The five-minute lunch

This is what I had for lunch today. Leftover brown rice, chopped little gem lettuce, leftover caramelized lemongrass tofu, mandarin orange segments, and sesame-soy dressing.

Pretty good for 5 minutes, right?

Normally I make a big batch of hummus on Sunday, and have that for lunches throughout the week. But I decided to change things up a bit this week, and I made a batch of caramelized lemongrass tofu instead. It keeps beautifully in the fridge-- I actually prefer the toothsome texture of cold tofu to the squishy one of warm tofu-- and I've been putting into pho and rice noodles salads and now this for lunch.

What did you have for lunch? Leave me a comment and let me know!

P.S. Thank you all for your comments on my "why veganism?" post. I'll address that topic again sometime soon!

Simple Couscous Salad

I made this salad for lunch a couple of days ago. It was simple, fresh, and healthy. It's not fancy, but it really hit the spot. I could also see this making a really good appetizer in those endive leaf "boats".

Mediterranean Couscous Salad (serves 2)

1 cup couscous

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 cucumber, sliced

2 tomatoes, diced

1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved

4 green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 roasted red peppers, sliced

1 spicy chili, sliced (optional)

1/2 cup "protein" (e.g. leftover marinated tofu), if desired

sea salt and pepper

lemon juice

olive oil

Bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Add the couscous, cover, and turn the heat down to low. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let the pot sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Uncover, fluff the couscous with a fork, turn into a bowl and let cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables-- trim them and slice them into bite sized pieces. When the couscous has cooled, add the vegetables and salt and pepper to taste (start with 1/2 tsp salt). Juice lemons into the salad and add some olive oil to form a dressing. I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but it really depends on how juicy and sour your lemons are. I would say you could start with the juice of 1 1/2 lemons and 1 tbsp of olive oil, and adjust to your personal taste from there.

Enjoy!