tasty. Bear with me though, because the next few lunches are really pretty and delicious!
Homemade Haitian-style brown rice and black beans, homemade brownie, Quaker reduced sugar granola bar, organic apple, and half of a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and grape jelly.
