Lunch this Week: Babaghanouj wrap and Berry Salad with Goat Cheese Dressing

Take your lunch to work! Save some money and eat healthy. (Or maybe due to the economy I should be encouraging everyone to buy....?)

Every weekend I plan out my lunches for the week, buy the ingredients, and cook up a storm. The cooking typically happens Sunday night and the idea is to make enough to last the week. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's off a little, but it's always fun. You also get the exciting bonus points of staying dry while you're enjoying a healthy homemade lunch and your co-worker is sprinting through the rain to Subway.

Since I am generally always running late in the morning I package up my individual lunch for the next day before I go to bed every night. This way I can just grab it with my coffee mug on the way out of my apartment. Just don't let yourself be too lazy the night before! If you're anything like me (i.e. not a morning person) then if it's not ready to go, it's not going.

I try to vary what I make to avoid getting bored and mix it up with sides and such. This week I made a Berry Salad with Goat Cheese Dressing and Babaghanouj wraps, and then brought along a cup of apple sauce as well.

Thanks CookingLight! Check out the recipe in the link above. It calls for mostly romaine with a touch of arugula, but I reversed that. Best to double check that you like arugula, however, before doing so. While it's incredibly healthy, it provides a more bitter taste to your salad. I mixed up the salad, complete with berries, on Sunday night and then prepared the dressing separately. This way I can put some salad in a container every night and then add the dressing at that point, avoiding the sogginess from sitting fully prepared in my fridge all week.

I also made fresh babaghanouj on Sunday night. This is a middle eastern eggplant spread. It can be made in several variations, but here is one of my favorites:

1) Poke an eggplant with a fork all over and then broil it, whole, for about 15 min.
2) When the eggplant is cool peel off the skin.
3) Put the eggplant in a food process with tahini sauce (1/2 c), salt, pepper, garlic (1-3 cloves depending on taste), lemon juice (1-2 tbsp), and some olive oil. Process until smooth.

How much olive oil depends on taste and fat content allowed. I typically only use a little, perhaps a tablespoon or two, but you can use up to 1/4 cup if you prefer. Make sure that if you increase the olive oil up to the 1/4 c that you pare down the tahini sauce to avoid making your babaghanouj too watery.


Spoon some fresh babaghanouj into a wrap, add some tomato, lettuce, or cucumber to taste (I just like the tomato option best) and wrap up in foil to have it ready to go for the next morning! Leave the rest of the babaghanouj in a bowl in the refrigerator, ready to be doled out each night.


I also toss in a little cup of apple sauce to go as a side to my meal.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think.