This salad is super easy to prepare, very inexpensive and delicious.
Ingredients:
1 cup Brown rice or a mix of brown and wild
1 cup French green lentils
1 ea Pomegranate, seeded
1 clove Garlic
2 ea Carrots
1 stalk Celery
1 ea Shallot (or a 1/2 of a red onion )
A few sprigs of thyme and/or rosemary
Olive Oil, Vinegar, salt and pepper to taste
Crumbled feta cheese (optional)
Method:
Place the lentils, 1/4 of the onion, the herbs, garlic and the peeled carrots in a pot, and cover with water. Add a generous pinch of salt and bring to a boil, then turn down and cook at a low simmer until the lentils are tender but still have a little bite to them.
Meanwhile, cook the rice according to the bag instructions, or, if you'd prefer, you can bring water to a boil, stir in the brown rice, add some salt, and cook at a low simmer until the rice is done. Strain and reserve.
Once the lentils are done, slice the carrots, and discard the garlic clove and the onion and herbs.
Dice the rest of the onion, and slice the celery. While the lentils are still warm, season with olive oil and vinegar to taste. Don't be afraid to be generous with both of these. Add the rice, celery, carrots and the rest of the onion, diced. Finish with the pomegranate seeds. Mix well, taste, and re season with salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil to taste. If using the feta cheese, mix in now.
If you'd like a little extra flavor you can add some chopped cilantro or parsley. Once cool, label, date and refrigerate. This salad will hold in the fridge for 5 to 7 days.
Let come to room temperature or heat before serving. You can always add a little lemon or lime juice right before consuming.
Monday, October 10, 2011
I just don't have the time!
Whenever I am talking to a friend about eating healthy, or preparing foods at home, or anything on the subject, it seems as if the common response is always: I just don't have the time!
I used to think that too. Restaurant jobs (or at least kitchen ones) are unfortunately not very "life" friendly. Meaning, they don't usually leave that much time for your actual life. So I used to not cook at home that often, and sometimes weeks would go by without me cooking anything at all other than at work.
That all changed when I broke my leg, and couldn't go to work for a few months. In order to not loose my mind, and to cope with the limitations from my injury, I would cook and I would bake.
As a result, there were always leftovers in the fridge. There was always food ready to go.
I definitely got used to it, and so did my body. I had more energy when I ate my home cooked meals than when I ate at work or bought random sandwiches or salads. I felt better.
Shortly after my injury, I completed a yoga teacher training program, and in an effort to take better care of my body and myself, I stuck to my new found habits of always having home cooked meals in the fridge for a quick reheating. It has been four years since then. We have moved four times, to four different cities, I have had at least six different jobs, and three periods of unemployment, but I have kept on with the lifestyle of mostly consuming meals that I have prepared for myself.
It hasn't always been easy. It has been a long process of working out the kinks and figuring out what the best way was for me to be able to prepare my meals every week, while maximizing my free time.
These days however, it is just a part of my life. Like practicing yoga, or having my coffee every morning.
If you have at least one day off a week, you can do this too.
Here are the steps that I have set up for myself to make it work:
1) Set aside one of your days off to cook all your meals for the week.
2) Ideally, go shopping the day before, either on your other day off, or before or after work one day, so that on the day of cooking, you don't have to worry about having to go to the store first. Everything is already there.
3) Prepare two large dishes, that will last most of the week, for your dinners. Preferably one pot meals that have several different "food groups" like a casserole or a stew.
4) Prepare 2 or 3 different salads for your lunches, based on whole grains or beans, that can be eaten either cold or hot, depending on where any given work day might take you.
5) If you are not a morning person, make a large fruit salad, that you can just add a little yogurt and nuts to in the morning for breakfast. Try to get seasonal fruits, so that you switch it up every months, that way you will have less chances of getting bored with it.
If you follow these steps, you might spend a few hours of your day off cooking, but you will be rewarded with ready to go, amazingly delicious food, for every meal of your week.
Try it out and see how you feel. You might even come up with more ways to simplify the process,
and you will definitely gain energy from more nutritious foods and a more balanced diet.
Good luck, and let me know how it works out for you!
I used to think that too. Restaurant jobs (or at least kitchen ones) are unfortunately not very "life" friendly. Meaning, they don't usually leave that much time for your actual life. So I used to not cook at home that often, and sometimes weeks would go by without me cooking anything at all other than at work.
That all changed when I broke my leg, and couldn't go to work for a few months. In order to not loose my mind, and to cope with the limitations from my injury, I would cook and I would bake.
As a result, there were always leftovers in the fridge. There was always food ready to go.
I definitely got used to it, and so did my body. I had more energy when I ate my home cooked meals than when I ate at work or bought random sandwiches or salads. I felt better.
Shortly after my injury, I completed a yoga teacher training program, and in an effort to take better care of my body and myself, I stuck to my new found habits of always having home cooked meals in the fridge for a quick reheating. It has been four years since then. We have moved four times, to four different cities, I have had at least six different jobs, and three periods of unemployment, but I have kept on with the lifestyle of mostly consuming meals that I have prepared for myself.
It hasn't always been easy. It has been a long process of working out the kinks and figuring out what the best way was for me to be able to prepare my meals every week, while maximizing my free time.
These days however, it is just a part of my life. Like practicing yoga, or having my coffee every morning.
If you have at least one day off a week, you can do this too.
Here are the steps that I have set up for myself to make it work:
1) Set aside one of your days off to cook all your meals for the week.
2) Ideally, go shopping the day before, either on your other day off, or before or after work one day, so that on the day of cooking, you don't have to worry about having to go to the store first. Everything is already there.
3) Prepare two large dishes, that will last most of the week, for your dinners. Preferably one pot meals that have several different "food groups" like a casserole or a stew.
4) Prepare 2 or 3 different salads for your lunches, based on whole grains or beans, that can be eaten either cold or hot, depending on where any given work day might take you.
5) If you are not a morning person, make a large fruit salad, that you can just add a little yogurt and nuts to in the morning for breakfast. Try to get seasonal fruits, so that you switch it up every months, that way you will have less chances of getting bored with it.
If you follow these steps, you might spend a few hours of your day off cooking, but you will be rewarded with ready to go, amazingly delicious food, for every meal of your week.
Try it out and see how you feel. You might even come up with more ways to simplify the process,
and you will definitely gain energy from more nutritious foods and a more balanced diet.
Good luck, and let me know how it works out for you!
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