ottawa foodies

Hey folks,

I'm interested in ideas for easy and healthy lunches for me to take to work. I'm primarily interested in whole foods which emphasize grains and legumes, but will take anything just to keep it moving.

And ideally something I can do up in bulk which will do me for a few lunches. I once ate the same breakfast for 3 years so I am not opposed to eating something a few days (or even weeks) in a row.

To start it off - here is one I made on Sunday which I had yesterday and monday for lunch.

1 cup brown rice (organic)
1 cup red lentils (organic)
1 onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala
3.5 cups hot water

Fry the onion until tender, then dump in the rice and lentils and fry for 2 or 3 minutes - keeping it all moving. Add 3.5 cups hot (just off boiling) water and bring to the boil. Add salt and garam masala, reduce heat to low (2 on my electric), cover, and let cook 25 minutes.

Great thread! I love to bring my lunch to work and I am borderline obsessed with good things to concoct!

This week I made a low-fat egg salad stuffed into whole wheat pita halves. Not the most inventive thing, I know, but it was very yummy!

Makes 4 1/2 pita shells, approx. You can also add curry powder for variation

- 6 eggs, hard boiled, peeled and mashed.
- 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
- 1/2 cup or more chopped greens, to taste (I used a mix of celery and chinese greens, baby bok choi, I think)
- 2 tbsp spicy whole grain mustard
- 2 tbsp light mayonnaise
- salt and pepper

I also like to make couscous salads or spicy vermicelli noodles in bulk and take those. Not to mention soups!

I am a "diet"counsellor--dietician/nutritionist (educated as a dietician but these days lean away from Canada's Food Guide). I have provided lots of healthy ideas/recipes/wheat-free&/or dairy-free/vegetarian stuff over the years and can give you some ideas and/or recipes. How about bean dips (think hummous but there are lots of others) with vegetables. Soups in a thermos, salads which include grains, protein (legumes, eggs, nuts, cheese or meat) and lots of veggies! (& fruit). Depending on whether you use a microwave for reheating or not, lots of this stuff is good warm or cold. Leftover grilled meats/poultry/tofu is good as a maindish salad the next day--add greens, veggies, grains (rice, quinoa, pasta (wheat, corn, spelt, rice), with a vinaigrette dressing. If you keep the greens and vinaigrette seperate and toss at the last minute its much tastier!
For a starter: modified recipe from Prevention magazine
*Crunchy Almond Noodle Salad
125 g wholewheat, spelt or rice "long" pasta--I think fettucine works best
Dressing:
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup vegetable stock (1/2 cube dissolved in boiling water)
2 tablespoon light soy sauce (I prefer tamari--wheat-free if any sensitivies)
juice of i/2 lemon or lime
1 clove garlic minced
pinch salt & pepper (if you like spicy use cayenne)
Extras:
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup bean sprouts
peppers, cut in strips (whatever you have but red looks nice)
2 green onions or diced purple onion (about 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons chopped toasted almonds
Cook the pasta, whisk the dressing ingredients together and add to the pasta.
Add the vegetables (use whatever you have left from supper. broccoli, asparagus, chopped sweet potato, etc.) This always turns out!
Just keep the chopped almons seperate (those snack baggies are great) and put on top at lunch the next day.
*Use rice or couscous and peanuts/peanut butter or cashews/cashew butter--very flexible recipe, also easily multipied--4 of us take lunches here!

"educated as a dietician but these days lean away from Canada's Food Guide"

I'd personally say that's the mark of a properly-educated dietician :-) i.e. I don't find our food guide to be terribly good

I'm bumping this thread to see if there are any other ideas lurking out there. Thanks to those who have already contributed.

Try a fennel, white bean salad w/ tuna (or not, you decide!)

1 bulb fennel, diced
1 can of white kidney beans
1 shallot, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 tbsp finely diced parsley

Combine with 3 parts oil 1 part red wine vinegar. Season w/ salt & pepper to taste. Use this as a base, and add a good quality tinned tuna before serving (I usually add a tbsp of mayonnaise as well to achieve the taste/creaminess I prefer, but it's not for everyone). I usually serve this on a bed of crisp romaine lettuce, as well, for a nice big salad.

Why are more Foodies not sharing what they have for lunch? I am curious!

It's because I usually have a sandwich, an apple, and a banana for lunch!

What kind of sandwich?

Either plain ol' PB&J, or some sort of meat-cheese concoction. I have jars of pickled eggplant and hot peppers in the fridge exclusively for making sammiches.

I do pretend it's healthy by putting it on some sort of delicious whole-grain bread.

Leftovers from dinner, or frozen dinner such as Lean Cuisine, or President's Choice Indian. And then I like to eat out at lunch... Savana, Joy Restaraunt, mmmm....

P-i-O, like you, I do enjoy going out for lunch especially with Absinthe, Allium, Les Grillades, VanVan, etc. all nearby. Otherwise I usually make bean salads, or bring leftovers from the night before. I also make large batches of soup, stew and chili and freeze them in individual portions. I just realized, a lot of my soups include the use of white beans and fennel, I think I might have an obsession!

Another vote for leftovers! We try to always cook up extra amounts at dinner, either for lunch the next day, or to freeze for lunches later. Pastas, Moroccan stews and couscous, and curries with rice are my favourites. Like Chimichimi we also do up big batches of soups and chili and freeze them in small portions. Otherwise, bagels with a nice old cheddar, and the occasional deli-meat sandwich on Rideau Bakery dark rye. And always lots of fruit, and sometimes raw carrots or yogurt. In the summer perhaps more salads and raw veggies and leftover bbq.... 10:45 and now I want lunch!

Sushi and onigiri. Edamame salad. Hard-boiled eggs. Pupusas and black beans. Anything but sandwiches, which I can easily make at work.

But in the summer I mostly live on iced coffee during the day.

Leftovers here also. In the cooler months homemade chili or soup (not always the healthy kind). Sometimes a salad with Salmon or Tuna on top. Lunch tends to be quick affair, so it is something that can easily heated or reheated in the microwave.

Mousse - are you buying wholesale pupusas from La Cabana? ;)

Some of the Lean Cuisines are really good but have far too much sodium. Lately I've taken to bringing soup or a sandwich and a salad (some of those bagged/boxed mixed greens, chopped up peppers, carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, green onion and maybe a little goat cheese or feta), plus lots of veggies and fruits to munch on during the day. I also always have all-bran (shut up, it DOES taste good!) and a little bit of yogurt, and some berries or a banana for breakfast.

By the way, I just had my annual physical and I have more good cholesterol than bad! My doctor said it was the first time he'd seen that - was he pulling my leg or am I going to get some sort of rare good cholesterol disease/disorder from eating too many carrots and not enough red meat? :)

I believe Pam, that you can get sick from eating too many carrots. It's called Carotenosis, and your skin will change colour! I believe however, it takes a lot of carrots to make this happen...

My lunches are usually soup related. I make a big pot of soup for dinner on Fridays then leave the leftovers in the fridge for lunches during the rest of the week. I tend to gravitate to lentil soup, split pea soup, or a bean soup of some kind and all of them taste great with homemade cornbread. During the summer when it is too hot for soup I usually stick to salads or carrot and celery sticks. I sometimes make a chilled soup but I only have two chilled soup recipes so my project this summer is to learn to make more of them.

My sister in law once turned orange from eating too many carrots. She was not sick per se, but she went to the doctor to find out why she had an orange tinge to her. Turned out she'd been simply eating way too many carrots.

So judging by that I'd guess that you'd know from the colour of your skin before you actually got sick from it.

Pete & Zym - Carotenosis is a lot more common than most people know. And in my experience pretty harmless. Before refigeration became so popular (mid 20th century) a lot of people had to depend on "fall & winter veggies" that kept well in root cellars, well it turns out a lot of these types of veggies are high in carotene. Nowadays a lot of people turn orange, just because they prefer many of the items from the list, and contrary to popular belief they are not all fruits and veggies that are orange in colour. Besides being a source of caratene (Vitamin A) many are a good source of Vitamin C, so if you eat enough of them YES you will turn a yellow-orange tinge, but should be ok, because they can provide a very nutritionally balanced group of fruits & veggies when ate in combination with a diet that also includes dairy, protein and grain.

Carotenes are found in: Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Turnips, Winter Squash, Pumpkins, Broccoli, Spinach, Kale, Chard, Turnip Greens, Dandelion Greens, Beet Greens, Mustard Greens, Collard Greens, Watercress, Cilantro, Romaine Lettuce, Fresh Thyme, Parsley, Ivy Gourd, Rose Hips, Cassava, Goji Berries, Cantaloupe Melon and Apricots.

PS... So maybe it is genetics, perhaps our ancestors are somewhat responsible for our current obsession for wanting a sun-kissed orange colour mid-winter.
;-P

my latest lunch:

very easy bulgar salad (*you could use couscous instead*)

cook 1/2 cup of bulgar according to the directions, when cool add it to the following:

1/2 cup currants (i rehydrate them)
1/2 cup pistachios (i buy them shelled at bulk barn)
1/2 cup diced green onion

dressing, whisk together:
2 tbsp lemon juice (i fresh squeeze)
2 tbsp olive oil
dash of cinnamon
(i also add a little lemon zest to the dressing)

add dressing to salad, and mix well.

this keeps well for a few days. adding the lemon zest makes it real lemony - i am on a big lemon kick at the moment.

Chimi...
When I am feeling ambitious, or hope to make my co-workers envious...I make them. Mine aren't as good as La Cabanas.

There is a new Salvadoran place on Montreal Road(where Da Chicken Crib was) that I will be going to try on Friday before Peter Schmelzer's show at La Petit Mort. Has anyone been yet?

I guess I know where I'm going for dinner this weekend! Thanks for the info Mousse.

If I'm having lunch at work I take a frozen dinner (I like the new Blue Menu Thai or Indian ones) or I eat in the food court (Greek or Lebanese). If I'm at home I usually have a bagel or sandwich.