lunches to go!

i've always been in awe of those who are able to, financially, transportation-ally (? hehe), health-consciously, and time-consciously, afford to go out for lunch every day. i've rarely considered the option of not bringing food from home. but i also enjoy the lunches i make!

here are a few of my tips for healthy meals on the go:

1. making 2 lunches at a time and almost always making food at night for the next day.
i get inspired by goods i pick up at the farmers market.

2. realizing i don't need to prep all veggies and fruits has been great.  wash them before eating, if i want, and i'm good to go! plus no container or plastic around them means less weight and/or less waste! ps the salad in the container is ani phyo's chinese chickenless salad (raw food essentials) 

3. also realizing that little samples of different veggies and nuts is a super fast and satisfying "snacking" lunch. this one is raw celery, radish, carrots, and almonds. (i didn't end up needing all the fruit i brought for the day: banana, apple, pear)

4. discovering i can drink green smoothies out of glass jars with ease and comfort has been the best! great size, lightweight, re-sealable and non-plastic is crucial for morning smoothies to-go!

5. having an emergency/last minute lunch plan is great for the days that you realize you didn't make a lunch the night before or you have slept in or you forgot to go grocery shopping during waking hours. i love having some dried fruits and nuts on hand for times like these, grabbing a banana (is there a more convenient fruit?)... but these drinkme smoothies have helped me out in more than one occasion! i grab it from the freezer in the morning and leave it in my bag (in a sac to absorb some of the thaw sweat) and i can generally start shaking up the frozen bits with the thawed bits to drink some at lunch and the rest of the afternoon. the kale/orange juice/banana is my favourite. so refreshing and satisfying!

6. making salads - my favourite and most common go-to lunch. it really doesn't matter to me what veggies i have chopped up together because fresh always tastes great! i generally don't use soft lettuces as i tend to make lunch 2 days in advance. i keep kale at the bottom and if it softens up a bit, great! i love using red cabbage and radishes. and if i have avocado in there, i'm SET. a new favourite topping has been leek flower. i also love a sprinkle of green onion and/or fresh basil! super yum! i got away from using dressing last year when my containers started leaking. also, i started to consider that i was consuming too many omega3s rather than with 6s because of too many oils. i love adding traditional raw sauerkraut with my avocado for a tangy creamy loveliness. sometimes i like carrots, sometimes i like pea shoots, cilantro, parsley, cucumber, celery... it depends on what's happening in my fridge!

7.  using a nice lunch bag! this totally helps. i thought i was doing pretty well with my lil' sac i bought from ithinkso in seoul, but then one of my favourite peeps, sarah, surprised me with this lovely bag from urban harmonie on main street. i love that i can button it closed and it has a wrist strap and it's large enough to fit stacks of things and it's wipeable! and the contrasting beautiful prints? i am so proud of how pretty it is. so my lunch is pretty on the inside and the outside! thank you, sarah!

no-dressing salad!

i was inspired after reading victoria boutenko's updated green for life to use less oils, nuts and seeds in effort to keep a better balance of omega-3s and 6s in my life. and really, it seems so much more natural, and less processed, to not use oils or at least use them SPARINGLY.
and well, i was also inspired to not rely on oils and vinegars so much for salad when my glass lunch containers started leaking out into my bag???! booo...
so.. salad then... what do you do? and you think explaining your vegan lunch in the staffroom is already mildly annoying (*cough* "where do you get your protein?" *cough*), try not having salad dressing! what an alien!
well, anyways, today's salad was a dream. lots of ingredients but so quick to assemble. and what were my oil and vinegar type things? raw sauerkraut and avocado! YES!!!

what i used:
*a handful of cut up parsley, stems and all
*sliced red cabbage
*sliced carrots
*diced fennel
*sliced radishes
*chopped basil
*diced avocado
*sliced up raw sauerkraut
*sliced beet

this is the kind of salad that keeps me super excited about lunch. and it's really my favourite lunch ever.
whenever people say they don't have time to eat raw or whatever, i have to ask what kind of time they spend making their meals, if they do. i can't help but feel that waiting in a line at subway or going out for lunch takes longer than making one of these guys! ^_^