Lunch in a Box: Edamame Hummus

We eat a lot of hummus in our household. It's a relatively healthy snack and is easy to grab on the go, or fill up the extra space in my favorite lunchbox container. But store bought hummus often has more oil than we really need, so I try to make it at home so that I can control the ingredients. I'll be honest- it doesn't always taste as good. But I'm convinced that one day I'll find the perfect combination that does, and when I do, there's not a chance in hell I'll share it with you because that will be my ticket to getting rich I'll be more than happy to let you know.

I usually use garbanzo beans, or maybe cannellini beans, when making hummus. But I have not tried edamame until now.  I almost like the texture better using edamame, and the taste is phenomenal. I found a recipe on Oh She Glows, and tweaked it just a bit for my tastes.

Edamame Hummus
makes about 8- 1/4 cup servings

1 bag frozen edamame (thawed, or simmered in boiling water until thawed)
1 T tahini
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
juice of 1-2 lemons
salt and pepper to taste
dash (or 3) of Sriracha (depending on how much spice you like)
water for thinning (I used about 1/2 cup)


Throw everything in a food processor and hit the button. Process until it's as smooth as you can get it. I chose not to top mine off with any oil, because I'm getting married in 7 weeks and I seriously need to get this "shaping up" business taken care of soon. I don't think it needs it anyway, so save yourself the extra calories.

I packed the hummus with bell pepper sticks, and leftovers from dinner the night before (roasted tofu and brussels sprouts over brown rice). According to my Lose It app, a 1/4 cup serving has 67 calories, 2.9 grams of fat, and 5.5 grams of protein. My total lunch was around 340 calories (plus snacks of 1/2 a grapefruit and a clementine).

Lunch in a Box: Farro Salad with Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

It's a plant strong week in our household! After 3 nights of baking sweets, and overindulging on Saturday, I was ready to get back to the basics. I <briefly> entertained the idea of adding chicken to our diet this week after tasting some really delicious kebobs on Saturday night, but when it came to pulling the trigger, I just couldn't do it. I'm so conflicted about eating meat when I know the conditions it's been raised in. So I pulled a 180 on Hank and went flat out vegan on my weekly HEB visit.

I decided to keep it really simple this week, and rather than pulling together a bunch of recipes, we're just eating a ton of fresh fruit and vegetables, and plenty of beans and whole grains. It really is as easy as it sounds when you throw out the notion that each meal has to have a certain amount of x,y,z. For example, on Sunday night we ate roasted okra and roasted spaghetti squash with an avocado "cream" sauce. Just put a bunch of clean food on your plate, and you really don't have to worry about a thing.

I found the recipe for the Farro Salad on the Cooking Canuk blog, and used it for our lunches on Monday/Tuesday. I had spinach that needed to be used, fresh basil sitting on the counter, and sun-dried tomatoes in the freezer (you never know when they will come in handy), so it was a piece of cake to throw together. I used the whole bag of farro and it made about 5 1-cup servings (perfect for 2 girl, and 2 guy portions).

I modified the dressing and only used 1 Tb of olive oil.
Spread out over 4 servings, it keeps the calorie/fat count down.

I rounded out the meal with leftover roasted spaghetti squash from the night before, and a clementine (on Tuesday I switched the fruit to grapes). The squash is topped with a little dollop of cilantro chutney that gives a good spicy flavor to the squash. This is one of Hank's favorite condiments and comes in handy on many occasions.

Check out the blog post for the actual recipe, and give it a try. I found it tasty and filling, and think it would be good warm or cold (I heated mine up). And please feel free to share any easy, go-to things you like to pack in your lunch.

Week 11: Plant-Based Diet Update

Well, I've survived 3 whole weeks of eating not eating meat/dairy/oil. I thought it would get a little bit easier each week, but the truth is- it's only getting harder. The first week I think the novelty of it helped me get through. The second week, I did more meal planning with Hunk, and that was fun. But this week? All I want to do is stuff my face with the biggest slice of cheese pizza I can get my hands on. Instead, I tried to meal plan efficiently, and spent about 2.5 hours in the kitchen yesterday prepping some new dishes so that I wouldn't spend all my time thinking about cheese. To make matters worse, SXSW is in full effect this week with opportunities at every corner to partake in all the food goodness that Austin has to offer.

The good news is that I've lost about 3.5 pounds, and my jeans are definitely looser. I have a few more to go, but I'm trying not to lose more than a pound a week. I met with a nutritionist last week and we went over all the things I should be including in my diet to stay healthy (including calories and grams of protein p/day), and that has definitely helped with keeping my energy level up. Overall, I would say that I feel great. I'm sleeping fine, and able to get through my work-outs without any problem. Hunk is another story. I don't think he's been getting enough calories OR protein, and is having to make some major adjustments this week. Hopefully he'll feel better by doing so.

This weekend we had a "what happens after Lent" discussion, and how we incorporate the good things about a plant-based diet in with the things that we really just don't want to give up permanently. The key to keeping the pounds off of course is moderation. Duh. We have 4 more weeks to go before we have to worry about that, and I think we can do it. In the meantime, we're just going to do our best to have a good variety of foods, and not focus too much on what we're missing. For all the benefits of eating this way, I will say that it feels isolating- and that's just not something I'm willing to deal with for the rest of my life. I have still been able to go out and eat with friends, but there is way too much thought (and high-maintenance ordering) to deal with for me to make this a long term lifestyle.

To make things more interesting, I ordered some bento-style lunch boxes from Easy Lunchboxes. There's something about packing a neat and organized lunch that makes it more enjoyable for me (it's the OCD, I know). Today was the first day that I got to use it, and I have to say I made a pretty killer lunch. It's colorful, full of great things for me, and tasty to boot. Unless I bring leftovers, lunch for me is usually salad and fruit, along with morning and afternoon snacks. Today I had a spinach salad with roasted beets, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini and a 3-bean salad with an oil-free apple cider vinaigrette. I also had roasted red pepper hummus with carrot sticks and strawberries for dessert. In case I get hungry this afternoon, I have soy yogurt to tide me over. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.