Easy Meal Ideas

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Vegan Mofo: Bento Lunch Flashback

October 15, 2009 in Easy Meal Ideas, Lunch, VeganMoFo 2009 | 4 comments

largeveganmofo

I’m just getting back from an amazing trip to Finland, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest, where I spent time with Bazu, and finally got to meet lots of PPKers, including Melanie, Celine, Jojo, and Carmen and Joshua, who were kind enough to open up their home to a group of travelers and show us around. I plan on several trip-related posts with fabulous food, but my body and mind are still a little jet-lagged, so I’m digging into the past for today’s post.

Back when I was worked closer to home, I’d sometimes come home for lunch, and my husband and I would enjoy a leisurely lunch on the back patio, weather permitting. I must have made this Bento box thinking he was going in to work early that day, but I remember watching him eat it. In the box are grilled barbecued tofu, roasted potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and grilled zucchini.

Now that I work about an hour from home, I should utilize this laptop lunchbox for my own meals instead of haphazardly throwing random things in my lunch bag at the last minute, as I dash through the door. This lunch was made up of leftovers, and I think the dinner itself took less than an hour to get to the table. It just shows how easy it is to have a healthy (and kind of pretty, I think) meal, even when you’re pressed for time!

Bento Lunch for Carl

Vegan MoFo: Easy Weeknight Dinners

October 18, 2008 in Dinner, Easy Meal Ideas, VeganMoFo | 4 comments

Soy Curl Stir-Fry and Udon Noodles

Soy Curl Stir-Fry and Udon Noodles

I’m not doing so well with posting everyday, but things are getting a little less crazy around here, so I should have more time for cooking very soon. Maybe I’ll just have LuKi MoFo at some point.

I live about 30 miles from work, and some days, with traffic, it can take almost 2 hours to get home. So, by the time I get there, I’m ready to eat immediately. I try not to eat too much processed stuff, but some nights I end up falling asleep face first on the sofa with my hand in a bag of Snapea Crisps. If I’m lucky, by the time I’ve woken up, our dog will have left me a few.

Most nights, though, I at least attempt to make something nutritious, if not fancy. I do use a lot of pre-washed and cut produce during the week because it is really nice to be able to open up a bag, dump out some greens, and have dinner on the table in under an hour.

A few nights ago, I came home and wanted some sort of sesame protein, noodles, and a side of greens. I ended up making soy curls with a sweet/spicy soy sauce, adding chopped chard and red peppers, and serving everything up in less than an hour from the time I walked in the door. That time included petting and calming down the dogs, looking for a recipe for sauce before just making one up myself, and enlisting my husband to help with some of the chopping.

As with most dishes, I generally don’t use recipes, but here is a general guideline for the sauce I used. I tend to use a variation of this in most asian-style stir fry dishes I make. It provides a nice balance of sweet, tart, and tangy, and if you reduce it, it glazes up pretty nicely without cornstarch.

Infinitely Adaptable Stir-Fry Sauce
1/4 cup low-sodium tamari
1/4 cup orange juice
2 TBS rice wine vinear
2 TBS dry sherry,white wine, or mirin
3 TBS brown sugar or agave nectar
2 cloves garlic
1 rounded TBS ginger
1 tsp chili garlic paste
2 tsp sesame oil