Granola Uprising: #Shameseamless Goes Counter Culture

October 26, 2015 by Guest User in Rants & Ravings, Quinoa Creations

“Yes I’m Sure It’s Not Bird Seed” Toasted Quinoa Granola

Nothing says “I’m beating the man” more than making your own granola. There’s something quintessentially and inexplicably counter-culture about it. So it seems appropriate that it has turned out to be one of the outcomes of #shameseamless.

Now, how do you make granola even more “granola” you might ask? The answer my friends is quinoa. “Is that bird seed?!” my skeptical friend asked as I pulled it out of the oven. And while I too questioned whether or not I may have taken things a little too far with this one, I have to say the texture of quinoa granola is really satisfying. Load it up with some dried fruit and you’ve got yourself a nice treat, which, in my opinion, does not need to stay relegated to the breakfast hours. Pack it for lunch!

Squashtacular: #Shameseamless Marches On

October 23, 2015 by Guest User in Salads, Rants & Ravings

“Squashtacular” Roasted Butternut Squash, Shitake, Shallot and Kale Salad

Continuing on in my Sunday afternoon crusade to #shameseamless, I continued my roasting extravaganza and moved on to two trays of butternut squash. Coupled with some shitake mushrooms and sage, there is so much natural flavor in this dish that you really don’t need to do much to it at all. You’ll be in and out of the kitchen in 30 minutes!

Total ingredient cost on this one? Like $8. And you’ll have enough for at least 3 servings! Throw it on top of some kale and you’ve got yourself a hearty meal.

Brussels Bonanza: #Shameseamless Continues

October 21, 2015 by Guest User in Rants & Ravings, Quinoa Creations

“Honey Bunches You Roast” Brussels Sprouts and Carrots

After my discovery of that terrible Seamless ad campaign on Sunday afternoon, I immediately came home and started putting my $40 worth of groceries to use. It was cold out and I was feeling in a very fall mood. The perfect time to roast some veggies!

Roasting veggies is a great way to create meals for the week without spending a lot of active time in the kitchen. Really the ideal activity for a Sunday afternoon when it’s just a little too cold for you to want to be outside. I spent mine alternating between reading on the sofa and occasionally checking on my veggies in the oven.

And what could be more Fall than honey roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots! I personally like adding a few red chili flakes into the mix. A nice zip of heat that cuts the sweetness of the honey a bit.

PSA: Shame Seamless

October 19, 2015 by Guest User in Rants & Ravings

I need to take break today to rant a little bit. I hate this Seamless ad campaign I was bombarded with on the subway yesterday. It's a terrible message. Don’t cook?! Ever?! This is how New York eats?! I will fully admit that I place at least one order for delivery a week, but denigrating cooking in general and trying to paint it as uncool. Well that just really boils my kettle.

Food Waste Fixation

October 14, 2015 by Guest User in Rants & Ravings

“Crisper Cleanse” Carrots and Chard

We all come up against this. What do you do when you realize you have a bunch of food left in your crisper that is maybe a bit past it's prime. Do you throw it away? Or do you try and make the most of it? Going back to my earlier rant about food waste, world-class chef's like Massimo Bottura and Dan Barber would skin you alive for throwing it away!

Frankly, I always like the type of cooking I do when I need to clear my crisper. It’s fun figuring out how to use whatever vegetables I have leftover!

In this case, I found that the crisper had a bunch of leftover rainbow chard stems and some carrots that were a bit past their prime. Rather than kicking them to the curb, I put them to work and was really pleased with the results. Served over lentils they made a fantastic, simple lunch!

Hello World!

August 02, 2015 by Guest User in Rants & Ravings

Welcome to Hack Your Lunch!

First off, I’ll clear the air and say that this whole conceit was definitely inspired by WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show and their “Food Fridays” features this summer.

It started at the end of June when a friend pointed out Lopate’s “Hack Your Lunch” challenge. Simple enough I thought. Pack my lunch for a week. Showcase it on Instagram with #hackyourlunch. I can do that. It was an endeavor that primarily resulted in the creation of a few appetizing but not terribly inspired salads.

But after that first week, something happened. I didn’t stop packing my lunch. Leonard was right! I felt better. I was saving money. A shocking amount of money. And, much to my surprise, I was having a lot of fun coming up with interesting things to eat!

Since then, it’s become an obsession, an excuse to be in the kitchen every night, and a great creative outlet.

A few people have asked me for recipes, so rather than hoarding them away, I figured I would share them here and create a running food diary. And, rather surprisingly and conveniently, #hackyourlunch, despite being a pretty catchy concept in my opinion, didn’t seem to gain much traction, so I’m co-opting it now (sorry Lenny!).

Some of the recipes you’ll find here are either directly from or adapted from other sources (I’ll always cite!) but others I am developing on my own. Hopefully, that won’t be too painfully obvious when you try to recreate them. Culinary school (possibly also basic math) is definitely missing from my resume. I operate off a fairly limited set of basic kitchen instincts, but I promise every recipe on here worked and tasted delicious!

Ultimately, I’m setting my self a few goals for the recipes:

1) Ingredient cost per serving should be less than what I would normally pay for lunch. So around $8 or less.

2) The recipes should be healthy and mostly vegetable based, which helps bring down cost anyway.

3) I should be able to make the recipe in 30 minutes of less of prep and active cooking time. I have a full time job, so it’s important to me that I don’t get completely consumed in the kitchen. Unless of course it’s a Sunday. Then all bets are off.

The next few posts will be a look back at my lunches since the end of June. Admittedly, there are gaps. I went on vacation. I wasn’t fully committed. I was busy. I’m only human.

Let’s get cooking!