Lunch on August 17 - balsamic chicken pasta salad take 2

School is out for summer but I am still packing lunches.  My friend had the brilliant idea to hire one of Juju's teachers from her school to do a "camp" at our houses for our kids for a couple of days this week and next.  Because we are not returning to school next year, Juju's fabulous teachers are fair game which is very exciting for both me and Juju (she could hardly believe herself when her former teacher showed up on our doorstep this morning!).  It's kind of funny to pack a lunch that Juju will eat in her own house but it just makes things easier.

I tried a pasta salad I made several months ago inspired by my friend Amy.  It is grilled chicken (marinated in balsamic vinegar) with fusilli, yellow peppers, and baby heirloom tomatoes.  I drizzled olive oil and more balsamic vinegar along with some salt and pepper and tossed it all together.  I made a lot so I will be eating this for a few lunches this week as will the King of All Media.  I am also serving cantaloupe and cucumber.

Speaking of tomatoes, I was at the Silver Lake farmer's market on Saturday and was overwhelmed by the number of heirloom tomatoes to choose from.  On the same day I also read about 4 friends around the country (some are blogreaders!) in my Facebook newsfeed who were enjoying tomatoes harvested from their own backyards.  I am so jealous.  We tried to grow tomatoes one year but the animal neighbors we share this canyon with ate almost everything we grew.  I'm inspired to try again though.  We have a lemon tree in our backyard and I love the idea of going outside to pick my own "organic" fruit.

Despite the fact that the pasta salad I mentioned above includes chicken, we've actually been eating a lot of vegetarian or pescetarian meals at home.  On Monday night our dinner was almost vegan save for the parmesan cheese we threw in the salad.  I think I've mentioned before that we are thinking about going vegan for a week (though I won't insist that Juju participate) and we are kind of working up to it by eating less meat and making some vegan meals here and there.  In fact on Monday I wasn't even trying to go vegan, I realized halfway through dinner that almost nothing we ate came from an animal.  I don't have photos but we ate quinoa that I tossed with sauted spinach and onion, farm stand okra roasted with oil, oregano, salt and pepper, and a salad filled with goodies from our CSA box.  I had some leftover parmesan cheese in the fridge that delegitimized the meal but I was pretty impressed that we were all (Juju included) completely satisfied with the meat/fish-less dinner.  As far as pescetarian meals go, I continue to coat a lot of fish in egg and almond meal (as I've blogged about before) with delicious results.  

Lastly I wanted to let you all know that Gilt Groupe is doing a sale on lunch containers today.  There aren't a ton of stainless steel offerings but if you missed the Hautelook sale on Lunchbots there are a few options to still grab that aren't sold out.  If you are not a member of Gilt click here for an invite. 

Lunch on May 17, 2011 - She never met a starch she didn't like

Today's lunch is full of carbohydrates because as my dad likes to say, Juju never met a starch she didn't like.

Lunch is penne pasta with chicken in balsamic vinegar (inspired by a lunch my friend Amy made for me a few weeks ago - more on that below), corn on the cob (it is everywhere now and so delicious!) and dried seaweed (in a sushi themed fabric snack bag).

The pasta salad is completely inspired by (and merely a halfway decent copy of) a lunch my friend Amy made.  I need to ask her for the real recipe; I just went off what I remembered she told me was in hers.  She started with "balsamic chicken" from Trader Joe's which is, I assume, chicken marinated in balsamic vinegar and other spices.  It was delicious.  She added it to some rotini with chopped onion, red and yellow peppers, tomatoes, and more balsamic vinegar.  She added a sprig of rosemary for color (you know how I love presentation!) and served it with some crusty bread.  Yum!  (I, like Julian, never met a carbohydrate I didn't like).

I didn't have all those yummy ingredients but I still wanted to copy Amy for lunch so I improvised with what I had at home.  I took plain (already cooked) chicken breasts, (if you are a vegetarian I am sure you could substitute this for Gardein or some other veggie protein that takes the place of chicken), chopped them up and marinated the pieces in some balsamic vinegar overnight.  Be careful when marinating in vinegar - a little goes a long way.  Then, I cooked the only pasta I had, penne.  Penne is not a great pasta for this dish; it's hard to pick up and doesn't absorb much of the sauce/marinade but it's what I had.  I took the pasta off the heat and let it cool.  Next I chopped several cherry tomatoes in half and I minced a medium sized shallot (again, this is what I had in my fridge, feel free to experiment with what you have in yours).  I then tossed the chicken, pasta, tomatoes, and shallots in some more balsamic vinegar (just a little), a small amount of olive oil and salt and pepper.  And, voila: a pretty pasta salad with lots of leftovers for everyone else in the house!  My chicken wasn't quite as tasty as Amy's, nor did the entire dish compare to what she served (the penne really killed it) but it was still a very yummy result with very little effort and no need to run to the store for any special ingredients.

For those curious, the seaweed snack is from Trader Joe's.  A kid on the playground turned us on to the idea of snacking on seaweed about 18 months ago and Juju is still hooked.  In fact, at one point last year Trader Joe's ran out of their convenient seaweed snack packs (too many kids in LA got wind of this snack idea) and there was nearly a seaweed riot as lunatic moms (like me) went to all kinds of organic and Korean marts to find a suitable substitute.  Fortunately Trader Joe's came to their senses and got control of their inventory of seaweed in the fall.  When it first reappeared on shelves, in a move my husband still can't believe, I went out and bought a case of the stuff for fear I'd never see it again.  Many months later, Juju is finally on the last bag from the case!  For the record, I'm totally grossed out by dried seaweed (I tolerate it in sushi but that's about it) but I'm told it's got some great health benefits so I hold my nose and continue to serve it.