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Quinoa Salad with Roasted Tomatoes, Broccoli and Feta

May 6th, 2013
by erin.
1 comment

Quinoa salad with roasted tomatoes, broccoli and feta. Delicious, but 1.5 hours after eating and I really just want a cheeseburger...

Date: May 6, 2013

Recipe: http://www.annies-eats.com/2013/03/20/lets-do-lunch-quinoa-salad-with-roasted-tomatoes-broccoli-and-feta/

Modifications:  None

Time to table: 35 minutes (most is inactive roasting time)

Servings: I hope to get 3-4 lunches out of this.

Erin: Like

Notes: I made this last night to bring for lunches this week. Definitely a quick and easy recipe that would be great to whip up on a weeknight. It is surprisingly tasty, I think the roasted veggies and feta give it really good flavor. Especially the juices of the tomato mixed in made it delicious. Really loved it, although I just never stay full with dishes like this and at 2pm am really intensely craving a cheeseburger. Or pizza.

Greek Veggie Wrap

Jul 5th, 2012
by erin.
No comments yet

Finished product

Date: 7/4/2012

Recipe: http://annies-eats.com/2012/06/06/lets-do-lunch-greek-veggie-wraps/

Modifications: I used store bought hummus, and balsamic vinaigrette instead of making my own.

Time to table: 10 minutes prep the night before, 5 minutes to prep the wrap that day.

Servings: I just made one wrap, but with the ingredients you can modify it to serve as many as you want.

Erin: Love

Notes: Well, as you may have noticed, we haven’t been cooking much lately! We have been making some tried and true favorites, and using some of our freezer meals when the temps are below 90. Lunches are hard for me – if we have leftovers, that’s great, and I sometimes bring in all the fixings for sandwiches and make those for a week or so, but all too often I revert to buying lunch, especially at one of the many new food trucks downtown Minneapolis has to offer. I need to be better about bringing my lunch at least a few days a week for financial reasons, so recipes like this that actually have me EXCITED to eat lunch at my desk are great! This was delicious, and surprisingly very filling – it would be a great hot weather dinner as well.

Lunch components

Inside the wrap

Beans & veggies over rice

Aug 9th, 2011
by ben.
2 comments

IMG_1350

Date: August  5th, 2011

Recipe:

  • 0.5 cans of refried black beans
  • 3 cloves garlic, diced
  • 0.5 of an onion, diced
  • 1 cup sweet potatoes, diced
  • handful of spinach
  • 0.5 cups shredded cheese
  • 0.5 cups water
  • 1 cup dried rice
  • seasonings to taste (I used red pepper, chili powder, garlic granules, and cumin)
  • sour cream to top with
Cook the rice according to directions. While the rice is cooking saute the sweet potato and onion. Add the garlic for another minute or so. Add the refried beans and water and mix it together well until the water has evaporated or mixed in. Turn off the heat and add in the cheese and spinach and continue stirring until the spinach has been mixed in and is wilted.
Spoon some rice into a bowl and top with the black bean mixture and then top with a dallop of sour cream.

Time to table: 30 minutes

Servings: 1 adult lunch, 2 toddler meals

Ben: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: This was one of the best lunches I ever made while working at home, I think it was the sour cream that put it over the top. I initially wanted to make a taco or quesadilla, but realized that we were out of tortillas, so the rice was a fallback, but this was DAMN good. Annie enjoyed it as well, in spite of the spinach that was hidden the the black beans. I’m going to make this again for dinner so Erin can tell me how awesome I am.

Salad with smoked chicken

Jul 20th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Salad

Date: July 16th, 2011

Recipe:

  • 8 large lettuce leaves, chopped
  • 0.5 lb cut up chicken
  • 2 carrots grated
  • 3 green onions, diced
  • 0.5 cup grated cheddar cheese

This one is pretty easy, just take all of the ingredients, mix them together. Add your favorite salad dressing and toss to combine.

Time to table: 15 minutes

Servings: 2 adults

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Notes: This was made with the remaining smoked chicken. The other ingredients were from our CSA box we got on Thursday, it’s always a little daunting when you unpack the CSA box and you have a fridge full of produce that needs to get used in a timely fashion; salads are a great way to use it  up.

Garlic burger

Jul 18th, 2011
by ben.
1 comment

Garlic burger

Date: July 15th, 2011

Recipe:

  • 0.5 lb ground beef
  • 1 clove garlic, diced
  • seasoned salt
  • crushed red pepper
  • dry cheddar cheese

Fire up your grill, while grill is heating work some seasoned salt and the garlic into the ground beef and form a patty. Top with a dusting of red pepper. Cook burger to your liking (I do around 4 minutes per side at high heat) putting the cheese on at the end to let it melt a bit.

With garlic in the middle of the burger you run the risk of some not-fully-cooked garlic, which will be strong tasting. Just sayin’

Time to table: 10 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking time

Servings:1 adult

Ben: Love

Notes: I made this for lunch today while it was pouring rain, so I had to don my ski jacket to keep from getting soaked. The photos don’t capture how awesome this burger smelled, and it tasted just as awesome. This meal also serves as a good use case for having a charcoal grill AND a gas grill. If I didn’t have the gas grill, I would have broiled the burger, no time for charcoal on a workday.

Garlic burger

Country pork and noodles

Jul 15th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Country pork and noodles

Date: July 12th, 2011

Recipe: http://community.cookinglight.com/showpost.php?s=81ba9f28aeddc732dbe503a323a83f37&p=1129068&postcount=5

Modifications: I was only making a lunch portion of this, so I cut the recipe down. I substituted sweet potato for the red pepper because that’s what I had on hand. I also added some spinach at the end. I also skipped the black pepper and used chili powder, cumin, and paprika.

Time to table: 20 minutes

Servings: 2 adult lunches

Ben: Like

Notes: This was pretty good, but didn’t get as thick as I had hoped. I’ve been making soup for lunches often enough, so I thought that adding 1 tablespoon of corn starch would be enough to thicken it up a bit and add some variety, but I should have added a little more. This was still a good way to use up some of the leftover pork loin.

Country pork and noodles

Pineapple Chicken Salad

Jun 9th, 2011
by erin.
No comments yet

Pineapple Chicken Salad

Date: June 6, 2011

Recipe: http://annies-eats.com/2008/08/06/pineapple-chicken-salad/

Modifications: Used some chopped fresh pineapple instead of a can. Shredded the carrots instead of cutting into matchsticks. We used leftovers from the beer butt chicken for this.

Time to table: 15 minutes

Servings: 6 adult sandwiches

Ben: Like

Erin: Love

Annie: Hard to say, since she had an epic meltdown over her inability to properly use a fork that colored the entire dinner experience.

Notes:  I have made this before, for Mindy’s baby shower – this is an awesome food for summer entertaining. This is a really REALLY good chicken salad – probably my favorite that I have ever had. I love that you don’t even really need a side dish with it – veggies, protein, dairy and carb are all in there. Yum!

Just so we remember – Annie was already cranky (wanted to be held while we were making dinner, just overall in a pissy mood) so when I gave her a bowl of the chicken salad and a fork she just started bawling after getting one successful bite in. I tried taking the fork away – but that was clearly not what she wanted. Major tears. I tried helping her eat. Not happening. She wanted some bites of my whole sandwich, which she liked. I gave her the entire sandwich, and then it fell apart. It was as if the world had ended. Ben and I TRIED to hold in our laughter but eventually we just gave in and laughed so hard we cried. Annie had stopped crying by this point and was happily eating the bread and a whole raw spinach leaf, so she even smiled a bit through her snot and tear stained face. She then tried to push the chicken salad over the edge of her high chair tray, while staring us right in the face as we said no – so I offered my hand and she instead focused on filling it up with the chicken salad. Skips the step of me picking it up off the floor! It was an interesting dinner, to say the least.
Putting the chicken salad in mom's hand

Stuffed green peppers

May 25th, 2011
by ben.
No comments yet

Stuffed green pepper

Date: May 25, 2011

Recipe: Inspired from many sites when searching this morning.

  • 1 green pepper
  • 1/2 cup diced sweet potato
  • 1/2 cup diced red onion
  • 1 stalk diced celery
  • 1 cup black beans
  • 3 cloves diced garlic
  • cumin, chili powder
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese
  1. Cut the top off of the green pepper. Cut out the stem of the top and dice the remaining top part
  2. Saute the diced green pepper top, sweet potato, celery, and onion until the potato is soft, 5-7 minutes
  3. Add the garlic for 1 minute
  4. Add the black beans, cumin, and chili powder for a few minutes, until the beans are hot
  5. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl
  6. Add the shredded cheese and mix until the cheese is melted
  7. Add the sour cream
  8. Fill the topless green pepper with the mixture, refrigerate leftovers
  9. Put the filled green pepper on a baking sheet and bake at 400 for 15 minutes
  10. Remove from oven and cut down the middle to eat

Time to table: 15 minutes prep, 15 minutes baking time

Servings: 1 adult lunch, 1 toddler dinner (Annie is having the leftover mixture for dinner tonight).

Ben: Like

Annie: Dislike

Notes: This was pretty good, would have been better with more cheese. I also like roasting the pepper over the grill better than baking. Annie was a fan of the black beans, at first, but then devolved into her just being angry at the world. She was in an odd mood tonight, so who knows?

 

Green pepper stuffing

Sweet potato & egg quesadilla

May 20th, 2011
by ben.
5 comments

Sweet potato & egg quesadilla

Date: May 20, 2011

Recipe:

  • 1 large tortilla
  • 1 cup diced sweet potato
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • salt, pepper

Saute the sweet potato in some olive oil until soft, around 5 minutes. Remove sweet potato and set aside. Using the same pan cook the two eggs to your liking. I added red pepper to my over medium eggs. When eggs are nearly done, microwave the tortilla for 20 seconds. Lay the sweet potato on one half of the tortilla. Top the sweet potatoes with the cheese. (I used some sriracha here as well, totally optional.) Place the two eggs on top of the cheese. Fold the tortilla in half. Put the folded tortilla in the pan and cook it for 3-4 minutes, turning over once to brown both sides. I topped mine with a little more sriracha. (I currently have the knock off sriracha from whole foods that is neither as hot, nor as tasteful, as the real deal, so I need a little more).

Time to table: 15 minutes

Servings: 1 adult

Ben: Love

Notes: This was lunch today. This is again one of those versatile recipes. Any vegetables you have will work: onions, garlic, black beans, green onions, potatoes, celery, zucchini, squash, any greens, etc.
Sweet potato & egg quesadilla

Tuna Pea Salad

May 10th, 2011
by erin.
No comments yet

Tuna salad

Date: 5/10/2011

Recipe: Very similar to this: http://wegotfed.com/2011/05/tuna-salad/

  • 2 cans tuna, drained
  • 2 shredded carrots
  • 3 stalks celery, diced
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese
  • 3/4 cup mayo
  • salt, pepper, other spices to taste (I actually forgot this because Annie was fussing but this definitely would make it better)
  • 1 pound whole wheat pasta shells

Cook noodles according to package. Add peas for the last minute of cooking. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool. While pasta is cooking, shred 2 carrots, dice celery, and shred cheese. Mix everything together with mayo.

Time to table: 20 minutes

Modifications: I added the celery after I dished out Annie’s portion, and diced hers up super small. I cut her shells in half.

Servings: Probably 5 adult servings.

Erin: Like

Annie: Dislike (she did take a few bites but I think she filled up on cheese samples at Whole Foods… oops)

Notes: Definitely don’t forget the seasonings – my bad. I will add them before I eat this for lunches. The perfect dinner for our first hot day of the summer!

Eating outside

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