Lunchbox Recipe - Broccoli salad

Today's lunchbox side is a broccoli salad. I know many people will go "eeewwwww"....but it's actually quite tasty even though I'm not such a big broccoli fan myself.

The ingredients are broccoli, bacon, asparagus, carrots, walnuts, raisins, fat-free sour cream, fat-free mayo, apple cider vinegar and sugar.

I blanched the broccoli in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then drained them. This is to remove the "strange" taste/smell of the broccoli. But if you don't mind it, you could just chop up the broccoli and use it raw. I've tried using frozen broccoli to make this salad before....I think it doesn't taste as good as fresh broccoli but it'd still work.

I cut up a few slices of low-sodium bacon into tiny strips and fried them till crispy. I placed the cooked bacon strips on a piece of kitchen towel to remove the grease.

Asparagus were on sale recently and I bought a bunch of them. I decided to add it to my broccoli salad for an "extra" kick.

To give the asparagus a little more flavor.....I stir-fried them quickly in the bacon fat and then placed them on a kitchen towel to remove the excess grease.

The assembly of the salad, as usual, is super easy. Dump everything together in a large mixing bowl! Slowly add in the sour cream & mayo & apple cider vinegar & sugar....a couple teaspoons at a time....all the while tasting it as you gradually add your seasonings...until you've achieved the taste that you like.

I prefer to make this salad and leave it overnight so that the taste is "less sharp". Sometimes, I'd add a little bit of chopped onions to it.....and chopped onions really taste much better when marinated in the dressing overnight. Otherwise, it'd taste wayyyy too "onion-y"....if you know what I mean :P

Lunchbox Recipe - Pulled pork omelette

I made a "quick fix" pulled pork omelette for RG's sandwich today. Ingredients are just eggs + pulled pork (salt/pepper/other seasonings if you so wish).

Crack the eggs and beat with fork. Add in pulled pork and mix well. Heat pan on stove and fry till cooked on both sides. If you prefer something fancier.....you can add chopped onions/bell peppers/cheese/mushrooms/tomatoes etc. You can use tuna/salmon/mashed potatoes/spam/ham if you don't have pulled pork. It can't get any easier than this.

Today's lunchbox sides are bite-size hush browns, cucumber strips, apple salad & sponge cake.

Lunchbox Recipe - Pulled pork tortilla

Today's lunchbox menu is pulled pork tortilla, corn chips, butter greens & strawberry+mango salad.

I had been wanting to make pulled pork for a very long time........finally, a few days ago, I bought a 2.6lb of pork shoulder at the supermarket.

The traditional way of making pulled pork is to give the pork a dry-rub with lotsa seasonings....marinate it overnight (some people would steep it overnight in some kind of a homemade brine) and then slowly roast the pork over the grill for 6-10hours before pulling the meat chunk into tiny shreds.

Now I obviously am NOT gonna spend half my life over the grill......so I derived a cheat's way of making pulled pork. Please note that it might not taste truly "authentic" but considering the minimal effort/time....it does still kick a mighty taste punch!

First, I made some stabs with my small knife all over the pork shoulder. This is to let the seasonings get into the pork while marinating/cooking. I applied a dry rub of cumin powder, garlic powder & salt all over the meat and allow it to marinate in the refrigerator for about 3-4 hours.

I preheated my oven (convection function) to 275F. I placed the marinated pork in my cast iron pot, poured some diet coke (aprox 1/4 of the big bottle) into the pot (I like to cook/marinate my meats with diet sodas because the meats always turn out very tender)....covered with the cast iron lid and popped it into the oven for 2.5-3hours (flipping the pork over once midway through baking).

2.5-3hours later......I took out the pork (do not turn off the oven at this point) and placed it in a big mixing bowl. Using 2 forks, I shredded the meat chunk quickly.

I drained most of the liquid in the cast iron pot (be careful, it's HOT!) but kept approx 1-1.5 cup in which I added about 1/3 bottle of my honey BBQ sauce, a couple tablespoons of kecap manis & a dash of sesame oil. I tossed in the pork shreds and mixed them in the sauce. Then with the pot lid back on, I put the pot back into the oven for another 1hr.

At the end of the baking, you'd end up with beautiful moist pork threads like these............I couldn't resist stealing strands after strands of the pork to put into my mouth :P~ So there you go......the cheat's way of making pulled pork in less than half the cooking time and with half the effort! The pulled pork will chill nicely in the refrigerator so you can reheat it in the microwave anytime you feel like having one of those juicy pulled pork burgers.

This morning, I spread non-fat mayo, lettuce strips & the pulled pork on half side of a round wheat tortilla.....fold the tortilla in half and then fold it again into a quarter for RG's lunchbox.

I also made a strawberry+mango salad by washing/cutting the fruits and then soaking them in fresh 100% orange juice with some agave nectar to reduce the tanginess of the fruits.

Like how the strawberries looked like little hearts? Here's a short pictorial tutorial how to cut them:

Lunchbox Recipe - Chicken salad

Today's lunch is chicken salad sandwich, butter lettuce salad, cantaloupe, blueberry cake, strawberry & roasted peanuts.

If you are wondering why I wrapped the sandwich in foil.......that's because RG often complains about his sandwich filling falling out from the bottom.....so I figured the foil could do the trick in preventing that messy situation.

Like that the strawberry resembles a heart!! :) Was planning to add the peanuts into the chicken salad but decided to just put it on the side so that the peanuts remain crunchy.

Green and red butter lettuces with low-fat caesar salad dressing on the side.

The chicken salad sandwich filling.........

Ingredients are just chopped chicken breast meat, chopped celery, corn and low-fat mayo.

I'm running out of ideas for the sandwich filling.......if you've got any interesting ideas for lunchbox sandwiches (cold), please do share them with me.

Lunchbox Recipe - Tuna+veg+bean salad

Here's today's lunchbox menu: egg+celery mayo sandwich (using fat free mayo), cucumber strips, cantaloupe, tuna/veg/bean salad, oatmeal cookies, raisin bran (in place of chips) & a little ghirardelli raspberry dark choco treat since it's FRIDAY!

My side salad was inspired by the 3 leftovers I had - tuna/hummus from the previous lunchbox, corn & some baked beans. All I had to do was to chop up some baby carrots & celery to go with the other 3 ingredients. You can use any type of veg, I just like my salads to look colorful hence the yellow, orange & green! I also plumped up some golden raisins by soaking them in warm water and added them to the salad. For the leftover baked beans, as they were soaking in tomato sauce and pork fats, I rinsed the beans through hot water first before using them.

Drizzle some low-fat thousand island dressing over the salad and mix well. I'd normally add the dressing a little at a time while I mix the salad....I just want to add enough to finely coat the ingredients instead of having the vegetables swimming in the dressing.

Here's a spoonfull of sweet crunchy goodness! Now say "aaahhhhhhhh".

I actually made the salad and sandwich filling last night and left them in the refrigerator to chill. So it didn't take me long to put the whole lunchbox together....and I've still got time to slowly enjoy my cuppa coffee and take in the spectacular sunrise!!

Lunchbox Recipe - Tuna+Hummus sandwich

I have been waking up before 6am on weekdays to prepare RG's lunchboxes. The sunrises have been very spectacular since the start of spring. While it still feels more like winter than spring over here in New England (we've still got snow/flurries and the temperatures have been quite low!)......we hope to see more leaves on the trees and flowers on the ground very soon! It is soooooooo nice to start the day with a magnificent sunrise.

Back to the subject......this is RG's power-pack lunch for today - tuna & hummus sandwich, broccoli salad, grapes, corn chips & a granola bar. Tuna is such a great source of Vitamin Bs and Omega-3. Instead of the usual tuna mayo....I decided to up the nutritional value by adding red pepper hummus to the tuna. Hummus is essentially mashed chickpeas which is a fantastic source of protein and dietary fiber. It's supposedly good for strengthening the immune system, reduce stress and increase energy level. Broccoli and grapes are known to be good anti-oxidants.

I used a can of water-packed Albacone. I usually buy the water-packed ones 'cos not only will the tuna flakes be less oily....water also will not cause the omega-3 in the tuna to leach when you drain out the liquid in the can. I wanted some "crunch" so I added some chopped celery & onion to the tuna. You can add some salt/pepper if you like but I usually omit those.

I added approx 2 heap tablespoons of the gluten free red pepper hummus to the tuna. Gave it a good stir to mix well. This hummus tastes great as a salad dip too. I'd occasionally cut cucumbers/celery/carrots into long thin slices for dipping into this.

I'd usually lay some lettuce or cucumber slices on the bottom slice of bread before piling on the sandwich filling.....this prevents the sandwich from turning soggy.

Well that's it!.....it was an easy one huh?....and it's so good to eat and good for the body too!

Lunchbox Recipe - Chicken & fruit salad

RG's canteen is closed for renovations so I've been preparing his lunches since the beginning of the term.

As he doesn't have a readily accessible microwave available....his lunch menus consist mainly of sandwiches and salads that don't require any heating up. He also doesn't want any food that would sit too heavily in the stomach which could cause him to feel sleepy or lethargic.

It has been tough thinking up different sandwiches/salads to make so that he doesn't have to keep eating the same things for lunch. I have been googling the internet for lunchbox ideas and have found many interesting and inspiring ideas from the selfless bloggers out there who are so ready to share.

Hence, I would also like to do my part in contributing some of my lunchbox ideas.

Today's lunch menu is luncheon+egg rolls, chicken+fruit salad, corn chips, oatmeal cookies & a banana (with a hot flask of coffee).

I'd like to share my recipe for the chicken+fruit salad (feel free to substitute any ingredients with what you already have & proportions don't have to be exact):

- chopped celery
- chopped cucumber
- grapes (cut into smaller bite sizes or can leave as a whole)
- chopped apple
- corn (from a can)
- chopped chicken breast meat from rotisserie chicken (or make your own chicken breast meat)
- chopped walnuts (or pecans)
- raisins
- low fat mayo (add just enough to lightly coat all the ingredients)
- curry powder

Method: Mix everything together!

I made this salad last night and left it in the refrigerator to chill. Having the salad prepared ahead bought me more time to get the other stuffs ready early in the morning.