Hot days...cold lunch

I am so grateful for air conditioning. The first few years that we lived in Los Angeles, we didn't have any, and I found it so hard to get anything done in the afternoon heat! Mind you, we also had sun beating down on us on all sides of the apartment, all times of the day. Now I blast the a/c in the middle of the day and am actually able to stay working at my desk, rather than nap! Even with all that cool air, I still need a cool lunch. Lately I am loving all things quinoa, like this dish, made with nectarines, mint, lemon, white beans, and tomatoes. Fresh and delicious!

Breakfast for lunch...

We had dear friends visiting from Toronto over for Brunch today and enjoyed oatmeal, homemade vegan scones, greek yogurt, berries and coffee! Everything was really yummy, but the company was the best....Jessica Tinkler who wrote The Plan (featured on this weeks amazing authors) and her husband Rob were our guests.

Jessica is an AMAZING cook, and she really liked my scones, which is a huge compliment!! I was so happy that she liked them, that I gave her what was left to enjoy on the plane.

Keeping the breakfast theme going I had it again, for lunch- Steelcut Oatmeal, blueberry greek yogurt and fresh berries. So delicious! Although I must admit that even though I spent lunch at my desk, I have spent most of my day reading outside...glorious. A much needed day off to recharge my batteries.

Have a great weekend!

Friday!

It's Friday...already. This week has flown by and left very little time for blogging! I had 2 great freelance jobs, with super quick turnarounds, a couple of commercial auditions and callbacks. Usually this is my happy hour Friday celebration, but today I am already in my sweats and going to take a nap before dinner. I am pooped! I am not even cooking and baking like I usually do, so my meals have gotten a wee bit lazier.

This desk meal was easy and delicious. I made a big chopped salad with pepperocinos and fako-baco-bits and then put a little angel hair pasta salad with artichokes, lemon and lots of black pepper and parmesan on top. It was delicious, and I'd definitely do it again.

Looking forward to a weekend of reading and relaxing and script revisions. Have a great weekend!

Scones and scripts and more scones...

I baked so many scones the other day, that I thought for sure I'd have to freeze them. Alas, no such luck. When I am this busy at my desk, I get pretty single minded about my food and will eat the same thing for lunch as I did for breakfast. In other words...scones...with yogurt and fruit.

I am up to my eyeballs in script revisions, and am trying to get as much done as I can before my folks come for a visit next week, and before I got back to outlining my other script. For the first time ever I think, I am doing all the easy revisions first and saving the harder major rewrites for later. Normally I would go in sequence, but I decided that I just don't have the time to get hung up on trying to fix something. I need to keep moving. So, if I didn't have a fix for something, I made a note and of it and moved on. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner.

Alas, I am still at my desk, but calling it quits soon for dinner. Although I am going to make myself cook something. I mean I can't have scones for dinner too...or can I?

Soup...

Rainy Friday full of revisions...and soup. I always try and make a big soup at the beginning of the week, something with farmers market veggies, lots of cilantro, tomatoes, maybe a little hot sauce, all pureed and ready to go with a little parmesan and fresh pepper! Yum! It's fast, it's easy, and as I usually wait too long to realize that I am hungry and want to eat right away, it's necessary.

I must admit that after lunch I snuck off for a matinee. Finally got a chance to see THE FIGHTER and LOVED Christian Bale. I think he will definitely get the Oscar for it. And if you get a chance, listen to David O. Russell talk about the film on KCRW's podcast THE TREATMENT. Great interview!

Happy Oscar weekend everyone!

Lemonade

Today's lunch wasn't exactly at my desk, but it was on a paper plate! Jeff and I snuck out for lunch today at Lemonade, a great salad/soup/sandwich/crockpot lunch spot that I adore. In addition to the spaghetti squash, roasted brussel sprouts and farro and mushroom salad, (my faves) I tried, the mini pasta and mozzarella, root veggies and basil, and arugula salads. I'd add the arugula to the list, and try two new ones next time. Of course I can not pass up a mini red velvet cupcake for $1.00, which I shared with Jeff, along with a cucumber mint lemonade, that was just the right blend of sweet and refreshing! Lunch was 6 hours ago, and I am still full! And after a big week of writing, outlining, and getting notes on my script...it was nice to play hooky a little, and let someone else do the cooking!

Have a great weekend!

Soup and scones!

I am a bit of a whirling dervish this week, and for some reason I have energy to spare! I woke up early this morning and rather than going back to bed, a decision that I am starting to feel now, I decided to cook.

I poured myself a cup of coffee and made this delicious pureed-tomato-vegetable-chickpea soup and some blueberry scones! Then I walked the dogs, then worked out and finally got to my desk. After all my socializing last week and this, and all the holidaying that is already in full swing, I needed to have some healthy staples at hand and these two do it for me! Greek yogurt and a scone with fruit for breakfast and soup for lunch...simple and delicious...and easy to eat while working on these script revisions!

What are your staples?

Have a great weekend!

Deadlines...

I got the first draft of my script in today and celebrated by giving myself a home spa treatment! Salt scrub, manicure, pedicure, face mask, blow dry! I like to think of all the money I'm saving, money which I will justify spending on something else!

After my glorious two hour break, I am back at the desk, eating a very late lunch of steamed kale, snow peas, squash, quinoa, baked tofu, and a little soyaki, on a bed of arugula with ginger carrot dressing. Delicious! I have a freelance gig due on Monday, and a fun social weekend ahead, so I better get back to it.

Have a great weekend!

Paper Plates! Lunch at the desk....

Today's desk lunch is an attempted recreation of one of my favorite meals at one of my favorite restaurants; the Brown Rice Salad at Mocha Mocha, in Toronto.

Mocha Mocha is a family run restaurant that provides counter service of amazingly delicious salads and sandwiches, pasta and chicken specials, vegetarian burritos, and such weekly treats as Tuna Potato Veg cakes and vegetarian lasagna. The owners are incredible and really make you feel like you are a part of the family, they were a part of mine that's for sure, my whole family eats there or orders from them weekly, if not more!

When Jeff and I used to live in Toronto we were almost always in walking distance from Mocha Mocha, and I would be lying if I didn't say it was one of my secret requirements for where we settled down. Even now when I go home, it is the first and the last place I eat. If you go to Toronto...go to Mocha Mocha.

This brown rice veg dish is based on theirs, and my version (which is not as delicious, although pretty fabulous) is easy to make. Simply make some short grain brown rice and set it aside. In a sauce pan or wok put a little grape seed oil, (to cook on high) or olive oil, (to cook on medium) and add some thinly sliced shallots, some salt and pepper, some chopped fresh flat leaf parsley and a healthy sprinkle of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute. Throw in a bag of sliced cremini mushrooms, coat, and cook until almost softened. Then add a can of white kidney beans, tossing the whole thing together. Taste. It might need more acid, and I recommend a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, or half a lemon, pepper to taste. A splash of soy is yummy too!

Add this mixture to the brown rice, so that it is a good ratio of mushrooms and beans to rice, let it come to roomish temperature, and add to a bowl of mixed lettuce; Bibb or Arugula work well. I put the carrot ginger dressing on mine because I had some, but white balsamic vinegar works well too!

It makes working through lunch that much easier. Enjoy!

Carrot ginger dressing...on everything!

I was in NYC recently and wandering around NYU looking for a place to lunch. It was the end of my trip and I needed something healthy, something green, something that didn't have alcohol, butter, or cheese. I was saturated and in need of some clean food, and the cheaper the better as I was starting to already dread getting my credit card statement. And that's when I remembered Dojo, a campus favorite that a friend of mine had taken me to almost twenty years earlier.

It was just where I remembered it, and my favorite item, the carrot ginger dressing, was still on the menu and I ordered it and poured it all over my brown rice and black bean burrito. I could eat that carrot dressing with a spoon, it is so delicious! And as I am a cooking dynamo these days, undaunted by new challenges and equipped with a fine food processor, I began looking for the recipe before we even got on the plane.

I found the recipe on the Parsley Thief, through a google search right when we landed at LAX. There are many variations, but this one looks the closest to what I was looking for. The next morning after laundry and cleaning the apartment, I headed out to buy the ingredients. I was a woman on a mission and my mission was successful! This dressing is spectacular. It is just like the dressing I had at Dojo, and it really is great on veggies, rice, quinoa...everything! This is what I am having at my desk today as I prepare to re-read my whole novel and check out my revisions.

Click on the word recipe for...the recipe!

What will you be eating at your desk today?

Paper Plates! A new category!

Alright so, I have added a new category to this blog called Paper Plates, which is all about food and especially what we eat at our desks!

For me writing and cooking are intertwined. Cooking helps me think, the chopping is meditative and methodical, providing me with an order and a rhythm, that my thoughts sometimes lack. I find it calming to make a big pot of soup, to stir it on the stove, just as ideas, and characters stir in my mind, trying to come together in some sort of cohesive form. My time in my kitchen, just down the hall from my office, allows me a break without going to far, or getting too engrossed in something that I won't be able to break myself away from, and return to my writing. And best of all, I can take the fruits of my labor back to my desk and continue working. Writing and cooking, and working and eating...they're the perfect pairings!

I'd love to feature what you eat at your desk! Send me a pic if you can, and tell me about what you eat at your desk, when you're working. Do you have a favorite combo, say sweet foods as a reward for boring book keeping? A go to desk meal? A must have snack or beverage? I know that everyone has to eat and work sometimes, so tell me about it!

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