Healthy Packed Hot Lunches
Welcome to my Ayurveda & Yoga blog! I’m Evangeline and I’m an RMT and holistic health coach. I started my blog during covid to stay connected to my clients and share my love of cooking healthy, AYURVEDIC INSPIRED meals.
Ayurvedic cooking is a conscious approach to preparing and cooking tasty, nutritious, balanced meals using spices and herbs, and taking into consideration the external conditions such as the season and time of day, in addition to how you are feeling.
My husband went back to the office today for the first time since Covid hit. He was happy to hear he would be packing a hot lunch today for the office- paneer and vegetables and steamed grains. Making hot lunches in the morning before everyone heads of to work and school is doable, and these recipes, with some planning, take about 20 minutes to make in the morning. Really, nothing beats a warm, home cooked meal!
Health & Ayurveda
The recipes on my blog all have an Ayurvedic influence. Ayurveda means the science of life (ayu- life, veda- knowledge or science), an ancient healing system with roots centuries deep. The knowledge was cognize a long ago by the rishis of India, then later written down. Profound, yet practical, Ayurveda is practiced in the West and gaining ground for its sound principles of caring for your physical, mental and emotional health, and prevention and treatment of illness.
Incorporating Ayurveda into your diet and routine helps maintain your health, immunity and vitality throughout your life. Ayurveda and Yoga are viewed as sister practices. Yoga to harmonize body and mind towards inner peace and Ayurveda to support your inner journey by helping you maintain optimum health and prevent disease.
Ayurveda teaches us that what we eat and do in our life has a direct affect on our health. The Ayurvedic perspective reveals that everything that grows— plants and animals are influenced by the same five elements of nature: space, air, fire, water and earth which we too are also made up of, known as the three doshas- vata, pitta, kapha. Furthermore, according to the Shaka Vansiya Ayurveda (SVA) lineage, the elements stem from the the energy of the universe called prana which comes from the vibrational energy emitted by the moon, called soma, by the sun, called agni, and the movement of soma and agni called marut. Since our body is governed by the same elements found in nature we should try to always do a little bit here and there to keep our energy balanced as well, through the food we eat, the water we drink and air we breathe. Doing so will incrementally maintain and improve the quality of our health and boost our immunity. This is the brilliance of Ayurveda as it lays out for us precisely what will balance us and what will knock us off in terms of food and lifestyle.
Add Spice to Your Life
Recipes here will have spices and herbs as they not only add flavour, but viewed as having medicinal qualities as recognized in Ayurveda, such as their metabolic effect, their action and post-digestive effect. If you’re new to cooking with spices, buy spice mixes to get an idea of the tastes you like. I have these four spices always in stock as they help with digestion and absorption of nutrients: fennel, coriander, cumin and turmeric. I add turmeric daily in our cooking as it keeps the liver clean. My Ayurveda teacher, Vaidya R. K. Mishra would say turmeric is “a friend to the liver.” It cleans the liver and purifies the blood, but should not be consumed in capsule form or tea on a regular basis because it would be too heating and will overwhelm the liver. Cook with it instead, a bit here and there, as it in needs an oil medium to activate it’s anti-inflammatory and anti-viral compounds, and other benefits modern science has discovered. In Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine, the liver is considered just as important an organ as the heart. The liver is like a non-stop factory responsible for filtering blood, and a multitude of other tasks such as processing food, drinks, drugs, alcohol and supplements, making vitamins, minerals and cholesterol, storing energy, making and secreting bile and detoxifying the body. You may be surprised to know that fatty liver is a more common condition nowadays, known as Non- Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), though traditionally caused by over consumption of alcohol, but more often than not it is caused by over consumption of trans-fats from hydrogenated oils and over processed vegetable oils- the kind of oils you find in processed and take-out foods. I have had a couple of clients presenting with NAFLD not caused by over consumption of alcohol.
You may notice in these recipes and others, there are no garlic or onions, or I write they are optional. As Ayurveda recognizes spices and herbs as medicinal, these two members of the allium family have potent antibacterial properties, which, yes is a good thing for fighting flus and colds. In Ayurveda, however, garlic and onions are not recommended for daily consumption as they may dampen one’s spiritual practice. They are also very high in sulfur compounds and have the ability to destroy not just the bad bacteria, but the good bacteria in our gut, not being able to differentiate between the two. Our gut flora is responsible for keeping our digestive system in good order. Since most illnesses can be traced to the gut, maintaining a good functioning digestive system is vital for good health. This has been proven my modern science, that the gut has a direct relationship to your physical and mental health. It is for this reason, we try to avoid garlic and onions.
Prep Work
To prepare fresh hot lunches in the morning requires preparation before hand. This cuts down on time in the morning, and you will be able to make the meals in 20 minutes— packed and ready to go! I cut up the vegetables and store them in individual containers, make paneer the day before, and soak the grains the night before, and rinse them in the morning. Because root vegetables, like carrots, take longer to cook I peel them into ribbons. With heavier leaves, like kale, they are cut into small pieces. Then you can add the vegetables all in at once. Zucchini is cut in halves as they soften fairly fast compared to kale and carrots.
01. Spiced Vegetables & Paneer with Steamed Grains
Yield: 1 serving
Prep time: 1 minute (paneer prepared the night before; grains soaked in water overnight; vegetables peeled, cut and prepared the night before)
Cook time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
1 tsp ghee or olive oil
½ - 1 tsp spice mix (balancing spice mix recipe here)
½ cup carrot ribbons
½ cup zucchini
¼ cup kale
¼ cup daikon radish (optional- excellent in the spring with coriander)
½ cup cubed paneer (75 grams)
¼ tsp salt
Some cilantro leaves and squeeze of lime juice to finish (optional)
Grains
⅛ cup quinoa
⅛ cup basmati rice
1/4 cup water
Instructions
Rinse the grains from soaking the night before. Add water. Cook on high heat until water boils and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the water level goes down a bit, then turn off heat and close with a lid, allowing the grains to steam. Ready in 15 minutes.
While grains are steaming, in a small pan on low heat put ghee or olive oil with Spice Mix and until aroma is released.
Add all the vegetables and turn up heat to medium. Add a bit of water and cook for 5 minutes until all veggies are coated with spices and glistening. Cover with a lid, turn heat down to medium-low and cook further for another 5 minutes. You can mix in some cilantro leaves at the end and spritz with lime juice.
Layer grains and vegetables & paneer into a warm thermos or insulated container.
Enjoy!
02. Pasta ‘n Paneer
Hearty and filling- like Mac ‘n Cheese but a little lighter on the tummy with paneer, an unripened soft cheese. My kid loves “mac n’ chz” with melted mozarella, that once in a while I make this version to change it up. I also vary the type of pasta by using a quinoa-rice macaroni as these two carbs are easier on digestion than wheat based pasta.
Click here to make your own home made paneer— takes just 20 minutes.
Yield: 1 serving
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
¾ cup pasta
2 tsps ghee or butter
1-2 pinches turmeric
½ cup crumbled paneer
½ tsp rosemary or thyme (optional)
¼ tsp salt
Instructions
In a medium-size pot bring water to a boil and cook pasta for about 8-12 minutes depending on type used.
Drain pasta, keeping a little bit of pasta water, then add ghee or butter and turmeric and mix all together.
Add crumbled paneer and gently toss. Salt to taste.
Transfer into a warm thermos and finish off with more paneer.
Enjoy!
03. Apple Tart Parcels
What’s a hot packed lunch without a little delightful dessert? These apple and cinnamon filled pastry cups are naturally delicious and can be put in the oven first thing in the morning while you go about putting together lunches.
Yields: 6 tarts
Prep Time: 5 minutes with pastry dough ready
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
INGREDIENTS FOR PASTRY DOUGH
1 ¼ cups einkorn flour
¼ tsp salt
½ cup chilled butter or ghee, cut in cubes or pieces
¼ cup chilled water + 1 tsp more if you are using ghee
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING PASTRY DOUGH
Put the flour and salt in a bowl and combine all together.
Add chilled butter or ghee and with a fork or pastry cutter combine until butter or ghee is coated with flour like fine crumbs.
Add chilled water a spoonful at a time, pressing into the dough each time. Do not over mix the dough.
Shape the dough roughly into a ball and transfer onto a lightly floured surface. Cut dough in half and shape into 2 balls.
Wrap each ball tightly with a plastic film and refrigerate for up to 3 days or up to 3 months in the freezer.
INGREDIENTS FOR FILLING
1 large apple or 2 small ones
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp arrowroot flour or any flour
1 Tbsp sucanat (optional)
DIRECTIONS FOR PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
If the dough is in the freezer take it out the night before you make the tarts and put it in the fridge. Take out the pastry dough from the fridge to thaw for 5 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375C.
Peel and cut the apple in bite size pieces and stir in cinnamon and flour, and sucanat if the apples used are sour. Set aside.
Take a palm size piece of dough, flatten on a floured surface.
Roll out the dough ⅛ inch thick and 4 ½ - 5 inches in diameter using a medium size ungreased muffin tray, large enough so that it overlaps the each muffin cup about an 1 inch around the edge.
Place pastry over a muffin cup, gently pressing down to the bottom and touching the sides.
Fill the apples ¾ high and pinch opposite ends of the pastry towards the centre.
Repeat Steps 4-7 making each apple parcel.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool for 5 minutes before removing from muffin pan.