Tag: Lunch

Fuel Yourself During COVID- 19: Veggie and Cream Cheese Wrap

Here is a short quick post of a lunch I made that is so tasty. I took a page from an old well known sandwich. The cucumber and cream cheese tea sandwiches. But I wanted more veggies and substance to my sandwich.

This is a, healthy, low fat, low sodium, vegetarian meal, and can be made gluten free with gluten free wraps.

I added Salami to H’s wraps and so it can be made non vegetarian if you choose as well.

Yield 2 sandwiches

Ingredients:

  1. 1 wrap of your choosing ( I used Sun Dried Tomato Basil wraps)
  2. 1 carrot shaved (using a peeler)
  3. 1/2 cucumber sliced
  4. 1/2 bell pepper sliced into strips
  5. 2 tbs of cream cheese
  6. pickled onions to taste
  7. 3 Small leaves romaine lettuce

Directions:

  1. lay out the wrap, spread the cream cheese in a line on the wrap.
  2. shingle the cucumbers on the cream cheese
  3. add the rest of the veggies
  4. spread a small amount of cream cheese on the end of the wrap where it will overlap and touch the outer part of the wrap, and will stay shut.
  5. cut in half and enjoy

Stats: this is for one wrap without any cold cuts

Calories 341, Fat 11.6 g, Fiber 4 g, Carbs 49.5 g, Sodium 1016.5 mg, Protein 7.8 g

Today’s lunch was great. It was deeply satisfying and refreshing. I hope you get a chance to try this out. I enjoyed it, H enjoyed it, and my kids who ate some of mine enjoyed the sandwich.

As always thanks for reading. If you liked it, hit the like button, please subscribe, and if you get a chance to try it please let me know in a comment. Or just comment if you like.

Don’t Photo Edit, Just Go Get It. Reach for your goals!

Chimichurri Burrito Bowl Lunch Meal Prep

If you are new to my blog. I am a Chef. I have both a culinary and baking and pastry degree. I am on a fitness journey that I will be on for the rest of my life.

I like to cook, and like any chef I like to eat. Now I try to eat with the thought of fueling my body for my fitness journey. We truely are an amazing bio machine and we need good foods to fuel it.

I train Martial Arts 5 to 6 days a week for upwards of 10 hours a week total. So to support that I need to eat well. Now do I always eat well? Do I always pass up that cupcake. Heck no! But I do try to make good decisions.

Enough rambling so here is what I made. A chimichurri burrito bowl. This bowl is full of protein, gluten free, dairy free, low fat, contains lots of veggies, slow digesting carbs, and most importantly has lots of flavor.

I took a short cut and got chicken that was pre marinated at the grocery store, but I regularly make chimichurri sauce on my own and will include that in this recipe.

Chimichurri Burrito Bowl

Yield: 5 servings for lunch

Ingredients:

  1. 3 bell peppers that I charred on the gas stove, and placing them in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam
  2. 1 jalapeno that I charred on the gas, and placing them in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam
  3. 1 onion that I charred on the gas stove, and placing them in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam
  4. 1.5 lbs of chicken marinated in chimichurri
  5. 3.75 cups of brown rice cooked
  6. 10 tablespoons of black beans
  7. 5 tablespoons of salsa – Optional
  8. 5 pinches of cilantro – Optional
  9. salt and pepper to taste
  10. granulated garlic to taste

Directions:

  1. Cook brown rice to directions on package
  2. Char your veggies over a BBQ or on a gas stove. Place them in a bowl with plastic wrap to steam them.
  3. Cook your chicken marinated in chimichurri
  4. Chop up veggies, and lightly sautee them in a pan, adding pepper, salt, and granulated garlic to taste
  5. Heat up canned black beans, drained
  6. Add 3/4 cup/ 112g of brown rice to bowl, add 1 cup/130 g of chicken to each bowl, add 1 cup/148 g of veggies to bowl, add 2 tablespoons/52g of black beans, add 1 tablespoons/32 g of salsa.

Chimichurri sauce

Ingredients:

  1. 1/2 cup olive oil
  2. 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  3. 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
  4. 3-4 cloves garlic , finely chopped or minced
  5. 2 small red chilies , or 1 red chili, deseeded and finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon finely chopped chili)
  6. 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  7. 1 level teaspoon coarse salt
  8. pepper , to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together. Let sit for at least a few minutes. Letting it sit for 2 hours before use is much better. Marinate meat over night, reserve some for topping.

Nutritional Stats:
Calories 555, Fat 8.7 g, Fiber 11.7 g, Carbs 65.1 g, Sodium 1553.5 mg,
Protein 45.8 g

I hope you get a chance to try this recipe. You can reduce the sodium if you are concerned by omitting the salsa, and taking some of the salt out of the chimichurri sauce.

It was/is delicious and easy to make. It took about 40 minutes to prep for a whole week of lunches.

Try it out. Thank you for reading, if you liked this please let me know and feel free to share.

Easy Turkey Bulgogi Lunch Meal Prep

I don’t have a lot of time, so meal preps that don’t take long to do are a must for me. This one was fast, simple, and is delicious to boot. I prepped this past Sunday for this week. It took me 30 minutes. That is fantastic in my book.

I made this for my husband and I for our lunches for the week. I took a short cut and got frozen veggies to help me prep. I also used pre-made bulgogi sauce.

This is low in fat, has good carbs, and great fiber, lean protein.

All you have to do is cook up some rice, saute up some ground turkey, add the sauce, spiced, and steam up some broccoli. I added some green onions, sriracha sauce, and kimchi but that is all optional. See easy peasy.. I will of course add more information below and a full recipe with nutritional stats.

Turkey Bulgogi Lunch

Ingredients:

  1. rice
  2. 1 lb ground turkey
  3. frozen stir fry veggies
  4. broccoli
  5. 1 tsp ground ginger or to taste
  6. 1 tsp ground garlic or to taste
  7. salt and pepper to taste
  8. 1 tbs oil
  9. Bulgogi sauce
    Optional
  10. green onions
  11. Sriracha sauce
  12. Kimchi

Directions:

  1. Cook rice according to directions on package
  2. Heat pan with oil, saute ground turkey, add spices and salt. Once meat is cooked add frozen stir fry veggies, and bulgogi sauce. Cook on medium for about 5 to 10 minutes.
  3. Steam broccoli
  4. Add 3/4 of cup of rice on one side of the container, 3/4 cup of bulgogi meat mixture next to rice, add 1 cup of broccoli.
  5. Top wit green onions, sprinkle Sriracha, add kimchi and enjoy

Stats:

Calories 633, Fat 26.2 g, Fiber 5.6 g, Carbs 64.2 g, Sodium 798.8 mg,
Protein 34.9 g

I hope you get a chance to try this out. The meat is fantastic without the sauce if you want to omit that part. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading, and keep working to be the best that you can be.

Healthy Shrimp Poke Bowl

I had an early morning. I woke at 4:30 am, and had a fru fru coffee, but forgot to eat breakfast. So I was pretty hungry getting home.

I decided to make a poke bowl for lunch. I took a short cut and bought pre poached shrimp from the super market. I had rice cooked from dinner last night. Chopped up some veggies, shredded a carrot, and made a simple sriracha mayo.

It turned out fantastic. It was so delicious, and I only used half of the sauce mixtures. This is a great lunch with a rainbow of colors and flavors. This dish has lots of vitamins, gluten free, and great source of protein.

I have noticed the poke bowl has become a thing. At least in America. However, this is something I would eat normally. I have also done this with just some eggs, or egg whites.

Ingredients:

  1. 1 1/2 cup of cooked rice.
  2. 1 carrot shredded
  3. 1/3 of a cucumber sliced
  4. 1 green onion sliced on a bias
  5. 5 poached shrimp or about 3 oz
  6. 1/2 cup of sweet peppers sliced
  7. 1 cup of spinach

Directions: Makes 1 serving

  1. Cook the rice per instructions on the package
  2. Shred one carrot
  3. Slice up 1/3 of a cucumber
  4. Cut up 1 green onion, and sweet peppers
  5. Add spinach to rice in bowl, add all other veggies.
  6. Poaching shrimp – Clean and de-vein shrimp, in a pot of boiling water add salt enough so that you can taste the salt and it tastes like the ocean. Add shrimp and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes depending on size of your shrimp. Transfer to an ice bath to stop cooking.
  7. Place shrimp on your veggies.

Ingredients Directions Sauce: Makes 2 servings

  1. 1 tbs of mayo
  2. 1 tbs of sriracha ( go less if you like less spicy)
  3. 2 tsp of lemon juice
  4. mix all above together and top on the poke bowl.

Stats just for rice veggies and shrimp

Calories 500, Fat 6.8 g, Fiber 5.3 g, Carbs 85.9 g, Sodium 1515.5 mg,
Protein 27.6 g

Stats for sauce

Calories 105, Fat 16g, Fiber 0g, Carbs 3g, Sodium 370mg, Protein 3g

I hope you all get a chance to try this. It is delicious. You can opt not to use the mayo, and just put some wasabi and soy sauce on it. That would be delicious too. You can also make this vegan by removing the shrimp and mayo.

Let me know what you think. Thank you for reading this. As always keep working to be the best you that you can be. My respects to you and yours.

Healthy Lunch…Tasty Tuna Salad on a Ricecake

Tired of the boring tuna salads. Try this one it is got great flavor, awesome texture, and loads of crunch.

I had to make lunch for myself and my husband. I had tuna, I thought I had pickles but alas my kids ate them all. But good thing they did remove the old empty jar out of the refrigerator. So instead I used Giardiniera. Giardiniera is a pickled vegetable mix. It is hot/spicy and tart. I added onion, tomato, and some mayonnaise. On the one rice cake I put sliced avocado, with some lime juice, and topped it with the tuna salad mixture. On the other rice cake I put sliced of cucumber then topped it with the tuna mixture. I added no other salt. The salt from the Giardiniera and the tuna itself was plenty.

My husband loved the avocado one better, but he liked both of them. I loved both of them.

If you are looking for a lunch version without extra carbohydrates, I like to put my salad a half of an avocado and just eat it that way. You lose the nice crunch of the rice cake but it is still equally tasty.

Tasty Tuna Salad Recipe: (Yield, 4 rice cakes or 2 servings)

Ingredients:

  1. 2.5 oz of Tuna (I used Tuna Creations this one is herb and garlic, you can use a canned tuna as well. I would add some powdered garlic)
  2. 10 cherry tomatoes cut into quarters
  3. 2 tbs or 20 g of onion diced
  4. 2 tbs or 20 g of Giardiniera diced
  5. 1.5 tbs or 21 g or mayonnaise
  6. 4 rice cakes
  7. 1/2 avocado
  8. 20 sliced of cucumber

Directions:

Cut veggies. Mix together Giardiniera, onion, tuna, tomato, and mayonnaise. Arrange rice cakes, layer veggies on the rice cakes, and then add your tuna mixture to the cakes. Serve and enjoy.

Stats/Calories for 1 serving or 2 rice cakes

Caloires 368, Fat 19.1 g, Fiber 9 g, Carbs 41.2 g, Sodium 475 mg, Protein 13 g.

Stats/Calories for the entire recipe or 4 rice cakes

Calories 736, Fat 38.2 g, Fiber 17.1 g, Carbs 82.4 g, Sodium 954.7 mg, Protien 26.1 g.

Tips: you can add pickles instead of the Giardiniera. You can omit the mayonnaise, but I would add something like mustard to give it a binding ingredient. If you are going to omit pickles or pickled veggies, I would add the juice of a lime to give you some acidity.

Healthy lunch… Lime Tilapia Herb Salad, with Rice

Not feeling stellar about myself today. So in order to avoid going back to bad habits of not eating or avoiding eating, I made myself this lunch. It is so tasty.

So enough talking here is the recipe.

Lime Tilapia Herb Salad, with Rice

Ingredients:

  1. 1 cup of cooked rice -cook rice to directions on package
  2. 70 g or about 2 cups of herb salad mix
  3. 2 radishes or 25 g sliced
  4. 1 tbs or 10 g rosemary olive oil
  5. 100 g or 2 filet of fish pan seared
  6. Cayenne pepper to taste
  7. Salt to taste
  8. Ground black pepper to taste
  9. 1/2 lime

Directions:

  1. Cook rice according to instructions
  2. Place a tsp of oil or spray pan with pan spray. Let pan get screaming hot, add tilapia and sprinkle with salt, cracked black pepper, and cayenne. Cook about 3 minutes turning only once. Squeeze lime over fish toward end of cooking.
  3. Place 2 cups or 70 g of herb salad mix in a bowl. Slice up the radishes and add to the bowl. Add 1 tbs of oil to the salad bowl. Add salt and and squeeze of lime and toss. Add hot fish flaked in the pan to the bowl.
  4. Plate rice, and salad and enjoy

Recipe stats:
Calories 429, Fat 17.3 g, Fiber 3.8 g, Carbs 40 g, Sodium 70.2 mg,
Protein 38.6 g

I hope you get a chance to try it. Let me know what you think. When ever I have days like this, I try to do the opposite of what my bad habit is. I try to do the healthy positive option that is the opposite. In this case for me it is eating healthy and enjoying good food, instead of avoiding it. Thanks for reading. My respect to you and your family.

Healthy Breakfast…Quinoa, Apples, Pecans, and Honey Bowl

Although I ate this for lunch, this is a great breakfast, lunch or dinner. This is an incredibly healthy, hearty and tasty meal.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. This one is just what I wanted today. If you are gluten free, vegetarian, or just trying to eat a little better for yourself. Try this out. You can make it vegan by omitting the honey. I would add another sweetener like stevia if you do though.

Quinoa, Apples, Pecans, and Honey Bowl

(serving size 1 serving – you can easily scale up and make more)

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole granny smith apple ~ 200 g diced washed with skin
  • 1/2 cup of uncooked quinoa, or 200 g cooked quinoa
  • 12 g honey local
  • 15 g pecan raw
  • 3.5 oz of almond milk
  • 1 tsp of vanilla
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon plus a little more for finishing
  • pinch of salt to taste
  • 1 cup or 8 oz water

Directions:

Follow directions on package. I took 1/2 cup of quinoa and added 1 cup of water. Bring it to a rolling boil, then reduce heat and cook for about 15 minutes or till cooked. I cooked the quinoa with 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp vanilla in the water.

Then added the fresh/raw diced apple, raw pecans, honey, pinch of salt, sprinkle of cinnamon, and milk to the bowl. Mix together and enjoy

Stats for this meal:

Calories 557, Fat 16.1 g, Fiber 13.4 g, Carbs 95.7 g, Sodium 266.9 mg,
Protein 11.8 g

Healthy Lunch…Coconut Sticky Rice and Cayenne Shrimp

One of my favorite things is coconut sticky rice. It is a wonderful dish most of the time a dessert from Thailand. However, today I wanted it for lunch.

I am an adult I can do what I want. Hussshhh! So dessert for lunch is what it was today.

I made this in a quicker easier way, not the traditional way it is made in Thailand, or at your local Thai restaurant. This is a quicker, more loose dish, much more like a rice pudding.

This recipe is gluten free, nut free (coconuts are not nuts, technically its a drupe, or stone fruit), and vegan.

This is my simplified quicker version of this dish. There is a more authentic way to make this but this took me 20 to 30 minutes including rice cooking time.

Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango, Kiwi, and Pineapple

yield: 1 serving

time: 20 -30 minutes including cooking time for rice

Ingredients

  1. 240 g or about 8 oz Cooked sticky rice
  2. 80 g or 1/3 cup coconut milk canned
  3. 16 g or 1 tbs of honey
  4. 1 whole or 171 g mango
  5. 1 whole or 66 g kiwi
  6. 117 g or 1 cup of pineapple
  7. pinch of salt to taste
  8. Desiccated coconut for garnish

Directions

  1. Cook rice to instructions
  2. Dice the mango, kiwi, and pineapple.
  3. Mix the rice with coconut milk and honey. Add diced fruit on top, top with desiccated coconut.

Stats for the recipe as written:

Calories 644, Fat 18.4 g, Fiber 8.7 g, Carbs 117.5 g, Sodium 30.7 mg,
Protein 8.7 g

For the shrimp its really simple. No I mean really simple and really good.

Cayenne Shrimp

Yeild: 1 serving

Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

  1. 6 Shrimp with tail on
  2. 1 tsp olive oil or butter
  3. Sprinkle cayenne (to taste)
  4. Salt to taste
  5. Green onion

Directions

  1. Heat up the pan and add fat for
  2. Cook shrimp about 3 minutes total, 1 minute on one side and flip.
  3. Sprinkle with cayenne, and salt
  4. Serve sprinkle on green onion.

Stats for the recipe

Calories 111, Fat 5.5 g, Fiber 0 g, Carbs 1 g, Sodium 535 mg, protein 13 g

That is all… I hope you get a chance to try it. Perhaps be a little crazy like me and have dessert for lunch. Or just have it for dessert. =) Thank you for reading and have a great day!

Healthy Lunch…Breezy Caprese Salad

This my take on a fast Caprese salad. I used tomatoes, cucumbers, dried basil because I forgot to get fresh basil at the store, and mozzarella pearls. For the dressing I used balsamic vinegar and a garlic olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.

This is quick, easy, healthy, and most importantly delicious.

Recipe:

  • Tomatoes diced
  • cucumber diced
  • pearl mozzarella
  • balsamic
  • garlic infused olive oil you can sub regular olive oil
  • basil fresh preferably or dried
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  • Chop veggies to bite size
  • Toss veggies and mozzarella
  • in a separate bowl lightly mix oil, salt, pepper, and basil. Drizzle with dressing and enjoy

Stats:

Calories 253, Fat 17.7 g, Fiber 3.7 g, Carbs 11.6 g, Sodium 146 mg, Protein 17.1 g

Thanks for reading this far. Let me know what you think if you get to try this.

Healthy Lunch/Breakfast… Vibrant Springtime Asparagus and Eggs

Today for lunch, I wanted something light. I had a big breakfast and was not super hungry. So I made Garlic Lemon and Cayenne Blanched Asparagus, with two fried eggs. Spring cannot come soon enough. Asparagus is going to start popping up in the stores. So try this light, vibrant dish out.

This was so satisfying and delicious. It was light, but had enough fat and protein to be fulfilling. If you like the idea of Hollandaise sauce this will be right up your alley. This is a less caloric, and has less fat than Hollandaise sauce. The main reason is that lack of butter. This is so very satisfying in the same way. Taking out the Hollandaise sauce you remove for about 4 ounces or 1/2 cup you take out 140 calories, and 14 grams of fat. The sauce is made by adding pats of butter to wisking/cooking egg yolk and lemon juice. Those majority of those calories and fat come from the butter and the extra yolks for the sauce.

My digression and some background:

I also added finishing salt to the meal with Maldon salt.

” The brand was Maldon—Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. It came from a 135-year-old family-owned salt works on the southeast coast of England. My wife had been buying it for years. “

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/history-of-maldon-salt

Maldon salt is a flaky sea salt that is used for finishing your food. When I feel like being super special I will pull out the Maldon. Let me put this into perspective. For the boiling water to blanch the asparagus, I just used regular granulated salt. It will be dissolving in water and does not need to be super special. This salt you put on your food cause you want to taste it. You want to taste the different minerals in it. The minerals in the “fancy” salts are what gives it different flavors.

” Once upon a time, salt was just salt. It was the stuff in shakers and canisters, the gustatory equivalent of the treble dial. You used more, or you used less. Whether it was a little girl with an umbrella, a toss over the left shoulder to ward off bad luck, or a nontaster’s affront to the chef, it was all just salt. “

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/history-of-maldon-salt

Make your food interesting and fun, and delicious and it will be such a satisfying part of your life. I digress though back to the recipe.

Recipe: Garlic Lemon and Cayenne Blanched Asparagus (yields 2 servings)

Ingredients:

  1. 2 bunches of asparagus
  2. 1 lemon zested
  3. 1/2 lemon juiced
  4. 2 cloves of garlic sliced
  5. 1 tsp of olive oil
  6. 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper plus a little more for sprinkling on top of eggs
  7. Maldon salt for finishing
  8. Pepper to taste
  9. Granulated salt for blanching water

Directions:

  1. Take a spear of asparagus and holding both ends bend till it breaks. Where it breaks cut the rest around that area. Because that is where the woody part of it basically ends. Blanch the asparagus in salinated/salted boiling water, for about 2 minutes or till just tender but still has a crunch. Remove from water and dunk in ice bath or bowl with cold water to stop the cooking.
  2. In a pan add oil, cayenne, and garlic, heat till garlic starts to brown around edge. Drain and add asparagus to the pan, toss the asparagus in the oil in pan just to coat. Portion out Asparagus onto two plates. Squeeze a little bit of lemon on them. Add lemon zest to asaparagus.
  3. Fry 4 eggs, in the same pan. Take plats and add egg to the asparagus. Garnish with pepper, Maldon salt, lemon zest, and sprinkle of cayenne.
  4. Serve and enjoy immediately

Calories/stats for 1 serving

Calories 350, Fat 29.2 g, Fiber 4.6 g, Carbs 10.5 g, Sodium 802 mg, Protein 18.5 g

This was kid and husband approved. Thanks for reading this far. Have a fantastic week.