Lunch on the Run

The next time someone tells you to stop spending all your money on restaurants, remind them that every home cook needs inspiration. Cookbooks are nice, but there's nothing like trying a professional's creations to really get the creative juices flowing.

On a recent visit to Chicago, I had the pleasure of visiting Franks n' Dawgs, a hot-dog establishment that serves house-made sausages of all varieties, including 5-spice duck sausage, turkey and date sausage, and even a trout dog!

Now, I don't have quite the setup to start creating my own sausages, but it's pretty easy to find interesting sausages at the grocery stores these days- chicken with apple and chicken with feta are two of my favorites. What I love about Franks n' Dawgs is that they've come up with all sorts of unique toppings for their dogs- the southern dog, for example, comes with a BBQ sauce and a crumble of cornbread.Why not take a chicken and apple sausage from the store and do the same? I bet it would be mighty tasty...

What other ideas do you have for dressing up sausages so that they're more than your typical hot dog?

My "charidable dog" - bratwurst with roasted potatoes, onions, and a nice mustard-dill sauce.

A first attempt

I'm all about repurposing leftovers. As my Dad says, "you snooze, you lose" and that is definitely the case with fresh food. Today, I had a variety of random things in the fridge that to me screamed "burrito." Burritos make for great lunches because 1) they're portable; and 2) they have an endless combination potential. I chose to use rice, beans, frozen corn veggie mixture, fresh avocado, sour cream and salsa, but you could also substitute quinoa for rice, a leftover meat sauce for the beans, and any kind of frozen veggie mixture for the veggies. I used a whole wheat tortilla, but another great option (if eating at home) is a lettuce wrap.

Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Ingredients (makes one large burrito)

1/2 cup beans (pinto, black, even garbanzo works)

1/2 cup cooked rice (quinoa or other grain is fine too)

1/2 cup frozen veggie mixture (I used Trader Joe's succotash mixture with corn, edamame and red pepper)

1/2 an avocado

1 Tablespoon of sour cream

Salsa to taste

1 tortilla

Directions

- Combine the beans, rice and frozen veggie mixture with enough salsa to wet the mixture slightly. Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes until heated through.

- While that's cooking, cut your avocado in half, reserving one half for another meal, and slice up half of the avocado for your burrito. Set aside.

-Put the tortilla onto a plate and heat in microwave on high for 20-30 seconds (until soft).

- Add the bean-rice mixture to your tortilla, trying to group it together in a small pile on the side of the tortilla closest to you.

- Push the side of the tortilla closest to you over the filling, tucking under as you go. As you do that, tuck in the right and left sides (at the same time), and do one more roll forward of the main body to finish it out.

Now that should give you a nice professional looking burrito- enjoy!

Bored With Lunch?

I created this blog as a place to share ideas about lunch! It's hard to always come up with interesting, healthy, and portable food to cart with you to work every day. As a graduate student, I have a bit of flexibility with my lunches because I eat from home sometimes. But on class days, I have to pack TWO lunches to last me until 8:30 at night. So, I hope that this can be a place for everyone to share their own ideas for how to make an interesting, healthy, and portable meal.