Tag: lunch

In transit

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As planned, I boarded the 11 am bus today fully armed with a special mom-prepared lunch. Here it is pre-assembly last night:

turkey salad, 1/4 avocado, toasted whole wheat pita

turkey salad, 1/4 avocado, toasted whole wheat pita

And professionally arranged on a plate because I didn’t think the bus would have the right ambience (and because I would have felt silly taking 20 pictures of my sandwich in front of the little old lady sitting next to me):

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I held off on breaking into it as long as possible (a whole hour and 20 minutes!) because I was worried about the onion causing smell drama on the bus. But hunger won out at 12:20, and I daintily opened the baggie . . . and inhaled the sandwich in approximately 30 seconds:

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Notice the expertly chopped cabbage throughout (that was my contribution to the meal). Mmmmmmm. On the side, I had some crunchy green beans, a kitchen sink muffin, and a two hour nap (my other great love, after food and babies).

Next stop: Brooklyn!

Getting to the bottom of it …

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Almost done with the leftovers! Phew, right? Now you’ll be able to sleep tonight.

Here’s my lunch plate with the last of the roasted veggies and latkes (plus two pineapple rings and some sweet potato custard I swiped as we left the party last night):

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And a teeny bit of fruit salad left over from the party, too:

fruit-salad

Did you notice my itty bitty fork? I always eat on the smallest dishes and smallest utensils I can find. It makes the food look bigger and last longer :-).

Eatin’ & eatin’ (& pickin’?)

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This afternoon, I worked on prepping a few more items for the party:

More of these:

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fruit for fruit salad ...

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Fruit is so pretty:

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I think I took about 25 pictures of this fruit, but I won’t make you look at them all.

And then people arrived for the 19th annual Pickin’ & Eatin’ Party. I know, I know. You’re saying, “Pickin’? I thought this was just going to be a food party because that’s all this girl ever talks about. What’s this about pickin’?”

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And back to the eatin’:

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I put my food on a little plate so it would look like more. But then I refilled it four times with things like pineappled ham, sweet potato custard, fruit salad, green salad (with sunflower seeds, feta, kalamata olives, mixed raisins, dried cherries, walnuts, balsamic vinegar, olive oil), baked rice pudding, Swedish meatballs, baked chicken, kielbasa, apple dumplings, apple bread, chickpea spread, and probably tons of other things I can’t remember. And then I picked at the desserts too much (significantly more than pictured):

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And now I’m heading back down to rejoin the party and very likely do some more pickin’ … at the food!

The oven needs a break

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Between my cooking, my mom’s cooking, and the mountain of leftovers, I don’t think the oven has been off for more than 10 minutes all day! At one point, I went into the freezer to retrieve some frozen turkey carcasses for mom’s turkey soup, and I happened upon these little treats:

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When I was visiting over the summer, I found a bottle of lavender syrup left over from a family trip to Canada when I was about 16 (over 10 years ago!). Thinking the syrup might be stale, I simmered it a bit and then spooned quarter-sized drops onto wax paper to make little lavender candies. Apparently, they’ve been sitting in the freezer for the past six months, layered in their wax paper. I snacked on three today, and they taste as good as new!

While waiting for lunch to cook, I also snacked on quite a bit of the batter and ingredients for these muffins while mom was hard at work on them.

For lunch, I scanned the fridge for anything nearing the end of its lifespan, as usual. I came up with these:

wrinkly peppers, eggplant, carrots

wrinkly peppers, eggplant, carrots

Which became this:

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Roasted at 450 for 40 minutes with olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper:

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Steaming, on top of lettuce (the very very last of it!), and sprinkled with feta and toasted walnuts:

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With three more “latkes” on the side:

lunch-latkes

PHEW! The oven and I are going to take a little rest now. Check back later for a very exciting dinner!!

Repurposing leftovers, part 2!

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Lunchtime rolled around, so I started rummaging through the fridge again to rescue as many leftovers as possible (and to create some more fridge space by eliminating some of the 10,000 storage containers hogging the shelves!). I uncovered some cabbage salad with apples and pomegranate from who knows when, but it was dressed with vinegar and seemed sufficiently preserved, so I added it to the leftover turkey from yesterday and heated it in the microwave. I also found half an avocado, so I mixed that with some Dijon mustard and a couple Tbsp of Greek yogurt that was taking up another dish. I finished off the plate with two of my leftover curried carrot and zucchini latkes.

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For dessert, mom and I split the little bit of pumpkin/applesauce/banana mixture that did not make it into the oven with this morning’s project.

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A perfect, well-balanced meal that had the added benefit of eliminating five containers from the fridge. What a relief!