This lunch is basically just a combination of other stuff I've had this week. I don't think anything but the kiwi is new (they're finally soft enough to eat).
Steamed carrots and sugar snap peas; tofu puffs and sweet chili sauce for dipping; an apple celery cabbage slaw thing with walnuts; daifuku, strawberries and half a kiwi; and red grapes.
At the same recently reopened Asian market where I found the tofu puffs, I also found daifuku, a sweet, in the refrigerated section. I'd seen them before in a couple other bento photos of flickr, so I thought, "why not?"
I am so glad I did! These are strawberry and way tasty. The texture is a little weird at first, but not so weird I won't eat more.
Stir fry with tofu puffs, noodles with cilantro, obscenely ripe strawberries with strawberry daifuku, and a slaw-type-thing with cabbage, apples, celery and walnuts.
The stir fry was a couple days old, but still good. Just a little discolored because I used red cabbage. So everything kind of turned purple. And I just tossed in the tofu this morning so it didn't get all soggy.
The slaw-thing was good. Just one of those ideas I had that happened to work out. Would have been better with a different apple, but I stole the red delicious from a fruit basket from work and that was all I had to work with...
I love tofu puffs, and we went to a local Asian market that re-opened recently and they had them! I was very excited. Yeah, they're a little fattier than I usually eat, but they're so, so tasty! And damned cheap, too. 99 cents for a big package of them.
So what did I have with my tofu puffs?
Rice, with sweet chili sauce. The chili sauce actually was the dipping sauce for...
Tofu puffs! and steamed carrots and sugar snap peas. With a strawberry of soy sauce to go on the rice. Speaking of strawberries...
Strawberries with no-cal chocolate sauce. Forgot I had that.
And red grapes. They were on sale. Expect to see them all week.
No lunch tomorrow. Or, rather, no picture of my lunch tomorrow. We're having a potluck at work. Try to survive. I know you can do it.
Sorry about the radio silence, but we were way busy all weekend.
Our yardwork is neverending but it is yielding some positive results. We dug up a huge amount of Bishop's Weed, a groundcover I suggest you plant in the yards of people you don't like. To call it aggressive is not really quite doing it justice. However, we ripped it all up from the side of the house, and now I can actually see my lily of the valley. It should actually bloom this year, since it won't be smothered.
Gratuitous lilac picture, since I don't have one of the lily of the valley:
Our garden continues to grow apace:
The big green blob in the foreground is sugar snap peas, behind that is spinach, and in the back are radishes. (This photo is for the buns.)
And here's Jeff mowing:
Also in the picture you can see my clothesline, upon which I hung my first stuff to dry this season over the weekend; our ash tree, planted the year before the emerald ash borer invaded Ohio; and our shed, under which live a family mice who provide much entertainment for the dogs.
In addition to all that, I crocheted, did tons of laundry, and we took one of Jeff's grandmothers out to dinner on Saturday night - I'll review the restaurant later.
Discovered, much to my surprise, that we now have two of these on the side of the house. Last year we only had one. Amazing what you can find when you weed. Discovered we have two peony bushes, too.
Noodles are a really quick but good lunch for me. Plus, they're super-tasty!
Raisins with a milano cookie broken in half; mango chili sauce and sweet chili sauce; a lime slice, soy sauce in the strawberry and peanuts; peppers and spring onions on top of whole wheat noodles; and steamed broccoli and carrots sprinkled with sweet curry powder.
The mango chili sauce, sweet chili sauce, lime juice, soy sauce, and peanuts went on the noodles. The mango chili sauce was a super find at the store. I also found some pinapple chili sauce, but I haven't opened it yet.
(I've embedded some videos in this post. If you read via RSS, you might have to click on the actual post to watch them. Click on the video to watch. They're safe for work, if irritating.)
Century 21
This is one of the most insulting commercials there is. It's insulting to women, men, and even realtors. I will never buy a house from Century 21.
Volkswagen
Buy a Volkswagen and be an asshole! Interesting sales pitch. This is one in a series, and this actually isn't the most annoying - just the one I found first.
Luckily, we have a DVR and don't actually have to see many commercials. Which is good, because most of them make me want to kill people.
Lunch today in my new elephant and doggie bento boxes! They look small, but they back a lot of food into them. And the little plastic fork is pretty good. Haven't tried the spoon yet.
Yesterday at work, we had a luncheon catered by Subway, and they send all the sandwich toppings separately, so my salad is basically composed of that. The pinwheel sandwiches in the other box are lavash with spinach spread with more ex-Subway toppings. In the bottom corner is roasted curried broccoli and cauliflower, which I made on a whim this morning and it was mighty tasty!
(now to see if my feed catches this with the relocation of this blog... Yay! It did! Please let me know if you experience any problems with the relocation, though.)
Just to let you know that my blog is going to be doing a little wandering about soon and I'm not sure if this will cause any problems - other than some dead links. We'll just have to see.
The blog will be moving to the main page of my site, and you can find that here.
Rice, veggie stir fry from last night, spinach with an egg and sweet & sour dressing, and cookies and jumbo raisins.
The egg with the spinach was mighty tasty. And the stir fry, though a little discolored due to the portabellos I was to lazy to de-gill, was really good. It had broccoli, onion, red pepper, carrots, portabello mushrooms, red cabbage, and spinach in a garlic ginger sauce type thing. Yum!
For some strange reason, environmentalism is a politically-charged topic. I would think that most people can see that it makes sense not to destroy the only planet we have. Those who politicize that are out for their own gain, one way or another. Forget politics and don't trash the Earth.
Here's some easy ways to help make sure you aren't the one destroying the planet:
I like Berroco's yarns, but I'm very disappointed in a pattern that I used from them. This one. Don't use it.
(Please ignore the terrible photo. I should have pulled my damned shirt straight!)
For starters, the ripple pattern was poorly done, leaving very pointy points on one end (the left sleeve above), and nice rounded ones on the other end (the right sleeve). Pluse, the pattern made for a very lumpy fabric along the edges, which was only partially remedied by severe blocking.
That, though, isn't the main problem I have with the pattern. See the front opening? How the ripples don't even line up? That's not because it's crooked. It's because they just don't line up. To get the bottom green band on (and I couldn't use their pattern for that, since the instructions sucked), you have to cheat, and one side od the front ends up being a good two to three inches longer than the other, making it quite lopsided. And see the way that one point is climbing up my neck? Yeah. Attractive, huh?
I'm pissed. It took me a lot of work to make, and I'm just terribly disappointed in the outcome. I think I'll write an actual snail mail letter to Borroco, telling them that although I like their yarns, if this is indicative of the quality of their patterns, then they can be sure I'll never use one of theirs again.
It's a pity, since I like the colors, and I like the way the actual shrug is constructed. I'll probably use the basic construction idea, but use a different pattern - one that's more suited to the structure.
There was a car accident in front of our house last night. No one was seriously hurt. But I called 911 and got put on hold. I'm glad it wasn't an emergency or anything ...
We heard the crash, but didn't see it. I think somebody pulled out in front of the guy in the truck and he swerved into the pole. The cross-street on both sides is a blind turn because of a hill and those stone walls (there's one on our side of the street, too). It's pretty dangerous - I'm surprised there aren't more crashes than there are.
I could see flashing blue and red lights on the bedroom ceiling until at least midnight. At least we never lost power!
Thank you to Laura for my wonderful Mr. Bento Swap parcel! I love everything!
How did you know that I'd been eyeing the elephant and doggie bento boxes?! And the strawberries are very cute. The chocolate eggs are down a couple, since the barely made it into the photo. :)
After a series of less-than-stellar Mexican-inspired lunches, I tried again. And this time I succeeded. And to what do I attribute my sucess? Tater-tots! Yes, tater-tots!
You're looking at the aforementioned tater-tots; fresh homemade salsa; the ever-present grapes; quesadillas with faux-salmon (from Veat), spinach, and cheddar; and carrots and sugar snap peas.
The faux-salmon was just OK. I won't buy it again, but I'll have fun using up the rest of what I have.
A tasty lunch! This time, aided and abetted by leftovers.
The main course was whole wheat angelhair pasta with leftover teriyaki veggies with faux-chicken. I stuffed so many veggies in the big bowl that I had to get a bowl from the office kitchen so I could actually mix them together. But it was so good!
Dessert was yummy-yummy lemon wafer cookies from the Asian market, a few almonds for added protein and fat to keep me feeling full, and, yes, grapes.
Deneen, generous person that she is, has now sent me two - yes two! - samples of her wonderful shea butter and I still haven't actually purchased any from her. I plan to, but payday hasn't swung around yet...
However, I can certainly attest to the fact that her shea butter is wonderful and you should go buy it (and she's even running a special!). Several of my coworkers have tried it and one has even come back for more. I'll be passing along Deneen's info to them so they can get their own. :)
The raspberry sage scent is wonderful, even if it sounds a bit weird. It actually smells like real fruit - though lightly - and not fakely sweet. I recommend it.
And I have bought Deneen's cinnamon soap, which is really nice. She has a few bars of that left, so pick some of that up, too!
Yay! A truly yummy lunch. One where at the end, I was both physically and emotionally satisfied. I won't keep you in suspense any longer...
I was out of soba, so I used whole wheat angelhair pasta tossed with a little toasted sesame oil to keep it from sticking. Toppings for the pasta were red and yellow peppers, green onions, a little container of mango chili sauce (yum! And not too hot - just right), and peanuts (roasted, unsalted. Mostly, they're bird treats at our house).
Accompaniments were steamed carrots and sugar snap peas tossed with lemon butter. Jeff also got some, and I'll be curious what he thought of it, since he's not really a big fruit and veggie eater. And I bought a big bag of grapes; you'll see them throughout the week.
Last year, we worked on Jeff's half of the front yard - his creepy garden. This year, it's my turn. By the end of the year, my half of the front yard looks a bit like a jungle. But this weekend, we've gone a long way towards taming it.
Here's before (i.e., after digging up two lawn waste bags worth of Virginia creeper, garlic, and mint):
Here's after:
You can see how long it took from the shadows. The additional green bits are mostly orange lilies from near our garden in the back alley. They probably won't bloom this year, but the foliage will be nice!
Plus, we planted potatoes in the garden and some radishes are coming up. Soon, maybe, we will actually get to go outside just to enjoy it, rather than working...
I wasn't going to make a lunch today because I was running behind, feeling lazy, and just didn't wanna. But then I thought about the cost of buying versus the cost of bringing and got my butt in gear and looked in the fridge. Here's what I came up with:
That's grapes; steamed broccoli slaw with "Thai seasoning" fromthe grocery store; carrots; dumplings with soy sauce and parsely garnish; and rice with stripes of toasted sesame seeds and sweet chili sauce.
Short on time and I still had time to garnish and make stripes?! Well, yeah. The stripes were born because I couldn't think of what to put on the rice, and I was stalling while I tried to figure out what went with sesame seeds. The garnish was easy and went into my rice, too.
I've talked before about my personal ethics before, in terms of why I don't shop at WalMart and kind of in stuff I hate. My ethics were not imposed on me by an outside source, but rather developed internally by what I, personally, think is right. I've never tried before to codify my personal ethics, but I thought I would give it a shot.
Think - don't use imaginary worlds as a crutch. The world is strange and wonderful enough as it is without have to make stuff up to explain it.
Stand up for what I believe in - speak up when people are rude, thoughtless, and intolerant. Don't shop at places that have policies I disagree with. Don't work for a company that stands counter to what I believe. Don't support those who wouldn't support me.
Speak for those who can't speak for themselves - including animals, children, and those who, for some other reason, can't speak for themselves.
Don't hurt people unnecessarily - not "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all," but close. There's rarely anything to be gained by being unkind to people; it only demeans me, not them.
Don't hold a grudge - it takes too much energy and only hurts me, not them.
Don't care what other people think about what matters to me - harder than it sounds, but always worth the effort.
Make the world a better place - in whatever way possible.
Harm the planet as little as possible - limit my use of dangerous chemicals. Try not to over-consume.
Get over myself - as much as I'd like to believe it, the world doesn't revolve around me. Deal with it.
I had very high hopes for this lunch, but it failed me. I went with a south-of-the-border theme, since it was easy and relatively foolproof - but not proof from this fool, apparently.
Rice with salsa, black beans and roasted corn; potatoes with peppers; carrots boiled in orange juice; and grapes.
It sounds good, doesn't it? But it wasn't. The rice was bland, the potatoes were too salty, and the carrots had no orangey taste. The grapes are even so-so this week. Oh well. Tomorrow is another lunch.
Finally got her test results back yesterday (the vet was not pleased that it took that long!) and all of Cordy's bloodwork looks fine. She has a low-level UTI, which is not unusual for her, so we've got her on a strong course of antibiotics for a few weeks to try to knock it out for good.
Her breath is still a bit on the stinky side, though. Hopefully that will improve with these antibiotics, too. If not, it's back in for a dental for her, which is a risky thing for her - she doesn't do well with anesthesia. Sigh. If it's not one thing, it's another!
Some risotto from Weiland's (too much tarragon, but still good), salad, balsamic-glazed yellow carrots with steamed sugar snap peas, and grapes & a minneola.
Since I got a new bento box, of course I have to bring my lunch in it!
Soba with diced yellow and red peppers, cilantro, green onion, toasted sesame oil and sweet chili sauce; peanuts (underneath the sesame candies) to top the soba; grapes; Trader Joe's dried fruit salad; and sugar snap peas and carrots.
This is my current favorite way to have soba. It's truly excellent with the chili sauce. And since the veggies are all raw, there's no cooking. Everything's ready by the time you drain the soba. Yum!
We did a lot of work in the garden over the weekend, and we now have actual plants in the ground.
You're looking at the garden from the vantage point of our back gate. We added a new big raised bed this year, plus two smaller ones. We amended the soil a lot, since the soil we got last year that was supposed to be so good was pretty much crap.
So far, we've planted two types of carrots, spinach, radishes, and sugar snap peas in uncovered beds. Under the row cover is broccoli raab, mustard, and kale. The bed in the foreground with the black plastic on it is awaiting potatoes. And we need another bed - we forgot about the onions and sweet potatoes that are still to be delivered!
We need to get the fence up, which I think I'll let Jeff handle, after what happened last year. In less than a month, we should have our fist edibles from the garden. Exciting!
And then look what I found in the garden a few hours later:
A robin has decided that the dirt is nice and warm and a cool place to hang out.
Why? Because now we have a local professional hockey team. You'd think that would make me like having hockey more, but watching the Columbus Blue Jackets have pretty much sucked my enjoyment out of the game.
It's not like we're watching from the cheap seats, so I can't complain about that. It's just ... crappy hockey. They play like they're not in the game and they SUCK. But it's not even the bad playing, it's the hermetically-sealed stadium and the lack of excitement about the game. There's more excitement about the sponsors than anything else.
Sigh. Oh well. I just don't think I'll be going to any of the games anymore.
