Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A difficult work day


A few weeks ago, I whined to Rebecca that I didn’t have many ideas for quick work lunches.  My in-a-hurry standby is spinach salad, and I enjoy that very much.  It is a very versatile meal, but can become tedious if eaten every day.  Her work lunches, on the other hand, are exotic fare that she throws together in no time at all.  Obligingly, she prepared a blog post with a super little portable meal-in-minutes.  And she added some suggestions from past blog entries.  I made the cauliflower rice, and it was wonderful.  In fact, I had it three work days running.  I made enough for two work days, and then yesterday I made it again.  I had made two days worth of brown rice, but I thought that four days in a row of the same thing would be a bit much -  rivaling spinach salad in repetition.  So this morning, I used the rest of the rice to make a similar but different version.  I fried until soft half an onion which I found lurking in my vegetable bin, half an apple, some celery, and the tofu.  When all this was nicely cooked, I stirred in the rice, and added the orange slices, a teaspoon of capers, and about ¼ cup cilantro.  I planned to add some raisins, but was chatting on the phone as I cooked, and forgot them altogether.  Of course, I added salt, pepper, and the rice vinegar per Rebecca’s instructions. 

Update:  I took my nice little lunch to work, and was too busy to eat it.  By midnight when I finally got to eat a bit of it as I was giving report, I had a headache and was too tired to think.  And too tired to enjoy it.  This morning, I had it for breakfast, and I decided that the orange slices were a bit much.  They were very sweet on their own, but too tart (the peels mainly) for this dish.  Apples, celery, capers, cilantro, and the forgotten raisins would have been perfect. 

4 comments:

bex said...

The orange slices are pretty, though! Maybe it would have been better if you had peeled them, then added them at the very end.

Laura said...

We seem to always work opposite days so I've missed seeing you and your delicious lunches!

Marta said...

Looks delicious. I have to figure the carbs on every dish so I do find myself getting repetitious.

Lorette said...

I try to take my lunch, otherwise I'm stuck with the crap in the hospital cafeteria. Usually it's leftovers, we generally make enough for a couple lunches along with dinners. Lentil salads work well, as do black beans. The latter are great even canned, so it's easy. Asian noodle salads hold well in a lunch box also. I have a lunchbox with little compartments, so I can put raw fruit and veggies in along with the salads. I'll have to add a rice/tofu salad to the mix, looks like a good way to use up leftovers.