Considering I'm not a fan of raw vegies to begin with, salads are getting tiring. I work during the day, so I can't cook anything lunchtime outside of warming something up in the microwave, and I can't think of anything to do with vegies lunchtime besides salad.
At night I usually roast my vegies in the oven and have more of an opportunity to cook things like turnip fries (my absolute FAVORITE), cauliflower bake, but lunchtime is a tough one at the office.
Let me introduce you to my best friend = ziplock's zip and steam bags. I too work away from home and these are great for seaming veggies at work. I will do 2 cups of broccolli and cauliflower or what ever I have in my fridge. One of the great things about these bags is they have the steam time for your veggies printed right on them. I don't think you are suposed to reuse them but I do. I'll use them about 5-6 times until they start to get a little scrunched up.
Twice a week I make crackers in my dehydrator. Sunday nights it's usually cauliflower crackers and mid week I make spinach/zucchini crackers. I run home at least 3 days a week to walk our dog at lunch and then hurry back to work. It's nice to be able to snack on what i know is about 2 cups of veggie (before making the crackers) on my way back to work. And then if I am lucky to have the time I make my soup at work.
Twice a week I make crackers in my dehydrator. Sunday nights it's usually cauliflower crackers and mid week I make spinach/zucchini crackers. I run home at least 3 days a week to walk our dog at lunch and then hurry back to work. It's nice to be able to snack on what i know is about 2 cups of veggie (before making the crackers) on my way back to work. And then if I am lucky to have the time I make my soup at work.
Can you please, please share how you do your crackers? Thanks!
Let me introduce you to my best friend = ziplock's zip and steam bags. I too work away from home and these are great for seaming veggies at work. I will do 2 cups of broccolli and cauliflower or what ever I have in my fridge. One of the great things about these bags is they have the steam time for your veggies printed right on them. I don't think you are suposed to reuse them but I do. I'll use them about 5-6 times until they start to get a little scrunched up.
That sounds perfect - I'll be picking these up for sure - thanks for the tip!!
I got the idea the other day to make a tabbouleh-like salad w/ diced cucumber, diced onion, garlic, lemon juice, EVOO, and fresh mint. I also plan to add tomatoes occasionally. Yum, yum. I know it's a salad, but it's something a little different.
I found some raw recipes and made them IP friendly.
Cauliflower Crackers
I've tried adding all different flavorings (lots of herbs or lots of sprinkles of the 0/0/0 cheese sprinkles for popcorn or tamari or ...) and the only flavoring that seems to cut the cauliflower taste is chili sauce (I use Sriracha). I've also experimented with using parchment paper vs fruit roll sheets in my dehydrator and I like the parchment paper results much better. I am able to fit a full sized cauliflower in my food processor, shredded in lots of small batches until it is the consistency of 1/2 a small grain of rice.
1 whole cauliflower, finely chopped with a food processor
1/4 C ground flax (8 total carbs, or 0 net carbs)
1/3 C water (may have to add a little more)
1 packet stevia or splenda
2 T 0/0/0 Chili Sauce or Sriracha (add more to taste)
Process the cauliflower in batches, then add the remaining ingredients and process again until they are mixed. Let mixture sit while you are cutting your parchment paper to fit your dehydrator trays. Spread the mixture about 3/16″ thick. Dehydrate (I use 165° on mine since I can choose my temp. If you can't it doesn't matter anyway!) Flip the cracker sheet over (when the cracker is dry enough to peel off the paper cleanly) and peel the paper off. Continue dehydrating until all moisture is absorbed/you like the degree of crunchiness. I break the crackers in half store them all in a 1 gallon zip lock bag.
Spinach/Zucchini Crackers
1 large zucchini (I shred this first in my food processor)
1 16oz bag frozen spinach, thawed and moisture drained
2 T ground flax (8 total carbs, or 0 net carbs)
1 TB nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt
4 tsp cayenne (or your favorite other dried pepper. I might try garam masala some time!!)
Blend everything until smooth in your food processor. Spread on parchment sheets and dry just like the cauliflower crackers above!!
The spinach/zucchini mixture is soooooo good raw/cold that I've also used it as our 2C veggies at meals. Note: eating too much of these crackers might give you, shall we say, colorful side effects.
My lunch has to be grab and go at work too. I'm eating a lot of salads too, but it's getting old. I'm also bringing green smoothies, which I'm making entirely from greens, veggies, and fruit. To get some variety, I'm also bringing low cal frozen meals and beefing them up with a cup and a half of frozen veggies that I add to it. This works well because the meals always have plenty of sauce. Thanks for the baggie trick to the person who shared that! With the frozen meals and added veggies, I'm consistently getting a heart lunch for under 400 calories. Since I'm a calorie counter, my apologies if this idea doesn't work with IP.
Any ideas for vegies besides salad (for lunch)
