Lunch, June 18, 2011

Japanese food for lunch? We usually don't do that. But today, there was concern over not getting enough vegetables.

Problem 1: There were no vegetables in the morning. For breakfast, I had one pancake. Tom also had a pancake along with one egg, which were covered with overflowing maple syrup. Sick. How much sugar does he need? At least he doesn't usually lick his plate afterward anymore.

Problem 2: There will be only a few vegetables with the paella we are going to have for dinner.

My goodness. We've got to fix this vegetable deficiency with lunch. Naturally, my vegetable dish repertoire is much broader with Japanese food, so I made another easy choice.

• Steamed rice with toasted sesame seeds
• Miso soup with daikon radish, carrot, gobo burdock root and kabu turnip leaves
• Atsuage no chamupruu / Okinawan-style stir fry with deep-fried tofu
• Gomaae with snap peas and red peppers 

One pancake is not filling enough and I get really hungry by 11 am. Snacks are not a part of my diet because I simply have no craving for them, especially sweet ones, and I would rather eat meals. I am in mid-40s, short, not active, which makes my necessary daily calories about 1500 kcal. Tom needs less than 2000kcal. And, I like to have a drink or two, or more. No extra room for snacks. How practical is that?

We still had two atsuage deep-fried tofu in the fridge. Today is actually the marked best-by date. That means, it's better to cook it with oil. You can taste older ingredients when cooked without oil. So one of my favorite stir-fry items, champruu, was the choice.

For today's gomaae, I put red pepper slices for color and to rack up one more vegetable.

Anyhow, I was able to include seven vegetables with this lunch. Yeah, now we can indulge ourselves with dinner, even though it comes with only a few vegetables. The amount of each vegetable may be small, but I count on the synergistic effects from multiple sources.

This lunch reminded Tom of his chore in the morning -- doing dishes. All Japanese tableware we have are hand washed. I bet he didn't enjoy the lunch. Whatever.