Water Boils: Demystifying Brown Bagging

I had some cost challenges here, because

1. Even on sale, a mango is expensive compared to an apple
2. Since I am a lazy-ass cook, I used pre-made baked tofu for convenience.

But in the end, the cost was still down to 3-4 dollars. I don’t remember what I paid for the cheese or bok choy, so this is an estimate.

How to do this:

Get a big stalk of bok choy (preferably from an Asian grocer where it is sold for a fraction of the price compared to, say, Wholefoods). Wash it. cut the stalks into two, lengthwise. Heat a wok, a pan, a skillet and oil with some sort of oil (sesame oil will be the best, olive oil second). When the oil is glistening, add the bok choy, some chopped ginger or ginger powder, some minced garlic, chili peppers, salt and pepper. Stir fry for a minute or two. Set aside.

Get a piece of baked tofu, cut into chunks. One day I might post a home-made baked tofu recipe as well, but today is not that day.

Assemble tofu and bok choy in your serving container. You don’t have to heat the tofu since you’ll eat this cold anyway.

Cube a mango. If you don’t know how to do it, this might be the best time to learn. Get some lemon juice. For preserving fruit, I use pre-bottled stuff since it prevents me from wasting half a lemon to preserve my fruits. It is yucky for lemonade or salad, but for this task it will do. Some people also swear by the product called fruit-fresh, it is basically vitamin C powder. Mix one tablespoon of lemon juice with 4-5 tablespoons of water and bathe the mango cubes in this for a couple minutes. Drain. This will prevent the food from darkening.

The snack part is easy: cube some cheese, take some crackers out of the box (as a bonus, you won’t eat the whole box) and get some fruit bar or a cookie. The one in the picture is a bran “fig newton” type of cookie, from beloved Trader Joe’s and it is wittily titled “So this fig walks into a bar”.

Although this is not the cheapest lunch you can make, it is more nutritious than anything you can get at a cafeteria. Furthermore, assembling only takes about 15 minutes. It incorporates a full size mango, a big stalk of bok choy, a good serving of tofu; and for snacks it has aged gouda cheese, good crackers and a healthy dose of sweets.

Off to working.