And now lunch is fun...

Actually, I've always loved packing my lunches. This box, though, makes me feel at once creative but constrained, and therefore much joy has been had making lunch for the past three days.

Tomorrow's has:

A wrap made of:

- Lavash bread

- mozzarella cheese

- mortadella deli meat

- spinach

- spicy brown mustard

A stirfry made of:

- sliced tomato

- sliced mushroom

- spinach

- soy sauce

- wasabi

- lil' bit of teriyaki sauce

With cucumbers and strawberry thrown in to fill in the spaces. It's like real-life tetris, packing this thing. :D

Cafe Lunch and a Surprise Disgust.

I got home to Greenland Farm on Monday night, and spent all day Tuesday at Jumpin' Juice & Java in Gardner. This meal here was a sweet deal; their wraps are around $7.00, and this one (spinach and feta and egg from the breakfast menu) was only $3.99, but it was the same size as the others. HELLZ YES!

On the way there I bought Mother Dearest a wintergreen patty as a lil' treat, since she spent our entire childhood downing wintergreen tic-tacs. When she got home from work hours later, she took it out of her bag and forced me to try it. It tasted like a more-poisonous version of the beloved Canada mint, and made me burst out laughing in response.

(Not Quite A) Vegetable Enchilada

I visited Bee this weekend at her school, and we spent glorious hours playing celtic music with two beautiful friends. When we stopped, hunger struck, and we hurried to the dining hall. Here I snuck fresh vegetables into my bag to bring back to school with me. It's called a budget, people, and living this way is tough -- taking chances on sour milk and risking the wrath of the hawk-eyed lunch ladies. But the payoff is divine! This dinner used the vegetables deliciously.

1. Fry wheat wraps in olive oil on high heat.

2. Make a pile in the center of:

spinach

cucumbers

broccoli

green olives

green pepper

onions

feta cheese

3. Roll up and put in baking pan; cover with shredded Parmesan cheese.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or so, until cheese is melted.

They were a strangely filling meal, which I did not expect. And vegetarian! Although we are assuredly not.

Tuna Misfortuna

Have you seen those fat-free tuna salads that come prepackaged with a few wimpy crackers? I think they are lovingly gobbled up by Weight Watchers members and other dieters. The ingredients list is far too long to possibly be very wholesome, too. This meal was my attempt to enjoy a can, since I had gotten a couple of them as hand-me-down Christmas presents from my sisters (from my well-meaning, stick-wrists Nana).

I opened the can, noticed the strangely sickly pink color, and went ahead with the plan of wrapping it up in a wheat wrap with spinach and Cabot sharp cheddar cheese, and putting it in the toaster.

As I waited for it to cook, I started eating an apple, and good thing too -- because that shit is disGUSTing. My mind knew precisely what the taste reminded me of, but I could not pinpoint it. Looking back, canned cat food is the closest comparison I can come up with. You can imagine the supreme salivary enjoyment! However, I had to eat it, because I am low low low on funds and have low waste-tolerance (and perhaps waist tolerance? HA!) because of it.

In short, it is not an option I would recommend.

Leftover Stir Fry

I have been told that stir fry is usually the first thing people learn to cook, but I grew up in a household of all-American meals, so this was a new and exciting time for me. I used only broccoli, and the sauce, which was supposed to be a sweet-and-sour combination, consisted of:

3 tbsp vegetable broth

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp brown sugar

dash of chili powder

Under the unsure direction of my beloved roommate, I heated some grapeseed oil in the wok for a couple of minutes on medium heat, and then added half of the broccoli and poured in the mixed up sauce. After a minute, I added the rest of the broccoli and stood there for a few minutes, whereupon I declared it done. For me, raw vegetables are as delicious as cooked ones (and often more so!), so whether they were cooked or not was unimportant. To the mixture I added a tsp of cornstarch dissolved in cold water to thicken it up, and dumped it on a plate.

It was delicious! But there were leftovers, so today I used them in my lunch. This is simply a whole wheat wrap with the stir fry remains, basil-tomato feta cheese, and a few walnuts on top. I wrapped it up and brought it to class with me, expecting it to be a strange combination, but I was pleased to find that the flavors went well together like SO!