So my little experiment worked. I've eaten 7 separate lunches this week. Absent were the 4 lunch items I've been eating for 15 years. Thanks to all who commented here and on Facebook. So let's have a look at What's for Lunch.
As many of you wrote in I noticed a theme, and that was you didn't want to spend a whole bunch of time cooking or making lunch when you will have to be back in the kitchen just a few hours later to get dinner together. This had me thinking, what types of recipes could I cook in the same time it takes to make a peanut butter sandwich?
My first choice Red Soup
- 1 onion
- 1 clove of garlic diced
- A drizzle of olive oil
- 2 tbsps of tomato paste
- 2 1/2 cups of water
- 1/2 cup of rice either cooked or parboiled
- Dried Mint
- Dash of lemon juice
- Salt
- Croutons or dried pita bread
- Drizzle about a tsp and a half of olive oil
- Dice up the onion and throw it into the pot.
- Put the stove onto medium and saute the onion until it's clear.
- Throw in the diced garlic clove.
- Put in your 2 tbsp of tomato paste and let it brown up a little. We you saute your tomato paste before putting in the water, it will get a nice sweet taste and the bitterness that can be there goes away.
- Add the water. It's ok to put more water if it looks like it's not enough.
- Add the rice and let it cook until done. If I have rice left over from the night before I throw that in. Lunch will be ready in just a few minutes. If you're using Uncle Ben's or Whole grain rice, it will take longer to cook.
- Once the rice is cooked or heated, add the dried mint to taste.
- Add a dash of lemon juice to bring all of the flavors together.
- Place soup in a bowl and crunch up either toasted pita bread or croutons. I like to take one whole pita bread and place it in my microwave for a minute on each side or until the bread is crunchy. With my hands I crunch it up into bite size pieces.
This lunch took me exactly 10 minutes to make using left-over rice. It really tasted good and hit the spot. I followed it up with a pear for dessert.
What did you have for lunch? If you're blogging about your lunch choice, please leave the link below. On saturday I'll combine them into next weeks lunch menu. Happy Eating !!!
