Lunch Box: Black Sesame Saffron Rice and Tangy Soy Curls

It's not uncommon for me to walk through the front door after work to a warm house full of delicious smells and the sounds of stirring, blending, or pots banging. My boyfriend loves hanging out and creating in the kitchen as much as I do.   I feel so lucky to get a nourishing home cooked meal after a twelve hour work shift, but also to have left-overs for an awesome lunch the next day!   

This gorgeous meal of brown jasmine rice with saffron and black sesame seeds is not just pretty to look at, but the taste is incredible.  Pan fried apple cider vinegar soy curls are on the side, which are crispy, chewy, salty and tart.  This combo is perfect on a bed of spinach.   I love taking food this beautiful and vibrant to work because I get a lot of questions about it and I can spread the word about tasty vegan food.  

We usually don't eat fake meat products because they tend to be hard to digest and often have ingredients that we're not into, but soy curls have been going down just fine for both of us.  Our favorite way to make curls is to rehydrate them in warm water then pan fry with seasoning and vinegar to taste.  

I've had a long, busy, exhausting week and I'm really looking forward to a beautiful weekend and the opportunity to go for a long run by the river.  Happy Friday to you!

Lunch Box: Azuki Beans with Kabocha Squash, Sweet Potato and Kale

Hello!  I'm feeling so much better after last weekend's gluten invasion sickness.  There are still a few lingering symptoms, but overall I'm feeling good.  No more gluten for me, no thank you!  This lunch box looked extra pretty to me, so I thought I'd share.  From top left:  azuki beans with kabocha squash, sweet potato with black sesame seeds, and steamed kale with umeboshi vinegar.  This is a good example of how I've been eating lately.  Real, whole, unprocessed foods.  Local and in season as much as possible.  Vegan and gluten free, of course.  Lucky for me these foods taste amazing just the way they are.  Bravo, tastebuds!  

For the azuki beans and the kabocha squash I use this recipe from the Kind Life blog: http://www.thekindlife.com/post/azuki-beans-with-kabocha-squash

*edit - Shoyu is not gluten free.  I use Bragg's or gf tamari as a substitute in this recipe.  Thanks for noticing this Bitt! 

The sweet potato is just baked until soft then scooped out of the skin and sprinkled with a pinch of sea salt and black sesame seeds.

The kale is simply steamed and sprinkled with umeboshi plum vinegar.

Hope you're having a great week!  What are you having for lunch today?

I Loved Fennel, Sweetie Peppers & Green Food This Week.

Good Sunday morning!  Sleeping in, playing with the cats and having some extra coffee time felt great today after much busy-ness.  Sweet bf even refilled my coffee while I was still in bed.  He's a keeper!  Work has been taking a little more of my energy because I'm learning a bunch of new stuff (thankfully there's always more to learn in my field!) and I'm studying for certification in my specialty.  I also turned our spare bedroom into an office.  And I was on call for 75 hours on top of my usual work schedule.  Hmmm, this explains sleeping 11 hours last night? 

I'm still on my green food kick.  Work food has been kale salad, carrots & tahini, and fruit:

I actually pack 2 kale salads because I'm at work for 12 hours.  I've been trying to have a green smoothie or juice before I leave the house in the morning.  The difference in my mood and energy level is noticeably better when I have my green drink.  Here are a few juices I made this week:

The addition of fennel was especially good!  For dinner one night I made a cheesey green pasta with some veggie noodles that we get at a Japanese market:

The noodles remind me of udon, but have extra veggies added in.  Of course I Americanized them by putting them in a creamy cheesey sauce with some sweetie peppers and sauteed onion.  The cheese sauce used We Can't Say It's Cheese Cheddar Spread, Daiya Mozzarella Shreds, tahini, lemon juice, salt & pepper, and almond milk.  It was quite a delicious comfort food treat.

And of course we had our favorite non-green food on pizza night:

Rosemary crust brushed with olive oil, red sauce, fresh basil leaves, sauteed fennel & mushrooms, Daiya shreds, and sweetie peppers from the olive bar.  I really love making pizza. 

I hope everyone's enjoying the weekend as much as I am.  See you next week :)

Vegan MoFo #22: Fall Inspired Lunchbox

Happy Halloween and final day of Vegan MoFo 2011!  Woohoo!  What a great month.  Even though I didn't end up posting every day, I did post more this month than I have in the past.  And it was fun! But the most fun was reading all the other MoFo blogs, and since I still have plenty to catch up on the fun will continue.

Lunchbox:  Salad with greens, spinach, herbs, avocado, hemp seeds, pistachios and sweet potatoes.  Miso Tahini Magic Sauce, Apple Spice Granola, Fruit, and Chocolate Coconut Buckwheatie Cookies. 

Now that MoFo's over I'll be posting about 3 times a week, mostly Thursday thru Sunday, because that works best with my schedule.  Hope everyone's Monday is off to a great start!

Vegan MoFo #16: Monday's Lunchbox & Where I've Been

Monday, how did you arrive so soon?  I missed my MoFo post yesterday, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it because I got called into work both Saturday & Sunday for emergency surgeries.  I did manage to throw together a yummy lunch for today.   Clockwise from top left:  Apple Spice Parfait, fresh fruit, flax crackers, Miso Tahini Magic Sauce, and a hearty Greens & Seeds salad with raisins. 

Now my real work week begins.  Hope yours is off to a great start!  Big apologies to all my blogging friends that I haven't replied to or visited this weekend.  I won't be able to catch up until this Thursday.  Work, work, work... you know, my real job outside of the blogosphere :).  I miss you!

Vegan MoFo #12: Lunchbox

Wednesday!  Lunch is a hearty salad of mixed greens, avocado, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, and raisins with a tahini herb salad dressing.  On the side is fresh fruit and a cup of Carrot Ginger Soup.

Ciao!

Vegan MoFo #4: Lunchbox

Hello, Tuesday, I'm glad you're here.   Monday was a little too busy, if you ask me.  My lunch, however, was awesome.  It included a hearty salad with avo, honeycrisp apples, pecans, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds, and greens.  My Fall Spice Porridge was a nice afternoon snack. 

I hope your week is off to a great start!

Simple Eats For Busy Work Days

Wow, it's been a busy week!  So, I thought I'd let you in on a little behind the scenes Fresh Young Coconut insider information blahblah.... If it's quiet around here on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays every week it's because my alter-ego is off working with people on the other end of the health spectrum.  Some of you probably already know that I'm a Registered Nurse.  One of the reasons I'm such a cheerleader for the vegan and raw lifestyle is because I see first-hand the consequences of sickness and disease when they've reached the point of needing surgical intervention.  I have literally held hearts in my hands that can no longer function properly because the vessels are so occluded by plaque and fatty deposits.  My job inspires me to lead a healthy lifestyle and to hopefully inspire those around me to make healthy choices so that our long term quality of life can be awesome!  And that's why my posts are sparse and I don't visit the blogs I love and I sometimes can't respond to comments until Thursdays.  But Thursdays are great because I get to catch up.  Fun!

With such a busy start to my weeks I eat quick & simple foods. Like these:

 Roasted Roots Wrap from Kitchen Dances

 Hearty Salad for Lunch featuring hemp seeds, currents, nutritional yeast, sunflower seeds, pecans, tomatoes, cabbage and arugula

Chia Pudding, Hearty Lunch Salad, Gala Apple, Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Quinoa

 
Keeping it simple and using up left-overs from the weekend is my key for making it to Thursday.  I also rely on a lot of fresh fruits & veggies.   Do you have a strategy for keeping yourself full of delicious, healthy foods on your busy days?

And I know we're all kind of experiencing different opinions about things like spirulina and chia drinks.  But I thought I'd share, even though I'm pretty sure my taste buds are in the minority on this subject.  I tried the chia kombucha in several flavors and LOVED all of them.  Haha, what can I say?  My tastebuds are wacky.  Anyways, I made this drink at home and enjoyed it very much:

 water, spirulina, lemon juice, and ch-ch-ch-chia!

Feel free to be grossed out in my comments!  But, apparently my taste buds have a mind of their own.  Rebels :)

With Vegan MoFo coming up in just over a week (YAY) I've been doing lotsa planning so I can post every single day for the month of October.  I now have a link on my sidebar in case anyone wants to sign up *wink-wink*. 

Hope everyone enjoys the final day of Summer.  Tomorrow is the start of my most favorite season.  xoxo!

Light Lunch: GF Pistachio Pesto Wrap

I'm trying my best to get caught up on some things around the house today, but wait... I'm here watching twitter and blogging about my lunch. 

I was in the mood for something quick and high raw so I wrapped up spinach, tomatoes and some pistachio pesto that my bf made earlier in the week.  Yummmm.  The wrap is gluten free, made with teff flour.  It was ok, a little chewy, but not bad in flavor.  The pesto was super flavorful so the teff wrap was really just a vessel for the filling's goodness. 

Ok, back to my chores.  I have a few announcements to make tomorrow about projects I'm starting in October.   Can hardly wait to share! 

Hope you're all having a nice lunch today. 

Lunchbox 9/14/11

Hi-ho, hi-ho....

Clockwise from top left:  grapefruit, kale salad (purple kale, avo, tahini, lemon juice, sea salt, hemp nuts, sunflower seeds), chia pudding (chia seeds, coconut milk, coconut shreds, currants), banana.

Have a great Wednesday!  What are you having for lunch today?
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