Egg sandwiches

Lately i have been really busy with school/work, so my cooking has taken a real hit. I also don't have a whole lot of money so simple, quick and cheap meals have been on the agenda - hence a whole lot of egg sandwiches. I like egg sandwiches so this isn't really a problem, and there are a variety of ways you can make them.



In this blt with scrambled eggs i got to use up the last three pieces of maple bacon from the cottage (to be featured in a future post) along with some great veggies (i love this time of year)

Assembly

Two blt with scrambled eggs on marble rye

I also think a good fried egg sandwich is always a treat - and so as i had eggs and bread, i thought a simple one might also do me a quick dinner. Since it was dinner i served this with a greek salad, but since i didn't have too many tomatoes i added some romaine lettuce. I really think that lettuce does not belong in greek salad, but this was pretty tasty and made it look like there was more on the plate.

Top:

Another fried egg sandwich, this one with cheddar and some left over salad

Quick Cottage Lunch

Tuna Lunch

Here is a little something i made for lunch this week, its not that exciting, but when you make lunch every week you tend to repeat yourself. Tuna is one of my staples, and one of the first things i started to eat when i began to eat meat again.

Like most of my lunches, i use the same staple and just add whatever veggies i have to it. This time i put cucumbers in my tuna salad - i wasn't too sure how this would work out - as in would it after a couple of days make it too watery. Turned out okay, but the final day it was a bit loose.

Sort of Caprese Lunch Salad

This is going to be a lazy post - i have a very busy day, and just realized i hadn't used these pictures that i had of a really good lunch i made while up in Mono. This was a take to work lunch which i didn't end up eating the day i had intended and it sat for another day which i think made it even better.

I found some pearl bococcini in my mom's fridge - which are so addictive. They are quite firm, so letting them sit in the dressing for an extra day only made them better. I like cheese in salads sometimes - and as you've probably guessed i'm a big fan of the Caprese style salad - this on was my rip off.

I simply cut some tomatoes in half added the pearl bococcini and some shredded basil. I dressed it in a bit of olive oil and a generous amount of balsamic. I added some finely sliced red onions and served the salad over a mix of arugula and spinach.

Nice lunch!

Above:

Close up of the salad

Packed lunch

Ingredients

Workday Lunch gets repetitive

So i started to cook and photograph this blog about a lentil-feta salad that i was taking to work when i realized that i had already blogged it!!!! This actually caused me a bit of stress, as its tough to post five times a week, and i've only been doing it for under four months and i am already repeating myself. I mean i wasn't using a recipe, so it was a little different, but i thought i was doing so well.

Of course i still made the salad because i had all the ingredients and had taken the first picture and its pretty good. I never make it the same way each time, the only real staples of it are lentils, feta and balsamic. This time i added diced tomatoes, jalaepenos, cucumbers, green onions and black olives. The cucumber was good, it made it a little more refreshing but there was the heat from the jalapenos.

As i've mentioned before i like to make something that will get me through a few days, so i only have to carry stuff in once or twice a week. The first picture is what i would take to work on a monday. Lentil-feta salad, romaine lettuce, three yoghurts, three berry applesauces, two banannas and some strawberries. This way i can kinda satisfy a bunch of cravings. I also keep some dried health food store soups and bean meals in my desk drawer in case i'm craving something else.

Above:

Lunch to go
Chopped veggies
Ingredients

Staycation Cooking - Lady who lunches

Well its quite a start to my week of "staycation", after a couple weeks of glorious weather, it turns rainy and cold for day one. I had already planned this as a domestic day, so i wasn't that devastated, but a little sun would have been nice.

After finishing a few errands i decided to indulge in a late lunch. I wanted something a little decedent, not something i would scarf down at my desk. I didn't have a whole lot of ingredients, but the weekend previous i had poached eggs and they were a little overdone, so i thought i would give that a try again. (i'll blog that meal later)

I know that poached eggs are actually quite tasty over salad, so i opted away from the carbs and decided to do a poached eggs over salad. The bar/restaurant in my building does a spinach salad with hard boiled eggs and beer braised mushrooms - i had a few cremini left in the fridge and thought they would be a nice addition. I didn't have any beer or wine open (no vermouth even) so i improvised and used sake. I also added some tarragon - since i look for things to add tarragon to!

I thought i would dress it with a creamy, yet healthy dressing to go with the yolk of the egg. I have been obsessed with honey dijon - and decided that was what was going to go with. I simply combined some lemon juice, olive oil, dijon, honey and sour cream.

After blanching the asparagus, i poached the egg and assembled the salad.

Late lunch, even with the weather was pretty sweet. (too bad someone stole my newspaper again!)

Above:

Lunch
Ingredients
Dressing ingredients
Mushrooms
Cracked poached egg salad

Basa Fish for a work lunch

Recently i had eric over for dinner. I didn't bother photographing the meal, since it was just a bunch of things i had already blogged about. To be honest it was nice to have a glass of wine and chat with eric rather than worrying about lighting and f/stops.

Our Menu:

Ginger Scallion Basa Fish

Steamed Dumplings

Cold Spicy Peanut Noodles

I ended up defrosting all of the basa fish i had, since they were sort of frozen together and i was rushing a little. I only did two of the filets for the ginger scallion dish, leaving me one leftover. I didn't want to waste it, and didn't want to make the same thing, so i decided to use it for a workday lunch. I wanted to bread it and bake it served with spinach salad. (i also wanted to use the very last of my big box of spinach)

A few hints on how to bread not just fish, but pretty much anything:

• I prefer panko (japanese breadcrumbs) you can find them at most regular supermarkets


• Season the flour


• Keep one hand for dry ingredients, the other for wet - it makes it easier.


• Dredge the item in seasoned flour first, Then egg wash, Finally breading


• Great things that add to the breadcrumbs that will compliment a dish - mustard, horseradish, wasabi, lemon zest, basil (dried) chilis, parmesan.


• You really need to be prepared to deepfry, and can be difficult to do a lot since the oil cools down quickly- i reccomend pan frying or baking things unless necessary.

Above:

Ingredients
Ready for the oven
The breading stations
Lunch

Tuna and White Bean Lunch

Tuna and white bean is actually a pretty common combination, there is a certain richness to white beans that makes this dish seem decadent, when its really quite simple yet elegant. I often mix my tuna with chickpeas, but i was in the grocery store and spotted some white kidney beans, which i think area also called butter beans, and thought i would add them as they have a creamier texture.

Usually things that are all white sort of turn me off - i know that sounds weird, but something about hippie parents and always eating whole grains/brown bread makes me mildly suspicious of white meals. To offset this strange idea, i made sure to add some more colourful items to the meal to help its visual appearance, along with taste! This was sort of a whatever i had in the fridge kinda lunch, so i used some oil cured black olives, sundried tomatoes (also in oil), carrots and green onions.

To make the dressing i combined some mayo (just a little), mustard, lemon juice, a little oil from the sundried tomatoes, pepper and red chili flakes. Once that was mixed i added a 1/3 of a cup of the beans and mashed them in to make the dressing creamier without more mayo. I ended up adding a little extra oil and lemon juice to make the dressing thinner. Then i mixed in the tuna, making sure to break it up well, and finally adding the rest of the beans, and mixing it until it was well combined.

For lunch i put this on top of some mixed spinach and arugula. The nuttiness of the arugula worked really well with this. I didn't need to add any more dressing, and i got two hearty and healthy lunches out of it. The greens also helped offset the white factor.

Above:

The ingredients (all on hand)

Packed lunch

Mixed beans

Additional ingredients

Another workday lunch

As i've mentioned before i really try and bring my lunch to work at least four times a week. I try and make something i can eat for two days, efficient, yet does not get too boring or soggy. I try and use spinach in my lunches, and by buying the big box at the supermarket of baby spinach is a challenge to try and finish one of the larger boxes. So what i like to do, is make a salad that i can dress the spinach with. One of my previous meals was Lentil feta salad.

One of the salads i really enjoy in general is Greek Salad. Not the gross oily one with iceberg lettuce, but a Village salad; tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, feta cheese and olives topped with balsamic vinegar. I often make a version of this as a side salad. Its fresh and the ingredients are decent all year around. When i make it for lunch i tend to omit the onions, because you really taste it all day, even when you brush afterwards. I deal with a lot of people in my job and i take pity on them but omitting the onions.

This salad also does really well after a couple of days, it actually makes its own dressing even without oil, and that helps with the spinach, keeping it from being dry. I just chop everything up the similar size, crumble the feta, add balsamic and toss it. While it sits overnight it creates a dressing and then i just top the spinach with it. Viola lunch

Above:

Eating lunch at my desk as usual (yeah, that's a paper towel as a napkin)
Close up of what i made - the night before
How i package it

Double Duty - Hard boiled eggs

Sometimes on sunday i will hard-boil a few eggs for the week since you can use them in a lot of ways, they are a good source of protein, and they travel pretty well. It took me a little while to really master hardboiling eggs- there are so many different opinions on how its done. This is how i do it, but if you have your own method go ahead. The only thing i think is a universal rule - use older eggs.

I put the eggs in a heavy pot, just covering them with cold water. I cover partially and bring to a rolling boil, then drop the temp to low, cover and leave on the stove for 30 seconds. I then remove it from the heat and sit covered for 15 minutes. Then i remove them and put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Once they were done, i made two different things with them. A curry egg salad sandwich and a spinach and hard-boiled egg for a work lunch. I only recently discovered i liked egg salad, as they only times i had tried it had been pure mayo and salt. Yuk. Plus the texture, it was so processed, i didn't even think it was eggs. I don't really follow the traditional egg salad rules, i make it a lot of different ways depending on what i have in the fridge or whether i'm serving it as a sandwich or on top of a salad.

Since i chopped carrots and green onion for the salad, i just diced them finer for the egg mixture. I usually use half as much yolk as whites. I start with just the yolk, mashing it with whatever i intend to use in the dressing; in this case, mayo, mustard, cracked pepper, curry powder and some red chili flakes. Once i had made a paste i added the chopped whites, mashing them just a little and i incorporated them. I then added the veggies for a bit of crunch.

Above:

Lunch is ready
Egg Salad Sandwich
Eggs in the ice bath
Yolk mixture
Ingredients for the egg salad

Quinoa Taco Salad

I actually only discovered Quinoa a few years ago, and it is a wonderful versatile grain, very nutritious, high in fiber and a good source of iron. It can be used as a side, but i prefer to use it in a salad mixed with lots of veggies. It has a sort of nutty crunchy aspect to it that makes it a lot more interesting than couscous or rice, and it holds a vinaigrette well, without getting soggy.

Quinoa is quite easy to cook, easier in my opinion than rice. You simply boil water, add the Quinoa, boil again, reduce to medium and cover for 12 minutes. That said read the instructions on your package first! There are different kinds of Quinoa, the white/whole wheat, red and black. The black is pretty dramatic as a side as the colour is unexpected. This time i was just going to use plain quinoa, but i didn't have enough, so i mixed a little red in it too. I think it was visually nice.

I decided to make a sort of Tex-Mex Quinoa salad which was pretty simple considering i tend to have these ingredients in my pantry/fridge at all times. I began by sauteing the red onion until soft and translucent, once it was done i added cumin, red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper. Then i added garlic and cooked it for a little until it was also tender. I then added the canned, drained black beans, chopped tomatoes, red pepper and jalapeno. I stirred that until it was incorporated and added the cooked Quinoa and the juice of a lime.

I served this one a mix of chopped spinach and cilantro and topped it with shredded cheddar/mozzarella mix for a little extra protein and because i love cheese. This actually made quite a bit so i will probably get not only a dinner out of it, but also a couple lunches, which is okay with me.

Above:

Quinoa Taco Salad
Chopped ingredients
Ingredients
Cooked Quinoa
Raw Quinoa

Peanut Tofu - Lunch idea

I know a lot of people fear tofu, and really there is a good reason - its essentially a blank canvas, which is daunting. I really like to incorporate tofu in my diet; it is very versatile, is low in fat, low in sodium, a source of omega-3 and most brands are fortified with calcium. The real key with tofu is knowing what kind to use with what type of recipe, and how to season it so that it doesn't make things too bland. I'm going to try and give you a few recipes with different types of tofu so that maybe you'll be inspired.

For this tofu peanut salad i decided to use medium tofu, you could easily use firm, but i'd recently had a peanut tofu salad at a Japanese restaurant that used medium (or softer) tofu, and i really enjoyed it. I wasn't trying to exactly re-create that recipe because it was really just a mid-meal pallet cleanser and i was looking for something a bit more substantial for a take to work lunch option. Tofu is a really good base for these types of dressing as they will absorb and compliment the taste with their texture. Its best to make this a day before so it incorporates.

You can go out and buy some bottled peanut dressing, and there is nothing wrong with that, but since i discovered how easy it was to make the dressing for the Lime Peanut Noodles i thought i would do a variation on that blender dressing. I essentially used many of the same ingredients, except i added a little sesame oil along with the hot water and took out the sugar.

Lime juice and zest
Peanut butter
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Ginger
Rice wine vinegar
Scallion
Red pepper flakes
Hot water to thin

I diced the medium tofu into bite sized pieces and added shredded carrots to give it a little more texture. The tofu is fairly fragile, so when i dressed it, i did it gently. I topped the tofu with some chopped cilantro, sesame seeds and a few red pepper flakes. For lunch i will be serving this on a bed of spinach. The extra dressing in the tofu will be dress the spinach.

Above:

Close up of the tofu finished
The ingredients
Playing with the new camera (indulge me)
Tofu - as packed in water
Lunch is ready!