Lunches Archives - Wholefully

Midnight Asparagus and Eggs

March 19, 201810

This recipe was originally published in May 2013. It was retested with reader feedback, rephotographed, rewritten, and republished for your enjoyment in March 2018.

I’m kinda an NPR junkie. I think there’s some switch that flips on in your late 20s that suddenly makes NPR totally fascinating and awesome. There are so many shows I love on NPR, but one of my favorites is The Splendid Table.

I never would have thought a food show could be so successful on the radio. I mean, no photos, no smells, no tasting, but it really is incredible. Every show leaves my mouth watering and me itching to get into the kitchen.

One time I was listening in, and the show started off with a description of the simplest, easiest, most delicious sounding asparagus recipe I’d ever heard—Midnight Asparagus. It’s a one skillet meal that’s all cooked under the broiler in about 10 minutes, resulting in an insanely delicious, insanely easy dinner for two (or midnight snack, if you’re living up to the name of the recipe).

Our asparagus patch is just starting to produce, and I’m loving every fresh, tender spear of it. I’m sure I’ll eventually get sick of living on asparagus, but for now, I’m reveling in our harvest!

Asparagus is actually pretty easy to grow around here. I know some people struggle with it because it’s such a heavy feeder, but it comes up year-after-year around here without any issues. Since asparagus is a perennial (meaning, it comes up every year from the same plant), we’re still eating off the same plants my parents planted in the garden years ago.

To get it to produce in the spring, all we have to do is give it a little blanket of mulch over the winter, give it a heavy layer of compost in late winter, then come early spring, we’ve got spears! Easiest veggie ever.Read the post »

Anti-Inflammatory Turmeric Chicken Zoodle Soup

February 8, 20186

Thanks to some miracle-beyond-all-miracles, my family and I have managed not to catch the flu (yet) this year. *Knocks on every piece of wood in a five mile radius* Actually, it’s not entirely thanks to luck. Since I’m immune compromised, we’ve been doing a lot of preventative measures to try to keep this nasty, nasty bug out of our house.

We’ve stopped going to most public places, and if we do, we just deal with all the weird looks and wear masks (we have fun ones that are reusable—they’re great). We take homemade elderberry syrup daily. We have hand sanitizer within reach at all times. And, maybe most importantly of all, we’re eating to support our immune systems. I think that probably means something different for each person, but for us, that means no sugar, no grains, and lots and lots of anti-inflammatory herbs, spices, fruits, and veggies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPIyRfnsZZ8&w=750&h=422

I’ve been making a batch of this Turmeric Chicken Zoodle Soup every week since early Fall, and I 100% believe it has helped keep us from catching the nastiness that’s going around. This is health in a bowl. It also happens to be paleo-friendly, Whole 30 compliant, AIP, and SCD. When a dish works with so many healing, therapeutic diets, you know it’s gotta be packed full of goodness—and this soup most definitely is.

The biggest change between this Chicken Zoodle Soup and my regular Chicken Noodle Soup is swapping out the wheat noodles for zucchini noodles. Now, I’m not a huge zoodle fan. No matter what tricks and tips I use, they always seem to turn out soggy and watery and just not-even-a-little bit like real noodles. But, trust me, they flat out WORK in this soup. All those problems of sogginess and wateriness are gone because, well, the noodles are soaking in bath of broth! It’s the perfect use for zucchini noodles.Read the post »

One Bag of Chickpeas: Three Meals

November 7, 20174

It’s been such blast exploring the glorious world of pulses over the past few months with my friends from USA Pulses and Pulse Canada! I’ve shown you how you can sttreeecccccchhhhh a $1.50 bag of split peas, black beans, and lentils into three meals per bag. And today, we’re tackling the last (but certainly not least) pulse—chickpeas!

Just like all the other pulses out there, chickpeas (AKA: garbanzo beans) are a super affordable, delicious, sustainable, protein-packed source of fiber.

They are so tasty, versatile, incredibly healthy, and budget-friendly to cook with. The average cost of beef per serving is $1.49, whereas you can serve dry peas, chickpeas, lentils, or beans for about 10 cents per serving. TEN CENTS! If you’re looking for affordable ways to eat healthier, pulses need to be on your grocery list. Make sure to sign up for the Half-Cup Habit, and see how easy it can be to add a half cup serving of pulses to your diet three times per week.

Canned pulses are a great deal, too, but to stretch your budget even further, drive your cart down the grocery store aisle a little more and pick up some bags of dried beans, lentils, chickpeas, or split peas. A pound of dried pulses runs between $1-$2, and trust me, you can streeeettttcchhh each of those bags into multiple meals. Today, I’m going to show you how to stretch a one pound bag of chickpeas into three delicious, healthy, meatless meals! Let’s do this.Read the post »

One Bag of Split Peas: Three Meals

September 12, 20174

And the most underrated pulse award goes to…split peas! Seriously, other than the occasional pot of split pea soup, most people don’t experience the joy of these little green guys regularly in their lives. And you should!

Just like all the other pulses out there (pulses include dry peas, chickpeas, lentils, and beans.), they are a super affordable, delicious, sustainable, protein-packed source of fiber. And unlike their slightly-more-finicky friends chickpeas and dried beans, split peas require NO presoaking or precooking, meaning they cook up in a FLASH. Woohoo for weeknight shortcuts!

Today, I’m partnering up with my friends from USA Pulses and Pulse Canada to open up your eyes to the glory of split peas.

They are so tasty, versatile, incredibly healthy, and affordable to cook with. The average cost of beef per serving is $1.49, whereas you can serve dry peas, chickpeas, lentils, or beans for about 10 cents per serving. TEN CENTS! If you’re looking for affordable ways to eat healthier, pulses need to be on your grocery list. Make sure to sign up for the Half-Cup Habit, and see how easy it can be to add a ½ cup serving of pulses to your diet 3x per week.

Canned pulses are a great deal, too, but to stretch your budget even further, drive your cart down the grocery store aisle a little more and pick up some bags of dried beans, lentils, chickpeas, or split peas. A pound of dried pulses runs between $1-$2, and trust me, you can streeeettttcchhh each of those bags into multiple meals. Today, I’m going to show you how to stretch a one pound bag of split peas into three delicious, healthy, meatless meals! Let’s do this.
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Meal Prep Veggie Stir Fry

August 22, 201713

Hi guys! *waves* It’s so nice to be back! I wish I could say I had a wonderful time relaxing and recouping over the past month, but in all honesty, I’ve been sick as a dog for the majority of the time I’ve been gone.

I have some sort of cold/flu/virus-from-hell that I can’t seem to shake, which pretty much means my entire vacation has been spent binge watching TV in my jammies. Which is only fun for about the first 36 hours or so. And then you want to go enjoy the beautiful cottage you rented on the shore of Lake Superior. Or drink craft beer with the family that you only get to see once a year. Or, you know, not feel like a walking snot factory. Oh well. I guess that’s life, isn’t it?

(Photo in Duluth, Minnesota, the day before I got really sick and still had a smile on my face.)

I’m trying really hard to get back to normal now that we are home and vacation is over, but if I’m being honest, I’m only operating at about 50% right now (my doctors say it’s just a nasty virus, nothing to be worried about, but lordy, am I over having it). So I might be in and out over the next few days while I try to rest up and join the land of the living again. Please bear with me. Thank you SO much for your patience! Thankfully, I made sure to have this AWESOME meal prep recipe ready to go before I got sick. Woohoo for planning, amirite?

Even though I (usually, not so much this year) love taking late summer off from the blog each year to get reinsipired, one thing that I’m sad to miss each year is prime back-to-school season! Lunch-packing and meal-prep are two of the arenas of healthy eating that I’m the most passionate and knowledgable about, so it’s a bummer to bow out during the time of year when folks need that info the most. There is something about the start of a new school year that almost feels like a second January 1st—a chance for a fresh start for everyone in the family!

I pretty much missed back-to-school in my part of the country (kids went back at the end of July), but I know some kids don’t start back until now or even after Labor Day—and hey, we can all use a good lunch recipe anytime of year, right? Enter my Meal Prep Veggie Stir Fry. It’s healthy. Its plant-based. And you can make four adult-size lunches in about 30 minutes. This is back-to-school done healthy!

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One Bag of Lentils: Three Meals

June 20, 201712

This post is brought to you by a Wholefully partner

Without fail, every time I post a lentil recipe somewhere on social media, I’ll get a “yuck” or a “gross.” Holy wow, are there are a lot of lentil haters out there! I understand it. Poorly cooked lentils are mushy and bland—if that’s the way lentils had to be, I’d hate ’em, too! But trust me, when done right, lentils totally and completely rock.

They are über affordable, packed full of protein and fiber, cook super quickly (they require no soaking like dried beans), and since they are nearly flavorless, they work beautifully as a meat-substitute in your favorite flavor-packed dishes—like Vegetarian Lentil Sloppy Joes and Lentil-Walnut Veggie Burgers.

Today, I’m partnering up with my friends from USA Pulses and Pulse Canada to open up your eyes to the glory of lentils. Don’t think you know what Pulses are? You totally do! Pulses are the delicious, protein-packed, sustainable foods known as dry peas, chickpeas, lentils, and beans.

They are so tasty, so versatile, incredibly healthy, and so affordable to cook with. The average cost of beef per serving is $1.49, whereas you can serve dry peas, chickpeas, lentils, or beans for about 10 cents per serving. TEN CENTS! If you’re looking for affordable ways to eat healthier, pulses need to be on your grocery list. Sign up for the Half-Cup Habit, and see how easy it can be to add a ½ cup serving of pulses to your diet 3x per week.
Read the post »

Vegan Antipasto Pasta Salad

June 13, 20179

This post is brought to you by a Wholefully partner.

You guys know by now that I’m a big proponent of meal prep—where you carve out a few hours on the weekend to prepare healthy meals for the rest of the week. I think it is one of the most important habits to get into when you first start on the journey to eating a healthier diet.

Sometimes I think meal prepping gets a bad wrap because of the Instagram pictures of neatly organized, perfectly-portioned, and undoubtedly, extremely-time consuming meal preps done by girls who do yoga on the beach wearing $1,000 leggings (#blessed). I’m here to tell you: that is not what meal prepping looks like in my house. Not by a long shot.

For me, I usually try to carve out an hour for meal prep on Sunday while wearing my paint-stained, bright pink Crocs with a toddler running around yelling “POOP!” at the top of her lungs (#blessed). I set a goal to just make one food item for breakfast, one for lunch, and one snack. Does that cover everything we eat in a week? No way. But just having that little bit on the fridge goes a LONG way to helping make food preparation throughout the week much easier.

It’s a buffer. A margin. It’s enough preparation to make sure that on the days when you’re exhausted and overwhelmed and too tired to even think of making lunch, you have a healthy option. It’s enough meal prep to take the edge off without meal prep totally invading your life.

If I’m being totally honest, I usually follow the same formula for my preps each week, too. Something oat-tastaical for breakfast (overnight oats when it’s warm out or oatmeal cups when it’s chilly). Something protein packed for snack (like hard-boiled eggs or date bites). And then lunch is almost always one of two things (or both if, by some miracle, the toddler lets me cook longer): a salad in a jar and some sort of grain or pasta salad.Read the post »

One Bag of Black Beans: Three Meals

May 9, 201715

This post is brought to you by a Wholefully partner

One of the more frequent questions I get is how to do this whole healthy eating thing on a budget. Is it even possible? And to that I say, absolutely yes!

It takes some adjustments and problem-solving, but I believe that a healthy diet can be just as budget-friendly as a diet loaded with cheap (and not-so-nourishing) foods. And one of the main stars of a budget-friendly healthy diet? Pulses!

Pulses are the delicious, protein-packed, sustainable foods known as dry peas, chickpeas, lentils and beans. They are so tasty, so versatile, incredibly healthy, and so affordable to cook with. The average cost of beef per serving is $1.49, whereas you can serve dry peas, chickpeas, lentils, or beans for about 10 cents per serving. TEN CENTS!

Today, I’m partnering up with the awesome folks from USA Pulses and Pulse Canada to show you exactly how to do just that. We’re kicking things off with one bag of black beans that I show you how to transform into three separate meals. And over the course of the next few months, we’ll cover all categories of pulses—chickpeas, lentils, and even split peas!
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