Coleslaw--your versatile friend.

To me, you can judge a restaurant by it's coleslaw.  Big awkward slices of cabbage mixed with mayo does not a coleslaw make.  Remember, cabbage is a leafy green, and we need to think of coleslaw as a salad.  A delicious crunchy bite of something cool and green to have in between courses of spicy food (bbq, tacos, etc).  I don't even put mayo in mine (gasp!)--I am a firm believer that coleslaw should be vinegar based.

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup white vinegar (or half white vinegar and half cider vinegar)

2 tsp mustard seeds

2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp salt

Mix the above in a large bowl, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the following ingredients to the bowl:

1 cabbage, finely shredded

1 small bell pepper, minced

1 T. minced pimentos

1 small vidalia or sweet onion, minced

Toss well and mix.  Transfer to a ziplock bag and refrigerate overnight.  This coleslaw gets better the longer it sits, and it can last up to 2 weeks in the fridge.  

GOOD WITH: bbq, beans, tacos, sandwich filling, hot dogs, veggie dogs, burgers, seafood.

Rice & More Portable Food

I made a great lunch today to take to work. It's funny that the more effort I put into making my lunches, the more excited I am to eat them at work (and the more satisfying they seem)...
And one basic rule I'm learning about healthy eating is this:

Make your rice at the beginning of the week!!!

Every sunday I make a big container of rice to keep in the fridge for the week. (Don't forget to sprinkle it with a few spoonfulls of water each day to keep it from drying out) There's so much you can do with a big container of brown rice:
* add a few spoonfulls to soup to help thicken it
* make rice pudding
* spoon into a tortilla with beans & veggies to make a burrito (portable food!)
* mix with sauteed onions, mushrooms, and herbs then stuff in bell peppers and bake
* open a can of beans, drain, season, and pour over the rice
* rice + avacado + diced tomato + black beans
* rice + lentil soup + jack cheese
* rice + green peas + cheesy sauce (real or vegan)
* rice + broccoli + cheesy sauce
* rice + baked tofu + sauteed bok choy + teriyaki sauce
* INARI!!!

This sunday I spent the morning in Chinatown here in Philly. I went with no plan other than just to peek around at all the great food. While there, I picked up some aburage in an Asian grocery store. Aburage are seasoned fried tofu skins that you can stuff to make inari sushi. If you are not a fan of sushi, you might still enjoy inari, because you can really make it your own (no raw fish). Here's a basic recipe for inari. I use brown rice, which is not nearly as yummy or sweet as white rice, but I'm use to it. I know there is such a thing as sweet brown rice, and at some point I will experiment with it. The aburage I found was frozen (it also comes canned), and came with the rice seasoning packet--very convenient!
Making the inari isn't very time consuming if you take a few steps to prepare things the night before (like make your rice). Thaw the packets in the fridge overnight, and have a vision of what you want your entire meal to include. Inari can also be eaten as a snack, but I like to take it to work for lunch because it is PORTABLE FOOD!!

My delicious lunch today contained:
* 4 inari (made with brown rice, grated carrot, a little bragg's liquid aminos, and sesame seeds)
* Quick pickles (from an earlier post)
* Lentil ginger soup (canned lentil soup, pureed in the blender w/ fresh ginger, cumin, and corriander)

(Keep the inari at room temp for the morning at your office, and throw the rest in the fridge till you're ready to eat)

And I love that the inari is pocket-like, keeping with my accidental theme this week!

Spinach & Bean Pockets

Who doesn't love portable food? I don't have a regular routine for lunch. Sometimes I eat at my desk, other times I am in the middle of teaching, and sometimes I am in my car on a trip. I've been thinking about portable food, and trying to figure out what I can bring that will be healthy. For inspiration, check out veganlunchbox.com. It's an amazing blog that has been turned into a cookbook! I appreciate the author's love of lunchboxes, and this has inspired me to really put some thought into what I am bringing for lunch, and how I am packing it.
Here is my recipe for spinach & white bean pockets. These are so much fun to eat, and they freeze really well. I make a big batch, cool them, and freeze them in foil. Then I take one out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge overnight, and toss it into my lunchbag in the morning. You can heat them up in the microwave for 1 minute on high. Drizzle with tahini and hot sauce (of course) and you are good to go. Eating in the car? Just eat straight out of the foil!

Spinach & Bean Pockets
1 recipe whole wheat pizza dough (in earlier post)
1/2 lb frozen baby spinach
1 can white beans, drained (your choice of bean variety!)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
paprika
about 1 cup veggie broth

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat for a few minutes. Toss the garlic and onion in the pan, stirring continuously so it browns, but doesn't burn. (You could use olive oil here if you want, but I am trying to go low-fat.) Cook till the onions are soft and fairly translucent. Add about 1/4 cup of the broth and stir, scraping any browned bits off the pan.

Add the white beans and a few pinches paprika, and stir to incorporate flavors. Add the spinach, straight out of the freezer. Now, at this point, you want to stir and stir, preventing any of the food from sticking or burning. Add broth as needed to steam the spinach a bit, but you want to make sure you cook away all the liquid. Add a few pinches of salt. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Take your pizza dough and divide into about 4 equal parts. Kneed each part, and roll out to about a 7" circle. When the spinach/bean filling is totally cool, spoon some into the center of the dough circle, leaving about 1/2 diameter from the edge. Fold over the circle to make a little pocket, and press the edges to make a seal. Sometimes I turn the edges to make a cool "braid" like look.

Heat in a 400* oven for about 18-20 minutes.
Yay!!!