New Employee

Wondering why I haven't been blogging about anything tasty lately? I'm newly employed, homeless and dead tired. Yup, The Gourmet Goddess has gone back to the real world. I'm also working in another city so I'm staying with my folks while I find a place of my own. All this means that at the end of the day I get a home cooked meal 'mom' style. Last night we had stew. It was over +20 C but stew seemed like a good idea to my mother. In her defence, there are so many black flies on her deck, there is no way to bbq without being eaten alive before you actually eat!

I am going to talk about lunches though, since I'm back to packing them. I have a couple of different sandwich ideas. One is with sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella (the kind in water, not the hard stuff) and basil. I put a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette on the bread for an extra kick of flavour. A crusty bun of some sort is best. Tasty! The other sandwich idea I think I have spoken of before but it is so tasty that it's worth mentioning again. Hummus, veggies and feta on a tortilla wrap. Oh - my- goddess, it is tasty. Be mindful of the soggy tomato syndrome though. I put the hummus on the tortilla when I'm packing my lunch and dice up tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, just a bit of red onion (working with people all day, must be nice!) and feta and put them in a separate container. At lunch time I just open up the tortilla and add in my veggie/feta mix. Super healthy as well as super tasty.

What about snacking? Well if you sit at a desk all day it's impossible not to snack. I like some Wasa and cheese. Wasa is a brand name of what I call Swedish crisp bread although you see it all over Europe. Wasa is apparently made in Germany but I swear it used to say "made in Sweden". There is a crown on the logo and there hasn't been a monarchy in German in quite a while. Sweden, on the other hand, has a royal family, lovely people, not blond, oddly enough ... That's a myth, that all swedes are blond. There are some of the best colourists in Sweden...

Some other light snacks:

• Veggies and dip, ranch or hummus
• Baked tortillas and salsa (I like to take the Weight Watchers tortillas, cut them into triangles, sprinkle with some tex mex seasoning, toast them and then have them with salsa. You can do this ahead of time or on the job if you have a toaster oven around)
• Cup of soup is a good one especially if the AC in your office is set to frigid
• Popcorn, either popped ahead (I use a pan and oil and do it the old fashioned way at home) or popped in the micro on site. the snack size bags are great but be honest, everyone comes for by for a visit when they smell fresh popcorn coming from your desk.
• Cheese and crackers. This is not a common snack but lots of us need a carb and some protein to get through the day. My favs - Low fat triscuits and light cheddar.
• Laughing cow cheese (light is like 1 point for 2 wedges!), light cream cheese or even peanut butter on crackers, wasa, cucumber slices (okay, maybe not with peanut butter)
• Melon wedge wrapped in prosciutto. Now that's decadent!

Thing is you are likely going to snack. Plan for it instead of against it. I plan a morning and afternoon snack. I usually have either fruit or yogurt for my morning snack, not exciting but it does the trick. If I don't eat everything in my lunch then I already have them for tomorrow's lunch bag. A lot of us are grazers, eating smaller bits more frequently. This is considered more healthy and can put a couple of nice dents in your workday. Make sure to count your lattes or special coffees as treats or snacks. They are full of calories and need to be recognized as more than just a drink! Speaking of which, I'm going for a skinny vanilla latte right now. My afternoon is looking brighter already!