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.
I bought these spelt pretzels over the weekend and kept forgetting to include them in a lunch. Honestly, I'm not huge into spelt, but I really like the idea of diversifying the grains that we eat. It helps that these pretzels are organic too! A serving (20 pretzels) also includes 4 grams of protein, and every little bit helps.
Homemade fried rice with organic tofu, organic broccoli, and organic cauliflower, watermelon, organic Thompson raisins, organic dark chocolate, organic spelt pretzels, natural peanut butter, and a CSA apple (not sure what variety).
Chip let me go grocery shopping and to Costco this weekend, while he went to the farmers' market. I came back with tons of fruit, and he came back with tons of veggies. It worked out pretty nicely...our fridge and kitchen are filled with beautiful produce, as are our bellies (and our lunches)! We are still really enjoying the little tomatoes, and it's been great to have so much awesome produce on hand. I'm going to miss summer when it's over!
Watermelon, local cherry tomatoes with basil from our garden and shaved Parmesan, organic dried cranberries, organic Sultana golden raisins, pretzel snaps, natural peanut butter, and a sandwich on sprouted grain bread with hummus, organic spinach, CSA cucumber, Cheddar, and red onion.
Another "cleaning out the refrigerator" kind of lunch here. The only thing we didn't have on hand already is the bread. I don't eat much bread, so I don't keep any around while Chip is out of town. I bought a small loaf today and if we have too much by the time we're supposed to leave for Maryland, perhaps we'll have some sandwiches in the car!
This is another lunch that I got completely assembled except for one container that I just couldn't fill! I gave Chip the option of peanut butter and pretzels or quinoa. You can see what he picked!
Sandwich on local organic whole wheat bread, organic avocado, organic tomato, lettuce from our garden, and organic baby spinach, organic Fuji apple, Speculaas, milk chocolate from the Netherlands, organic raw cashews, organic crispy almonds, pretzel snaps, natural peanut butter, organic corn, and local green beans.
I am so glad I decided to subscribe to Clean Eating Magazine. There are lots of great ideas in it, and though they're not all vegetarian, they can often be tweaked. This recipe was full of flavor, and even Chip liked it! He's not too big on carrots (though he has come a LONG way from his days of removing even a molecule of carrot from his foods) and he hates vinegar, but the asparagus primavera got great reviews from him.
Whole wheat rollups with Boca black bean burger, organic spinach, CSA lettuce, organic red pepper, salsa, and local Cheddar jack cheese, pretzels, natural peanut butter, organic Sultana golden raisins, organic fair trade milk chocolate with hazelnuts, asparagus primavera with organic quinoa (asparagus, organic corn, CSA peas, organic carrot), and watermelon.
Gosh, I'm just stuck in a creativity rut lately. The lentil and rice bit of this lunch was pretty inventive, but the rest just feels blah. I spent far too long agonizing over this lunch and trying to decide the perfect thing to fill each container. Rice was first, then apple, then banana. Chip requested pretzels, and then I debated what to put in the last container for probably 20 minutes. What is with me?
So despite how much thought I put into this, I think it's a bit protein-heavy. Lentils, brown rice, peanut butter, and nuts. Nuts are great for you, and have good fat and protein, but I think they were unnecessary. Oh well. Chip will love it.
Brown rice with lentils, organic peas, carrots, and spices, banana with natural peanut butter, pretzels, organic roasted and salted sunflower seeds, organic raw almonds, organic macadamias, and a whole Gala apple.
Although it seems like winter may finally be on its way out, we've been enjoying some hot wintry soups for the past two weeks. Last night I made lentil soup (same recipe as always), and added a cup of chopped organic carrot and about a half cup of chopped celery. I like to load this soup up with veggies, because they add nutrients that we can hardly even taste.
The creator of the recipe for this soup notes that it is really inexpensive per serving. I estimate that even with all organic ingredients (including the spices!), this costs about $.50 per serving (assuming 8 servings). We buy things like lentils and spices in bulk from the local co-op, so we don't end up paying for things like packaging and marketing.
Whole Navel orange, organic banana, pretzel snaps, organic flame raisins, organic sprouted almonds, organic roasted and salted sunflower seeds, organic dark chocolate, and homemade organic lentil soup.
This lunch was a snap to make; only took 5 minutes or so! I made a very fruitful trip to Whole Foods today since Chip was home (we share a car and he takes it to work every day; since there's been a foot of snow on the ground for a month, riding my bike has been a less than appealing option). Everything in this lunch except the hummus is from today's shopping excursion. I always spend way too much money there, but when I'm eating all this tasty food, I tend to forget how much I spent on it!
Organic Gala apple, organic spelt pretzels, organic vanilla cremes, Gardein "Santa Fe Goodness" (vegan chicken stuffed with black beans and corn and topped with a smoky tomato sauce), and hummus to dip the pretzels in.
This is still remembered as one of Chip's favorite lunches. It's super healthy, and has plenty of protein, good fat, carbs, and sweetness. By this point, Chip has really started to enjoy salads and I'm happy to make him as many as he'll eat!
Salad with organic redleaf lettuce, mushrooms, and Campari tomatoes, little pretzels, Quaker reduced sugar granola bar, farmers' market Jonagold apple with cinnamon, and avocado for the salad.
Here's another fairly monochromatic lunch. I promise they'll get more colorful soon! The rice was left over from dinner the night before. Since I started packing these lunches, I've learned to maximize my use of leftovers (as well as making something for dinner specifically so I could pack the rest for lunch).
Broccoli and cheddar rice (Rice A Roni...not at all healthy, but again, we were living in a temporary rental and had very little ability to cook for a few weeks), Snyder's pretzels, apple, peanut butter (for apple), and Morningstar chik'n nuggets.
I've been taking photos of our lunches since July 2009, so I have a bit of a backlog of photos to get up here. For now I'll be posting as many as possible in an attempt to catch up.
Here's the first lunch I photographed. It's a little embarrassing...it's pretty monochromatic, but I suppose I should post it now, so we can all see how far Chip and I have both come. I've gotten better at packing a good (and colorful) variety of foods, and Chip has gotten more adventurous with eating them. For example, when I made this lunch, we were living in a temporary rental with almost no cooking implements (everything was packed as we waited to move into the house we bought...we had one pot, 2 plastic plates, and some plastic utensils). In addition, Chip wasn't yet eating salad when I made this lunch. We've both come a long way!
So here it is. Chip's lunch from July 2, 2009:
Hamburger Helper with Morningstar crumbles instead of beef, reduced fat Nilla Wafers, pretzel rods, 3/4 of an apple, peanut butter for the apple, and Triscuits with pepper jack slices.
