Packed Lunches, January 2020

Things I made for work lunches in January, some with photos, some without.

Week of 1/6/20:

Over winter break I packed and froze enough work lunches to get us through the first week back, and it was nice to revisit meals from the two previous weeks.

Macaroni & Cheese with Roasted Broccoli

A simple, from-scratch mac'n'cheese with a béchamel base. Side: roasted broccoli.

Sambal Noodles

My first time trying out this recipe; substituted turkey for the pork, and cilantro for the basil. Side: roasted broccoli.

West African Peanut Stew

I make this regularly. It started off as a Saveur recipe, but I no longer follow the ingredients list. I usually add way more okra and substitute sweet potato for the eggplant.

Turkey Meatballs with Penne, Chickpeas, and Sweet Potato

Heavily modified from a Bon Appétit recipe. Per a commenter's suggestion I use sweet potato when tomatoes are out of season, and I also add fresh peppers into the meatballs and serve it all over pasta. Side: roasted broccoli.

Week of 1/13/20:

Sambal Noodles

My second time messing around with that noodle recipe; my grocery store never seems to have ground pork, so I used ground beef this time and I substituted green onion for the basil. Side dish: roasted broccoli.

Green Curry

I don't use a recipe for this style of curry. This time I cooked some sliced chicken thighs until mostly done, added onion, ginger, garlic, and curry paste and cooked until softer and fragrant, added carrot, orange bell pepper, and coconut milk, and cooked until the vegetables were tender. I served it over sticky Japanese rice.

Week of 1/21/20:

Mujaddara with Carrot Salad and Yogurt

I've seen a lot of fancy mujaddaras online the last few years, but I still make the plain-and-simple version from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: rice, lentils, onion, olive oil, cumin, pepper, salt. This time I packed a line of grated carrot salad (with toasted pepitas, dried cranberries, lemon juice, honey, cumin and coriander) down the side, topped half of the rice with caramelized onions, and left the other half ready for a glop of plain yogurt that I packed separately.

Kabocha Chili Colorado

I recently gave the recipe for this here, and I am so mad at myself for not photographing it like I meant to. Here I served the chili over rice.

Week of 1/27/20:

Chicken-Lentil Soup

Chicken-Lentil Soup

This is a recipe from Bon Appétit that I tried for the first time, with the only alterations being that I used green lentils instead of red, I increased the amounts by half (yielding two packed lunches and two at-home dinners for two people), and I had to increase the cook time slightly to make sure the chicken was cooked through. The soup itself is great, but would be a little one-note without the garnishes. With the garnishes it has lovely contrasts. I'll be making it again.

Chicken-Lentil Soup

Mulligatawny Soup

Mulligatawny Soup

This is one of my standbys. I make the version from Lost Recipes by Marion Cunningham, and she cites the Fannie Farmer Cookbook as an older instance of the dish. It's a pleasing curry with onion, carrot, celery, onion, bell pepper, tomato, and apple, with curry powder, clove, and nutmeg, and plenty of butter. I really like it on rainy days.

#PackedLunches