Thursday, January 19, 2012

Changing it up

As I mentioned this morning, Thursdays are long clinical days for me. Most of the time, I end up eating my lunch in my car at traffic lights as I drive from the hospital back to the school for lecture... Not ideal, but I rather do that than not eat at all! I love sitting down for meals - it helps satiety and is relaxing!

I packed my lunch last night - a shmorgishborg of various favorite lunch and dinner leftovers.



Mixed salad.



Sautéed sour kraut. Roasted sweet potato. Eggplant parm. You know the deal :)

However, time was on my side today! Usually I have 30 min to drive, eat lunch, and get to class, all of which must happen simultaneously in order to be on time. Today, I (somehow) finished 30 min earlier than normal and my dearest N, who lives just 5 min away from the hospital where I was, happened to also finish early and called to invite me over for lunch! It made my day!

We unpacked our lunch boxes (yes, I still bring along a lunch box!) and dug in over great conversation. N is such a wonderful hostess. Poor thing kept on running around her kitchen, offering me every single food she had... I nibbled on lots of Indian delicious sweet treats the names of which I can't possibly recall. And this peanut griddle made my heart melt. Sooo crunchy!



I got home around 5pm, and a snack attack ensued! I had Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato kettle chips in Salt+Vinegar (officially my favorite flavor) with hummus. Then came a piece of whole grain toast with almond butter... I also had the apple and apple peal (leftover from last night's baking when I had to make applesauce for the breakfast cookie recipe) that I packed for lunch but didn't eat. I will never let a good thing go to waste! And the peel is so nutritious and sweet!



Thankfully, snacking stopped and before I knew it, it was dinner time. And it  was fantabulous! The traditional mixed greens salad, spinach and red pepper raviolis, and Russian salad "Vinaigrette".



Traditionally, Vinaigrette is made with cooked beets, potatoes, carrots, dill pickles, onion, and sour kraut with sunflower oil.

Today we had to make some substitutions... Instead of boiling, we roasted the beets. Instead of dill pickles, we added artichoke. Instead of potatoes, we added kidney beans. And instead of sunflower oil, we used olive oil. Also, we garnished it with fresh greens like dill and parsley. Sounds like a lot of changes, but they worked because the textures and flavors were actually quite similar! I couldn't stop adding more spoonfuls if Vinaigrette to my plate!

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...I may have also had a sliver of a decadent chocolate mousse cake with tea... No regrets :)

xoxo. Veronica

5 comments:

  1. The avocado in that first photos looks perfect! It's harder for me to get a good avocado in the winter - yum.

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  2. I love avocados! Especially on toast with salt and pepper :) simple but sooo good!

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  3. Yummy! Everything looks so good! Thanks so much for the beautiful inspiration to get healthy!

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  4. Thank you, Diana! I'm so happy to meet you! You're so kind!

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  5. [...] my excitement on Twitter earlier today when my grandma and I made the executive decision to make last night’s Vinaigrette again. Yes, we loved our “swap recipe” that much! And we are very good at [...]

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