Dal-ish Kitchen Sink Curry

 Again working off my embarrassment of lentils in the cupboard, along with an impulsively purchased celery root (celeriac) that I saw at a farmer's market and simply had to bring home with me. A true Dal is more of a side dish, or a thing to eat over rice, I wanted to incorporate more vegetables (and some chicken I had in the freezer) and make it something that didn't need rice to feel like a whole meal for my lunches this week. The texture is Dal, the flavor is closer to a Chicken Tikka, but whatever the heck it is I'm very much looking forward to it in this week's lunches. 

Ingredients:

Choppapoluzza Curry Base flavor pack

Coconut oil

2-3 cups dried lentils

1 celery root, peeled and chopped (could also use 1-2 large potatoes, or sweet potatoes)

2lbs chicken breast, in small pieces

10 cherry tomatoes (or whatever you have leftover in fridge), halved

1lb (or 1 pkg frozen, thawed) cauliflower florets (could use spinach or green peas instead/also)

Turmeric, cumin seeds, cardamom, coriander, garam masala powder, cayenne pepper, salt, lemon juice - to taste. Optional mustard seeds (I don't know why my dad had a huge package of mustard seeds in his spice cupboard, but now they are in mine and so they go in anything that they might possibly work in). 

Heat coconut oil in your instapot on sauté low and add turmeric, cumin seeds, and mustard seeds if using them. Stir until the spices are fragrant, then add the Choppapoluzza pack (onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, ginger) and some salt. Keep sautéing until onions are translucent. 

Add Celeriac (or potato), cardamom, and coriander, and the lentils. Stir to coat everything with spices. Then add water and pressure cook until lentils are almost done. 

Vent, remove lid, taste for seasoning and add the garam masala, cayenne if needed, lemon to balance and adjust salt as needed. Then add chicken, tomatoes, and other veggies. Replace lid and pressure cook an additional 5 mins, or until chicken is cooked through.

Makes 6-7 servings, enjoy your lunches and a few easy dinners. 

Lentil-Lunchbox Goulash

 I grew up on American Goulash - made with hamburger meat, canned tomatoes, noodles, some paprika and maybe bell peppers. As an adult, I became acquainted with German Goulash, which is more of a stew and is spicy and flavored with something like this Univer Goulash Cream plus additional spices. I LOVE the German version, honestly, for lunches I need something less saucy so I'm not worried about it spilling in my bag, with it's starches built in so I don't need to add noodles or bread to my lunch bag. Add these reasons to the fact that I found an embarrassment of dried lentils in my cupboard, and this recipe was born. It makes 5 mid sized servings.

Ingredients:

Choppapoluzza Goulash pack

1-2 tbl butter or oil (I like butter for cooking onions)

1lb ground beef

1-2 cups dried lentils

1/2 a pint cherry or grape tomatoes (used these as opposed to chopped larger tomatoes to maximize tomato flavor and minimize extra liquid)

1/2 tube Univer Goulash Cream (I used hot, mild is fine)

salt, caraway seeds, smoked/hot paprika, lemon juice to taste

water

Put your instapot on sauté low, toss in butter and the goulash pack (1/2 onion, 1/2 green pepper, garlic, celery, carrot if you are chopping things now), as well as some salt and caraway seeds. On sauté low you can literally set it for 30 mins and walk away and do other things, it won't burn. Come back and stir a few times if you like. If you started with veg from frozen, you may need to go a bit longer to get the onions nice and translucent. 

Once veg is translucent, turn heat up to high and add ground beef, stirring occasionally until it starts to brown nicely. Then add in your Goulash Cream and paprika (use smoked or hot as you prefer) and stir to incorporate. Cook that for a few minutes then add tomatoes and lentils, mixing well. Add water JUST to cover, remember, we don't want a ton of sauce because this is lunch! Nobody needs goulash-gravy in their laptop. 

Put under pressure until lentils are done (if you are like me and they have been in your cupboard for some indeterminate but long period of time just set it for low pressure 1 hr to be safe). Taste, adjust spices, and add some lemon to balance as needed. Portion out and you're set for the week. Enjoy!

Choppapoluzza

Prepping lunches ahead for work for the week is a great way to save money, eat a bit healthier (and hopefully tastier), and save time during the week. It can eat up a bit much time some weekends, though. Along with leaning heavily on my trusty InstaPot, I've taken to chopping up veggies in large batches when I have more time and freezing them in "flavor packs" to make prepping lunches for the next few weeks a snap. You can vary this to your personal preferences, but here is a set of four that I go back to time and time again.

Makes 4 "flavor packs"

2 big yellow onions

1 green bell pepper

1 bunch celery

2+ jalapeno peppers

1+ head garlic

1/2 a lb baby carrots (if you are like me and want the rest of the bag to dip in things as a lunch side) or 2-3 big carrots if not

1 big bunch of cilantro

1-2 inch piece of ginger

Label your baggies, and for the love of all that is good in the multiverse put dates on the bags. This will make enough veggies for 4-5 servings each of a Curry Base, a Goulash Base, Tex-Mex or Chili, and your Basic European Soup/Stew.

Chop everything, putting in bags as you go. 

Curry Base = 1/2 onion, garlic (more than other bags), 1+ jalapeno (depending on heat preference), all the ginger, and roughly 1/2 the cilantro including some of the stems.

Goulash Base = 1/2 onion, 1/2 bell pepper, carrots, garlic, a bit of celery.

Tex-Mex or Chili = 1/2 onion, 1/2 bell pepper, carrots, bit of celery, garlic, jalapeno.

Basic European Soup/Stew = 1/2 onion, carrots, garlic, a lot of celery.

1/2 an hr of chopping will get you FOUR weeks of flavorful, veggie-full, lunches. Enjoy!

White Bean Soup with Salt Pork, Kale, and Apples

This is not really a "recipe" as I am not sure how much of most of these things I thew into the pot... more a set of instructions for making a hearty pot of soup/stew while suffering from some stupid case of the winter blehs.

Either hot soak your bag of dried beans (bring to a boil, turn off, go away for a hr leaving it covered) or soak overnight if you are more organized then I am.

Take the rind off of a large chunk of salt pork and put it, whole, into a smallish pot covered in water and bring it to a simmer. Leave it there for the next part.

Put a few tbl of butter (unsalted... we are using salt pork and parmesean here, we do not need to add any more salt to this pot omg) into a large pot over medium low heat.  Chop up 1 yellow onion and toss it in.  Add herbs at this point - I used a lot of thyme, rosemary, sage, and oregano personally.  Also a few whole peppercorns and a shake of red pepper flakes.  It could of used bay but I was out.  Open fridge to look for carrots and find a potato as well.  Chop up potato and put it in bc why not, will give body to soup and potato peel has vitamins in it right?  Throw in a few handfuls of baby carrots.  Smash and peel an entire head of garlic (you heard me, garlic is good for sick ppl) and into the pot.  Cut one medium sweet/tart apple (not a delicious and not a granny smith.. something like an empire or a macintosh) and throw it in also.  Now take your salt pork out of the water and (carefully it is hot) cut it into chunks and throw it in the pot as well.  Get out some good parmesean cheese - the block not the grated stuff if at all possible, and throw in about 2 square inches worth, chopped up, rind included is fine.

Add water to near the top of your pot and bring it to a simmer.  Add your greens - I used 2 bags of "baby kale blend" which was kale, chard, and spinach.  Any hearty green will do altho spinach on it's own would be boring, and careful with pepper if using arugula.  When greens start to wilt, drain your beans, rinse them, and add to the pot.  Put on the cover and gtfo, just checking to stir/add water if needed every 30 mins or so. 

This should cook 2-2.5 hrs, until beans are tender.  When it is nearly done, cut another apple (and some more carrots if you want) up into smaller bits and add them.  You can also puree the soup, or mash it up a bit w a potato masher (this is my preference) to make it less chunky.  If you want to be fancy, go back to the beginning and don't cut up the salt pork.. then cut it up now and fry it and add a few slices to each bowl.  (If you are sick this is too much fkn work really, only do this if you are making this soup FOR a sick person.) You could also have reserved some greens to throw in at the end so they are not all browns. 

Enjoy, and feel better soon. 

Turkey Loaf with Cheesy Cauliflower Puree

For me, this took advantage of some pre chopped veggies and the convenience of a pre flavored cheese product (as well as using a cake pan to bake in a thin layer instead of being loaf shaped...) in order to be a 30 min, 1 pot/1 pan, mealprep for the week.  At just under 320 cals and 32g of protein a serving this is 4 servings of delicious, nutritious, lunch.

1lb ground turkey - I used 99% fat free

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

4 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped

3 cloves garlic, same

5 cups raw spinach

1 tbl butter

splash of water

1 egg - please don't chop this

salt, pepper, thyme, sage to taste

1.5lbs cauliflower florets, chopped/cleaned

1 container reduced fat garlic herb allouette... or 8 oz low fat cream cheese and some salt/herbs/garlic

Turn oven on to 350.  Sautee onion, mushrooms, and garlic until onion is translucent.  Add herbs/seasoning, splash in a bit of water, and throw in spinach and stir until it wilts and water is mostly gone.  Mix veggies into turkey, using egg to hold it together, it will be a bit slimy but oh well.  Spread out into a cake pan so that you can have super mega fast cooking and set timer to 20 mins.

Put cauliflower into same pot, add water to cover and a dash of salt, and go sit on the couch for 15 mins or so.  By now the cauliflower is falling apart so just drain it, smash it a bit, and add cheese and stir it in. The turkey loaf should be cooked through at this point, so just portion things out and store and you're set.   

Chop and Drop Cheezy Orzo

This is barely cooking, it is mostly assembly.  It took me under 12 mins to make an entire week's worth of lunches.  A bit higher cal then I've been going lately, to avoid evening "eating the kitchen" incidents that seem to go along with small lunches, sadly. 640 cals, 47g of protein, 5 servings.

1 box (8 servings) orzo
1lb ground turkey or chicken (99% fat free)
1 jar (5 servings) pasta sauce - I used clasico 4 cheese
1 bag hearty greens (I used a baby kale/baby spinach/arugula blend)
1 entire large zucchini, chopped
few cloves garlic, chopped
8oz grated cheese(s) - I used a bag of kraft "italian blend" with motz, parm, asagio.  Use whatever you like really
Red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, etc as you like

Put water on for orzo, salted.  In another pan, put you poultry and the tomato sauce.  Chop up the zucchini and add it to the sauce pot, along with the garlic.  Stir every so often, adding extra herbs and red pepper flakes if you like to make it taste less jar-rish. Add orzo to pot once water boils, setting a timer for 9 mins.  When there is about 3 mins left on orzo, stir the greens into there to wilt them down.  Your chicken should be done about when the orzo is, so turn off that pot then stir in the cheese so it melts w the residual heat.  Portion it out and done. 

Burrito Bowls

After a week of some uninspired things-grabbed-from-cupboards-willy-nilly for lunch, I am back at organized prep.  Been craving tacos/burritos/chipotle/nachos/etc/etc so I made some sort burrito bowl analogs for the week.  4 servings, 430 cals, very little fat, lots of fiber, and 41g of protein. 

1lb ground chicken (I used 99% fat free)

2 servings brown rice, cooked

1 bag (12 oz) riced cauliflower/broccoli 

2 ears corn, fresh (or a small can of corn, but fresh is better), cut off cob

1 can/3 servings kidney beans

4 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 jalapeno, chopped, seeded or not as you wish

3-5 cups some hearty green (I used arugula that was abt to die in the fridge)

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbl olive oil

cumin, coriander seeds, oregano, thyme, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, salt, pepper (I left this out bc arugula) to taste

Lime juice (also to taste)

Put cumin seeds and coriander seeds in a hot pan and toast till you can smell them, then add the oil, oregano, thyme, and red pepper flakes. When oil is hot add the corn and bell pepper.  Stir infrequently, you want a bit of char on the veggies, until the corn starts trying to pop on you.  Then add the rice, cauli rice, and greens and stir a bit.  When it is heated through, add the beans and a liberal squeeze of lime as well for an additional few mins, then take off heat and portion this out into your bowls/tupperwear.  

Put pan back on heat and add your chicken, jalapeno, garlic, cinamon, salt, and pepper. While chicken browns, add  your tomato to your bowls.  When chicken is cooked through portion it out as well.  Done and done.

Protein Pasta Salad

I normally am a bit leery of items that have protein seemingly shoe horned in.  But I was looking for a carb-ier lunch this week that would still make my protein macro and these yellow boxes were staring me in the face.  Also I wanted something a bit less labor intensive after chopfest 2018 last week. 

Makes 4 servings, 540 cals, 73g carb, 13g fat, 37g protein per serving

1 box (7 servings) protein pasta (I used bow ties)
several handfuls basil left from last week
Juice of 2 lemons
3-4 oz of really good Parmesan cheese
1 package (4.5 servings) turkey peperoni
1 package (5 servings) frozen chopped broccoli (thawed)

Salt water and boil pasta as per directions, then drain/rinse and let it cool.  Portion out the broccoli, torn basil leaves, shaved or grated parm, turkey pepperoni (I cut this up in stacks w kitchen shears, but  you could leave whole if you like) into your tupperwear.  Add pasta, season with lemon juice, add a bit of salt/pepper if you want, seal, and shake.  Done.  Can be nuked or eaten cold/room temp as you like.

Larb (ish) Salad

This started with an attempt to make the standard weightlifters meal prep of chicken/brown rice/broccoli less boring, ran into my craving for this awesome meat salad from the thai place up the block, and somehow ended up here.  6 servings at 430 cals, 29g carb/17g fat/41g protein.  6g of fiber. nice chunk of potassium.  (Maybe a bit much sodium but, thankfully my blood pressure is low normal so....) More than a days worth of vit A and C, and 25ish% of both calcium and iron.  Not bad. Also, it tastes really freaking good. 

This recipe is 80% cutting things up, sorry not sorry, if you don't feel like chopping everything then don't make this this week.

Meat Component:

2 lbs ground turkey - could use chicken, but the salad this is based on uses pork and turkey gets closer to that, flavor wise.  I used 1 pkg 99% lean and 1 pkg 93% lean bc I was shopping in a post work fuge state.

1 pkg frozen steam in bag brown rice (thawed), or 2 servings leftover cooked brown rice

1 bag riced cauliflower - I used some that had broccoli and carrots in it also for variety

1 pkg white mushrooms - about 10 of them

1 long hot pepper, diced (seeded or not as you please)

1 handful basil leaves, chopped

 2 tbl coriander seeds

2-3 tbl chopped mint

2-3 green onions, yes also chopped

2 tbl sesame oil

3-4 tbl fish sauce 

Lemongrass - I used 1 tbl paste from a tube, if you have fresh avail use that

Juice of 1 lime

4 tbl peanutbutter (use the natural stuff that is just peanuts and salt) or a palmful or two of chopped peanuts

Put 1 tbl of the sesame oil in a wide bottomed pan over medium head and add the rice.  Stir infrequently and let the rice toast while  you start chopping up half the kitchen.  When you can really smell the rice/sesame oil then add the cali-rice and stir a bit more to incorporate it, then take that out of the pan and set it aside.  

Add 2nd tbl of sesame oil, the white mushrooms and hot pepper, and your fish sauce.  Saute until mushrooms start to reduce a bit then add your meat.  Put lemongrass, coriander seeds, and peanutbutter/peanuts in at this point.  When meat is cooked through, turn off head and add back in rice mixture.  Also add the green onion, mint, basil, and lime juice at this point and stir well to incorporate them while everything is still warm.  

Salad Component:

1 head napa cabbage, shredded

1 large english cucumber, quartered and chopped

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 bunch mint, chopped (minus the bit you put in the meat)

1-2 handfuls of basil, chopped

1 jalapeno - seeded or not as you wish

red pepper flakes to taste

juice of 3 limes

salt - you are sort of making quick pickles so you want some salt here, but use more or less to your taste/sodium requirements 

Just mix everything, you did enough work w all the chopping up.

Serve the meat on top of the salad, maybe don't mix them already in your meal prep containers.   You've got lunches for the whole week + one serving to taste test right now.  The salad component will get more pickle-ish as the week goes on. 

"Caprese" Salad Pasta

This is a light, incidentally vegetarian, mealprep lunch for a busy week. 4 servings come out to 425ish cals, 60g carb, 20g protein, 12g fat.

4 cups bow tie pasta
8 oz fresh motz balls
8 plum or campari tomatoes
1 bag spring mux, baby arugula, or spinach
1 lemon for juice
Salt, pepper (if not using arugula!) oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, etc to taste

While pasta cooks, portion your motz and tomatoes and arugula into containers, and season/squeeze lemon over. Split pasta into containers while still warm to wilt greens a bit if not using spring mix. Done. This is barely a recipe but makes awesome lunchez.

Lunch Lasagna

I want nothing more then I want comforting bowls of pasta lately, but, of course, my body does not appreciate this as much as my belly does.  This is a lasagna that will fall apart.. but it would of fallen apart in my lunch bag anyway... but will have the right flavor profile to fill this need.  With, ofc, some extra veggies in the name of smarter nutrition.

Makes 6 servings at just under 600 cals each, depending on pasta sauce used etc
1/2 a box lasagna noodles - precooked or not as you like (sorry Dad, I am an uncooked noodle heathen here myself)
6 servings sweet or hot or chicken italian sausage
1 jar good tomato sauce
1 jar diced tomatoes
1 cup chopped mushrooms
2 medium zucchinis, diced
few cloves chopped garlic
9 cups (yes, 9) fresh spinach
1.5 cups part skim ricotta
1 cup part skim motz (do NOT use non fat for either of these... low fat dairy tastes/acts enough like full fat to work.... nonfat is fucking plastic, not food)
4 tbl grated parm (more if not using the good stuff)
1 egg
nutmeg, salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes, etc to taste

Cook noodles if you are not a heathen like I am/will notice the texture difference.  You want enough noodles for just 2 layers worth in a small lasagna pan (remember, we are not worried abt the fact this will fall apart, it is supposed to be yummy and fit your nutritional needs, you are sacrificing a bit of appearance to save some cals/carbs here). 

Wilt all the spinach, it should end up being about a cup or 2 when done.

Toss the diced tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchinis, garlic and sausage (removed from it's skin) into a pot and cook until sausage is heated through.  Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed, remembering that you are getting a shortcut on flavor by using premade italian sausage instead of ground meat.

Chop up your now wilted spinach and squeeze out all the water.  Mix with ricotta, nutmeg, egg, and parm.

Put your sausage mixture in the bottom of your lasagna dish (yes, no bottom noodles) and top w a bit of jarred sauce, then a layer of noodles.  Put a bit more sauce on top of noodles.  Now your Ricotta/spinach layer, with the motz on top of that.  Then more noodles, and the rest of your jar of sauce.

Let sit an hour or so before baking, if at all possible.  Then bake at 350 for about an hour.  Let cool, portion into 6 containers (or 5 containers for the week + one bowl for your lunch now).

Greek Pasta Salad for Days

This would be good either hot or cold.  It makes a nice substantial lunch at 665 cals with 44g protein and 46 carbs.  It is not low fat, but could be if you want to use low fat greek salad dressing instead of the olive oil/lemon.

8 servings (ie one box) bow tie pasta
3lbs chicken breast
2oz chopped black olives
5oz baby arugula, or baby spinach, or regular either...some green which is not iceburg or romaine
8oz feta cheese
1/4th cup lemon juice (or more to taste)
1 cup olive oil
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Spread chicken breast out onto a cookie sheet, season liberally with lemon, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper and throw in the oven at 350.  While that is cooking, put on water and boil pasta according to directions on the box.  When pasta is 1-2 mins from done, toss the greens into the pot right along with it.  Drain pasta/greens and toss back into pot.  Put feta, olives, and tomatoes into the pot and stir to mix everything.  Dress w olive oil, lemon, and more oregano (or your light greek dressing if using that) . Chicken should be done by now, so take that out and chop it up and add that in.

Portion into tupperwear for meal prep or just store it all in one if you don't like 1000000000 small containers in your fridge. Makes a week of lunches + today's lunch and a few extras for lazy dinners.