The hardest time of day for me is what to eat for lunch. If I happen to have a left over soup then it's easy - I put it over brown rice or potatoes - but even that takes time. You have to cook your rice, or pre-cook it, the same goes with your potatoes. And for some people, taking that extra 30 minutes at lunch time for yourself just doesn't happen! Hence fast food lines at lunch time - people just won't/can't/don't want to do it!! That's what led me to this...
I saw these bags of precooked frozen brown rice at Costco and thought, "How lazy can you get?"... apparently pretty dang lazy because I bought some last week (after my Auntie swore she did the math and it worked out to $1.40 per lb. - and I pay $1.29 per lb. for my short grain brown rice) I figured it was worth .10 cents a pound to give it a try.
Oh my! They are the BEST!! The rice combined with a bag of your favorite frozen veggies (I like the Stir-fry mix at Costco - it has baby corn cobs, water chestnuts, broccolli and carrots cut in fun sticks along with other yummy veggies - hate the mushrooms in the mix though (too slimy, and I AM a fan of mushrooms) - I just pick them out.
So here's how it goes around 11:30am at my house.
Open freezer and pull out ginormous bag of Stir-Fry Veggies and a packet of brown rice.
Nuke the rice for 3 minutes - put on counter
Nuke some veggies for 3-4 minutes - and pour on top of 1/2 the bag of rice.
Choose a sauce or topping.
Sometimes it's a orangey spicy asian bottled sauce.
Sometimes my homemade teriyaki. (Made ahead in fridge - weeks ago)
Sometimes it's nutritional yeast (I LOVE this stuff - reminds me of "cheesey" comfort food.) I think you might need to develop a taste for it - but once you do - watch out!! Well you don't need to really watch out - it's very good for you! And no fat or oil - so....
Once in a while plain soy sauce and crushed red pepper.
You get the idea.
So for most of us who don't have time to slave in the kitchen at lunch time and the leftovers aren't looking too good, try a SUPER EASY veggie & rice dish - hits the spot everytime - especially in the fall/winter when warm comforting lunches are where it's at!
Got an easy lunch idea? Please share!
Posts
4 comments:
This is very much like what I do -- I haven't (yet) gone the commercial frozen rice route, but I do cook a bunch of rice in my pressure cooker and freeze it. Then I do like you do, just dump some nuked veggies and some bottled sauce in a bowl with the rice. I could eat this every day (and sometimes do). When I don't have frozen rice ready I nuke some potatoes instead -- not quite instant, but close.
where have you been lately? Miss you posts.
Just found your blog and this is exactly what I do. I consider this my emergency food. People at work have taken note of my weight loss and how I always put together these quick rice bowls. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. So much cheaper than vegan frozen meals.
I do that too. But I usually just cook my rice on the stove. I don't mind waiting 45 minutes for it to cook while I read. Or I use soba noodles. My fave for the veggies: lots of chopped fresh ginger, garlic and chili paste, soy sauce and a splash of rice vinegar.
Post a Comment