Category: In the lunch box

(Romanian) Meatballs for lunch, please!

romanian-meatballs

Traditional Romanian meatballs are very different than the Belgian boulettes. If I weren’t so biased, I’d say they are much better, but hey!, I’m not even gonna dare going there. So what are the differences? Firstly, the composition. Romanian meatballs are made out of pork with lots of grated veggies and herbs inside. The Belgian ones are mostly beef, or a combination of pork and beef/ veal, onion and sometimes parsley. Then, there’s the shape. We like smaller, flat meatballs, while the Belgians make them large and round. And finally, there’s the cooking method. Traditionally, we roll the meatballs in flour and then deep fry them (I confess, I do the light version: no flour, simply cooked on the grill). As for the boulettes? They are, most of the times, fried in butter…yes, yes, this sounds delicious!

So, are you curious to know how the Romanian meatballs are made?  Read More

Another (rainy) day, another (warming) lunch

Chili con carne

What’s going on with the weather in Belgium? Is it November or what?

On a cold, rainy, windy, shitty day like today, I can only dream of an instant warm-up lunch: our famous chili con carne. Hot, spicy, flavorful, delicious, incredible; it’s the ONE dish  you wanna eat on a day like this. With wild rice and a small salad…because you’ve gotta eat your greens, hehe!  I’ll come back with the recipe, you definitely need to try it.

A vegetarian lunch

Vegan meatballs

If you’ve been here before, you’ve seen all kinds of meats: from burgers to organ dishes, from raw meat to great oven roasts. What I’ve never told you is that my man and I (try to) do a whole vegetarian month every year, usually around May (well, kinda vegetarian, as we still eat fish and seafood). My man’s idea, but I felt OK to accept this challenge. Last year we had an amazing month: I cooked veggie curries, tagines, various pasta and a whole array of salads. Inspiration just spoke to me. This year, however, total fail. We didn’t take it too much to heart, because we don’t really care and we look at this yearly project as a fun experiment (even though some of us maintain a raised eyebrow for the entire month…that’s me, ofc). Anyway, this was the high-peak of the shortly-abandoned veggie month: chickpea & white beans meatballs with turmeric. I just made them like any normal meatballs with all the ingredients: one egg, grated carrot, chopped onion, grated garlic and finely chopped parsley. I also added some flax seeds & soaked psyllium seeds, which give a nice texture. Salt, pepper, turmeric. I always cook meatballs on the grill and never-ever fry them, so that’s what I did. In the evening we ate them with a big salad and a blue cheese dressing. Almost the same for lunch: a colorful salad and a piece of Romanian maturated cheese. Satisfying and energy-giving is the verdict. Read More

Romanian Potato food: Good food for bad days

Romanian potato stew

This is an old friend, a childhood love and a steady companion since forever. Very creatively named “potato food”, it celebrates the beauty of the potato and it’s everything you can hope for. All Romanians eat and love the potato food, it really is one of the most prominent dishes in our culture. Yes, it’s humble, it’s sometimes called “food of the poor”, it’s served in workers’ cantines, it’s basic, it’s the antonym of fancy…say what you want, but give it a try and you’ll fall in love! I will be forever grateful for this recipe, it saved me when 20 EUR was my weekly allowance that needed to cover food, beer & smokes. And looking at today’s economy and downward slope we’re on, I thought I’d just put it out there. It’s comforting to know that if you ever find yourself in times of trouble, you can cook something (very) cheap, nourishing and oh!, so delicious. Here goes!

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What did I tell you? Moussaka makes for a great lunch

Moussaka lunch box

After this lunch, my man told me my moussaka is glorious and it’s the best one he ate in his entire life. I thought it was one of the nicest things he ‘s ever told me and I blushed. Funny how after these maaaany years together I still blush and giggle (inside my head, of course, I don’t giggle in real life). For me, it has officially became the most romantic dish 🙂

How I achieved this expression of love? One portion moussaka, lots of real sour-cream (from the Polish shop), topped with fresh chives. One piece of Romanian maturated cheese and a colorful salad. As easy as that!

Transform your leftovers

DSC03551Leftovers are probably the best thing that can happen to us. While most people are scared of leftovers, I always plan for some when cooking. And, most of the times, I like to give them a new life.

The leftover part of these lunch-boxes are the bits of chicken and the baked potato. It took me about 10 minutes to transform the chicken and it was totally worth it. I chopped and fried a box of brown champignons in a little bit of butter, just added some garlic, thyme, salt & pepper. I dumped in the chicken pieces and 2 full spoons of sour cream (like all Eastern Europeans, I know sour cream is amazing in almost any dish). And that was it, some chopped parsley to top! Next to it a half baked potato with a lump of blue cheese and green salad with cherry tomatoes, pepper, feta cheese and green onions. Don’t be afraid of the green onion at the office, the parsley takes away the oniony breath. Yep, that’s the trick of today.

The (Romanian) Cassoulet

cass

For the first time, you only see one lunch box and this is not even mine; it’s my man’s. It contains a serious portion of (Romanian) Cassoulet and some cornishons in brine (which are amazing, we buy them from Polish supermarkets; dzięki Polish friends!).

I never liked this dish; as a child I even had a horrid aversion towards it. To this day, I just can’t. I have, of course, tasted it and, yes, it does taste good enough, but I can’t bring myself to actually eating a full serving. It’s one of those things, you know, that don’t make any sense, but where you consciously indulge and say: what the hell, I’m just quirky like this (because quirky sounds better than idiotic).

So yes, the Cassoulet. 20-30 minutes on the clock, almost zero effort and, as some say, super-delicious. A wintery dish again, but have you look outside your window today?!? Yes, dear rest-of-the-world, we’re fucking freezing here in Belgium! Breathe in, breathe out, here comes the recipe!

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The Impostor Quiche

DSC03512This “impostor quiche” has become one of my staples. And it has the funniest story.

When we first moved to Belgium, about 8 years ago, I bragged to my man that I would bake a quiche lorraine for dinner. All good, until I realized I had almost none of the ingredients I needed to make the much-anticipated quiche…so I just invented a new recipe and whipped something up. Luckily, my man had no idea what a quiche lorraine was! We kept calling this cheese tart “quiche” until I came clean and confessed. Like most fabulous inventions of our time, this fake quiche was born out of necessity, a bit of laziness and a fundamental lack of known & tested ingredients. I’m super happy to share the recipe with you: it is so delicious that I replicated it sooo many times!

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The Secret

DSC03436

After many years of packing and enjoying my own lunches, I’ve learned a thing or two about the art of the perfect lunch box. The secret? Simply enough: killing two birds with one stone…which translates into cooking two meals in one go! Because time is never enough (am I the only one out there with this problem?!?).

What did I put in here? Leftover burgers from the eve before, 2 baked potatoes that I threw in the oven while making a stew (more on that soon)- added some goat cheese and few chunks of blue cheese on top. These will melt in the office microwave and become the BEST topping for the above potatoes. Next to all this, an avocado salsa, which literally took me 3 minutes to assemble in the morning.

Not the most summery meal, I’ll give you that, but when you live in Belgium, you don’t really get many summery meals…