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! ^_^

day 11 of 30 green smoothie days in a row

i somehow forgot to take a photo of my parsley smoothie this morning! for me and paul, i had just over a cup of filtered water with about 2/3 of a huge bunch of parsley, a few remaining leaves of romaine, a sprinkle of frozen mango chunks, 1 anjou pear and 1 frozen banana.

guess i'll just have to add some other photos instead!

so... first... a pleasant surprise when i went for tea this morning at delany's and learned i could get an unsweetened green tea latte with soy. they leave out the vanilla syrup and it is truly unsweetened (unlike starbucks whose matcha still is sweetened. as an aside, anyone remember when starbucks used to add that wretched "melon"-flavoured syrup to their matcha? ech!). and i actually got soy when i ordered it. hurrah!

and now my lunch today. such a treat to get to be home for lunch! it's nice getting to make food for paul too ^_^ so this salad is: collard greens, kale, red cabbage, beet, red onion, radish, carrot, basil, and avocado with (cold-pressed) flax oil and fresh squeezed lemon. yum!

gratuitous produce photos...

after a successful farmers market saturday shop...

 i love being able to eat local! i hope that canada figures out a better way to support and sustain itself, food-wise. we need to support our local, organic growers! is it true that less than 2% of crops grown in canada are organic? gah!!!

 i love it when i see hearts in my food. paul found one on a potato the other day! i love that he noticed ^_^

 and... isn't this the most beautiful teacher apple? i wish i had waited to take a bite until after i decided to take a photo. so perfect! and again, grown here! we are so lucky!!!

organic connections cafe

last sunday, i was super excited and lucky to get to white rock to check out organic connections cafe.

they are a mostly raw, all vegan cafe overlooking the water and eek, it was great!

here is the menu:

i had the banana ice cream sundae first!

then all 3 of us ordered the burger! i had it with the side salad with dijon dressing (DELICIOUS) and my favourite boys had soups. 

 had to have dessert again after lunch... the blueberry cheesecake! and check out the "just eat an apple" magazines from 2002/3... wish it was still around now!

can't wait to go back! though it'd take almost 2 hours to get there on transit if i were to try! but it'd be worth it!