Working Lunches

After I settled down from my ten-day road trip up and down the East Coast, the last major task I faced was getting my life in order before I started my new position. One of the major concerns raised was how was I going to maintain good nutrition while working a different schedule in a different location. Breakfast shouldn’t be a problem because I could easily fit in my usual pint of water, cup(s) of coffee, and bowl of yogurt while getting ready to head out the door in the morning. Likewise, dinner shouldn’t be a problem. I’m only allowed to bill a maximum number of hours per day, so I should have sufficient time in the evening to prepare a balanced meal. Of course, that assumes that I will do the bulk of my meal planning and grocery shopping on the weekends.

So the only real problem is lunch. Anyone who has worked with me knows that two things are simultaneously true: once I’m involved in a project, I will keep working on the project; once my brain quits a project, it is impossible for me to get it to re-engage in the project. So what happens a lot is that I skip lunch because I’m too deeply involved in a project to pause and then I keep working until I am such a frustrated and cranky mess that I absolutely have to stop. But by then it is only an hour or so until dinner, so I just have a snack instead of regular lunch. Whether or not dinner is a disaster depends on the circumstances.

The Plan

My plan was to prepare one lunch container for each day of the week. Each container would have roughly the amount of protein, starch and vegetable recommended in my nutrition plan. Then, in the morning, all I would have to do is grab a container from the refrigerator, an ice pack from the freezer, and a set of silverware from the drawer in order to be set for the day. Of course, just to be safe, I could also throw in some crackers, raisins, and Luna bars as snacks.

The first step was to plan the meal. That wasn’t going to be much of a challenge since I had done this type of planning before. My favorite proteins were salmon fillet and flank steak. For starch, I most often used rice, couscous, or tortellini. I frequently made a separate container of green salad for the vegetable. However, when I incorporated the vegetable into the meal container, I usually used steamed broccoli, sautéed spinach, or steamed green beans.

Narrowing down the options was fairly simple. I had salmon last week, so I preferred flank steak for the protein component of the lunch container. Looking at the different flank steak recipes in the Family Cookbook, I really had a craving for the Southwestern Flank Steak. So I checked the cabinets for the different ingredients, and added some orange juice to the grocery list. With flank steak as the cornerstone of the meal, it was easy to eliminate tortellini as a starch option. Between rice and couscous, I opted for couscous because I had just made a Persian Rice Salad as part of an experiment with the Moosewood Daily Specials Cookbook. Besides, couscous is super easy to make once you’ve bought the two boxes that you need. Finally for vegetables, I had both crowns of broccoli and bags of baby spinach already in my refrigerator. I decided that I would chop and steam the crowns of broccoli because those had been in the refrigerator longer.

Even after I had narrowed down the options to perfectly populate the lunch containers, I went one step further and added the ingredients for Red Curry Lentils to my grocery shopping list. I had red lentils left over from my experiments with the Moosewood Daily Special Cookbook, and decided to use them up in one of my favorite recipes. I knew from past experience that the Red Curry Lentils kept well, reheated quickly, and made for an easy meal of leftovers. So a batch of that would be good to have in the refrigerator during my first week in the new position.

The Execution

In order to give the Southwestern Flank Steak some time to marinate, I started that first. It is an incredibly simple recipe, and it is slightly different every time. I always start out by putting the flank steak in a one gallon Ziploc bag. This time, because I had so shockingly little left in my jar of garlic, I cleaned out the jar onto both sides of the flank steak. Then I seasoned both sides with ground black pepper and red pepper flakes. I added liberal amounts of sesame oil – almost finishing what I had left in the bottle. Then I added a generous amount of Chinese five spice powder to each side. Finally, I filled the garlic jar with orange juice, shook it to loosen all the extra garlic, and poured that into the bag. Then I sealed the bag, gave it a few good squishes to distribute the spices evenly across the meat, and set it aside for awhile for the meat to marinate.

Since the Red Lentil Curry was the most complex recipe that I would be attempting that evening, I started that next. Even then, it wasn’t a very complex recipe. It involved chopping an onion and then sautéing that with some ginger until translucent. Next, some dry spices were added and sautéed until fragrant, so only a minute or two. The recipe says that it takes less than a minute, but I used a lot of ginger paste from a tube so my mixture was wetter and could handle cooking a little longer. The coconut milk came next to deglaze the pan, and then to completely dissolve the spice mixture. At this point, the red lentils and a few other ingredients were added. Since I wasn’t adding any of the optional ingredients, I went ahead and added the diced tomatoes too. Rather than simmer for five minutes and then simmer for twenty minutes, I just simmered the whole mess for twenty-five minutes total. It seemed a little soupy, probably because I didn’t have the full cup and a half of lentils, so I simmered for an additional five minutes. Fortunately, it thickened once it cooled. The stuff was amazing.

After the Red Lentil Curry was finished, then I decided that the flank steak had marinated long enough. I preheated the oven to 350F, sprayed a glass casserole dish with olive oil, and baked it for about 30 minutes. While the flank steak was cooking, I made the couscous and steamed the broccoli. Making the couscous was just a matter of following directions on the boxes: boil the water, stir in the couscous, rest for five minutes, fluff. Steaming the broccoli was even simpler since I have an electric steamer. All I had to do was add the chopped broccoli to the basket and set the timer.

Once the flank steak, the couscous, and the broccoli were done, I assembled the containers. I measured out the amount of protein recommended in my nutrition plan, as well as the amount of starch and the amount of vegetable. Surprisingly it all fit into one container! Even more surprisingly, all the containers fit into my refrigerator.

The Verdict

On the morning of my first day in the new position, things went exactly as planned. I put my lunch container, ice pack, silverware, and snacks in my insulated lunchbox and then left that in my car as I attended the three-hour new hire orientation. Afterward, I went to my office area and had an extensive local orientation. It was about 1pm by the time I was alone and able to have lunch. But when I opened my insulated lunch box, I could smell my lunch. That wasn’t a good sign because I’m not known for a sensitive sense of smell. So rather than foul up the office area, I just removed my snacks and resealed the insulated lunch box. The snacks were more than enough for lunch.

On the second day in my new position, things went pretty much the same as the first day. I got everything perfectly packed in the insulated lunchbox and brought that up to my desk with me. I had very good intentions of taking my lunch outside to a picnic table so I could enjoy the lovely weather, but I got caught up in some battles with the IT systems that pushed me up against my afternoon meeting times. Again, when I opened my insulated lunch box, I could smell my lunch, so I just removed my snacks and resealed the insulated lunch box. The snacks were definitely enough for lunch.

The strategy of planning meals ahead, grocery shopping over the weekend, cooking in the evening, and portioning the food into separate containers seemed to work well. It was great to have pre-made containers of balanced lunch meals ready to grab in the morning to put in my insulated lunch box with an ice pack. The challenge was just finding the time and the will to break away from my desk in the office area to have my lunch in the cafeteria or at the picnic tables outside.

The Recipes

Southwestern Flank Steak
Parenthetic comments are my improvisations on Dad's Fajita recipe, but he liked the end result!

1. Marinate an appropriately sized flank steak overnight in the refrigerator in a two gallon plastic ziploc bag with the following ingredients, in appropriate proportions:

• Smashed cloves of garlic
• Seasoning pepper or coarsely crushed black peppercorns
• Sesame oil
• A-1 steak sauce (optional - I don't use it)
• 2-3 dried red chilis (or appropriate amount of red pepper/chipotle pepper flakes)
• 4-6 star anise (or appropriate amount of Chinese Five Spices)
• Orange or lime juice

2. Remove meat from marinade. Toss onto grill, cast iron pan or foil-lined baking tin.
3. Sear steak on grill to seal in juices.
4. Grill or broil until cooked to desired doneness. Baste occasionally with marinade.
5. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil and let rest 5-10 minutes before slicing.
6. If not serving immediately, place steak in plastic bag and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Oven Method: Broil 2-3 inches from heat in oven preheated 350-400F, for approximately 10 minutes each side.

Red Curry Lentils
Another case of heavy trial and error work on a less than impressive magazine clipping.

1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp minced ginger (jar)
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp tumeric
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground coriander 2 14oz cans coconut milk
1 cup water
1 ½ cup dried red lentils
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
Optional: 4oz can chopped Mexican chiles
Optional: 12oz can chickpeas, drained
Optional: 1 lb zucchini or eggplant, peeled and diced

1. In a medium saucepan on medium high heat, sauté onion in olive oil until translucent.
2. Add ginger and garlic. Sauté until garlic is almost translucent.
3. Optional: If using zucchini or eggplant, add and sauté until translucent before proceeding to the dried spices.
4. Add dried spices. Sauté until fragrant (a little less than a minute).
5. Add just enough coconut milk to coat the bottom and be able to scrape up the spices.
6. Add the remainder of the can. Bring to a boil. The mixture should be very fragrant.
7. Lower heat to low. Add remaining can of coconut milk, water, lentils and chiles (if desired). Stir well. Simmer covered for five minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Add remaining ingredients (including chickpeas if desired). Stir well.
9. Simmer covered for 15-20 minutes, until lentils and chickpeas are soft. Be sure to stir and monitor carefully because it burns very easily at this stage.
10. Re-season before serving, if necessary.

♥ It is bad news to attempt this with regular dried lentils (or worse – canned lentils). The red lentils have their own unique texture that is needed to make this work.