Leftovers to Lunch - Packed "Grown-Up" Lunches for Work!

At Hubby's previous job, they catered lunch, so I never got to pack for him. Leaving me with either a huge backlog of leftovers, or else no need to bother cooking a variety of meals, since I'd be the only one eating them, for the most part. When he took this new job, I jumped at the chance to send lunches finally. Apparently I jumped a little too enthusiastically. Hubby was half convinced I was trying to poison him, since I was so eager to shove lunches his way! Hahaha! Really I just wanted someone else to eat all the leftovers!

Chicken and Tofu Scramble

Leftover chicken, leftover organic tofu-veggie scramble, tamari almonds, organic blueberries

 

I don't usually work with meat at home, since I'm mostly vegetarian, but I had bought a rotisserie chicken for a MOMables project (to avoid having to mess with raw meat.) To keep it separate from the tofu scramble, I used a jumbo muffin cup. They're usually too big for the girls' lunches, since they hold so much food. But they're perfect for Hubby's lunches, and are flush with the EasyLunchboxes lids so I don't have to worry about little bits shifting around, since Hubby carries his lunches sideways in his messenger bag.

The tofu scramble is crumbled firm tofu with a mix of veggies including rainbow chard, carrots, and potatoes. It was okay. Hence the abject relief at being able to send Hubby off with lunches. Someone else to eat all the not-my-favorite recipe attempts! Scoooore!

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Sweet-ish Veggie Rice

Leftover sauteed greens with mushrooms, organic berries, leftover organic squash and greens with rice and quinoa

 

The sauteed kale and mushrooms was pretty tasty, and there wasn't enough left for a whole serving, so Hubby got it as a side, along with a big helping of another "meh" recipe attempt, with squash and kale and raisins mixed into rice and quinoa. So far none of us have been huge fans of sweet-ish entrees.

Summer Veggie Rice

Leftover organic rice and quinoa with veggies, organic blueberries, hummus, rice crackers

 

The main dish for this lunch was one of my specialties. A rice/quinoa mix boiled with whatever veggies I have on-hand at the time, plus some water or veggie stock, onion, garlic, and Italian seasoning. Bland but easy. This batch has some zucchini, onion, kale (or collard greens,) and carrots from our weekly farm share.

Chili Dippers

Glutino Tortilla Dippers, leftover CookSimple chili with tofu, organic plum and cherries, GF cornbread muffin

 

Glutino sent me an assortment of products to use in lunches, so I got to try their Tortilla Dippers chips. They're peeerfect for dipping! Especially something like chili, where you want a high ratio of topping to chip!

Instead of ground beef or chicken or whatever, I crumbled firm tofu into the chili mix. Why oh why do restaurants and such insist upon serving tofu in cubes all the time? "Oh boy! Can I get big mouthfuls of mushy nothing!" said no one, ever. Crumbled gives it a better texture, and a more even distribution of other ingredients per mouthful.

The cornbread muffin came from a recipe I was testing from MOMables creator Laura Fuentes' new kids lunches cookbook, coming out July 2014 (available now on preorder!) They were a big hit. Possibly due to accidentally adding double the sweetener, thanks to some confusion in the directions (hence the need for recipe testing! Ha!)

Cheesy Potato "Pie"

Leftover organic vegan "cheesy" potato thingy, organic pistachios, organic strawberries 

I can't for the life of me figure out where I found the recipe that I adapted to make this dish, but I put in a lit of extra effort and everything. I sliced a zillion potatoes thinly, subbed onions for leeks or scallions or whatever the original recipe called for, and laid out the potato thins in an attractive spiral pattern, sprinkling seasonings and "nooch" (nutritional yeast - gives it a cheesy flavor) in between each layer. Naturally, I didn't take any photos of the finished product. Too bad, since it was quite tasty!

Just for fun, I included a cloth napkin from Red Poppy Crafts on etsy. Dragon print, because it's the geekiest and least kid-ish one I have. Hubby's a gamer, you see. So dragons are cool.

Tools of the Trade