Two super quick lunches

We so often struggle to stick with our lunch plans, mostly because it's so hard to throw something together in our alotted hour.  Sandwiches, soups, and salads are the typical format for lunch at home--and this format serves us well for the most part.  Sandwiches, like the above turkey bacon BLT, are usually quick to assemble.  Michael layered Swiss cheese onto a few slices of Ancient Grains bread from Columbia's Uprise bakery, and stuck them under the broiler for a couple minutes.  He sauteed some turkey bacon in our cast iron pan, drained it, and assembled the sandwich with some sliced tomatoes and bib lettuce.  It was fab--and maybe just a teensy bit lower in fat and carbs than the original BLT.

The pinto bean soup above came together in record time.  I sauteed half a diced yellow onion in broth (we'd just run out of olive oil), added a 15 oz can of pintos, 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, a few tablespoons of salsa verde, some garlic powder (yes, I cheat sometimes), a couple tablespoons of cumin, salt, pepper and a few squeezes of fresh lime juice into the simmering pot.  If you like a little kick to your quasi-Mexican food, add a pinch of cayenne.  I would say, from start to finish, this soup took about 20 minutes. Not bad at all.  Michael and I loved it.  I garnished mine with a little cilantro.  He packed some more for his afternoon snack, 'cuz the boy loves him some beans.

Beverage Quest: Agua Fresca de Pepino

On my eternal quest to find interesting low-sugar beverages, this recipe came to my attention.  One of the innumerable weight loss sites on the net listed it as a healthy beverage based on Latin American juice stands that produce drinks out of every fruit imaginable.  I've seen these stands myself in the large open air markets of Oaxaca City.  I made some pretty major changes to the recipe, so I'll describe them here.

First off, I didn't want to mess with straining the cucumber pulp and seeds, so I used a juicer.  Secondly, have you seen the size of English cucumbers in the store?  Michael did and he was shocked and appalled.  Those suckers are grotesquely huge.  What are the English trying to tell us?  In light of the enormous cucumbers, we did 2 instead of 3.  As you can see, we ended up with plenty of cucumber.

Check out the Osterizer.  Michael got it from his ex-wife at a yard sale or something.  It's ugly as all-get-out, and it's a pain in the ass to clean, but it works.

Once I'd juiced all four limes and all the cucumber, everything went into the blender with 2 tbsp of agave nectar.  After a thorough blending, the juice was this lovely soft green and all foamy on top.  Some pulp from the cucumbers got into the drink, which probably adds to the glycemic load of the drink--fiber slows the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, thus preventing any spike in blood sugar or insulin production.  As it was, 2 tbsp of agave nectar, limes, and cucumber were not going to amount to much in the sugar department.  I suppose I would rate this one fairly safe for the (non-Nazi) phase one dieter and totally in line with the phase two diet.  Garnishing the drink with a strawberry, as we did (and eating the strawberry) probably puts this drink into phase three territory.  But let's just take a deep breath, folks, and try not to hyperventilate over the whole ridiculous mess.

 Go on, enjoy life already.

Agua Fresca de Pepino

2 English cucumbers
4 limes
2 tbsp. agave nectar
1 quart of water
ice
garnish of strawberry or lime slices


Peel cucumbers and chunk them into sizes suitable for your juicer.  Use a glass hand-juicer to extract juice from all four limes (tip:  apply pressure and roll lime over your cutting board before slicing it in half--this loosens the pulp making your juicing go easier.)  Run the cucumbers through the juicer.  Pour the cucumber juice, lime juice, water, and agave nectar into the blender.  Give it a good long whiz in the blender, then pour over ice.  Garnish with whatever you like.  Enjoy.  Those of you who don't give a damn about diets, feel free to add a few glugs of rum or tequilla.  Doubly enjoy.

Our agua fresca with poached huevos rancheros.