Wots For Lunch?

I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since my last blog post. I’m quite upset with myself for allowing this to happen, but I won’t go into all my reasons and excuses for not posting. Instead I’d like to share with you my submission for this month’s Daring Cooks challenge.

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

I have made risotto many times before so for me (and I hate to admit this) the real challenge was making the requisite stock from scratch. I used the chicken stock recipe supplied with our challenge and must say was really impressed with the end result. Once I had the risotto base completed I divided it into two and flavoured one half with a combination of sautéed portabellini and oyster mushrooms and a little Geo Watkins Mushroom Ketchup. The other half I flavoured with spicy sausage (debreziner), red pepper and peas. They both came our really well and there where lots of leftovers, some of which found it’s way into my lunch box the next day.

You can find all the recipes for this month’s challenge here

Having seen Marisa‘s contributions to the monthly Daring Cooks challenges I decided to become a Daring Cook myself and just completed my first challenge. This month’s host was Michele from Veggie Num Nums, she challenged us to produce a meze spread including home-made pita bread and hummus (recipes listed here) and any other dishes of our choice. Even though making bread is on my list of to-dos this year I was a bit daunted at the though of making bread from scratch. It turned out even better then I could have imagined and I think this is definitely something I’ll be doing again soon.

I left the hummus and pita plain and added some baba ganoush, green olives stuffed with garlic (there where none left for my lunch meze though) and some tabbouleh to the spread.

Today’s Lunch:

• Lunchbox size pitas,
• tabbouleh,
• baba ganoush and
• hummus.

This is a lunch that I packed for myself awhile back using leftovers from a Meatless Monday dinner. I made this vegetarian stew by cooking up a bunch roughly chopped tomatoes with chunks of carrot, green pepper and spring onion with some smoked paprika and cumin. When everything was cooked I added some big chucks of smoked tofu and let it warm though.

Lunch:

• Vegetarian stew and
• couscous.

I’ve been a little scarce on the blogging front lately. The combination of a broken camera and succumbing to the nasty bug that is doing the rounds has kept me from packing/posting any lunches. Today’s post is a lunch I packed last week that I photographed with the camera in my phone. It contains my first attempt at making a variation of Vietnamese Summer rolls. They didn’t turn out too badly, but are probably best eaten right after you make them and not left in the fridge overnight as I did.

Today’s Lunch:

• Vietnamese Summer rolls filled with smoked ham and julienne carrot, mange tout, red cabbage, baby corn and spring onions,
• a dipping sauce with soy sauce, umeboshi vinegar and some slices of spring onion and
• some baby tomatoes.

The little panda shaped soy sauce bottle in today’s lunch is part of a small package of bento goodies a friend brought back from Japan for me after a recent visit. I’ve been eyeing these little bottles for awhile, but the price of buying them over the internet is a big prohibiting factor. Especially when I know that they are not that expensive to buy in Japan itself. I feel very lucky to have gotten my hands on some now and am going to have lots of fun using them in the future.

Today’s Lunch:

• Chicken and mushroom fried rice with short grain brown rice, shredded roast chicken, sliced mushrooms, diced yellow and orange peppers and some chives,
• broccoli,
• a panda bottle filled with ponzu and
• some grapes.

In celebration of my third blogoversary here on Wots For Lunch?, and just in time for the back to school/work rush, I’m holding another giveaway.

You stand the chance to win a lunchbox and recipe book from those pictured above. Your choice between

• the square lunchbox on the left with matching fork and spoon or
• the two tier lunchbox on the right with freezable middle section to help keep lunches cool

and

• The Autstralian Women’s Weekly recipe books The Packed Lunch or
• The Working Mum Series Kid’s Lunches.

As your entry, post a comment on this post letting me know how many times a week you either currently or plan on preparing a packed lunch.

You have until 18:00 on 17 January 2010 to enter and I will post details of the winner on Monday 18 January 2010.

Today my little lunch blog is three years old, it’s hard to believe but all the posts are here to prove it. As I did last year I’m going to have a little giveaway to celebrate, so keep a lookout for a post on that this weekend sometime.

I found a punnet of red currants in my local Woolworths the other day. They were so bright and cheerful they just had to come home with me. I paired them with some roast chicken and feta cheese in a salad and it was very yummy indeed.

Today’s Lunch:

• Chicken salad with mixed leaves, cucumber, tomato, bean sprouts, feta cheese, shredded roast chicken, red currants and spring onions and
• a banana (not pictured).

This is my first post for 2010, so happy new year everyone, I’m looking forward to sharing a year of foodie adventures, advice and camaraderie with all of you here on Food24 and out in the rest of the foodie blogosphere. I have a few things up my sleeve for this year, the first of which will be in celebration of my third blogoversary later this week, so keep an eye out for a few non lunch posts.

In the interest of improving my lunch pictures I’ve taken to photographing my lunch in the morning before I go to work instead of at night when I actually pack it. So that I can take advantage of some natural light and not have to use the flash on my camera. Let me know what you think, any feedback you have would be really appreciated.

Today’s Lunch:

• Pasta salad with tubetti pasta tossed with pesto, orange peppers, asparagus and slices of rosa tomatoes and
• two apricots.