On cooking for the office life, part 1.

From what I understand, working the 9-to-5 puts a serious crimp in your cooking style. I've been petitioned by a dear friend for some suggestions to help with her eating habits; get more nutrition and home cooking into her diet on the regular rather than going through the day subsisting on hummus and coffee. Of course, this isn't my usual bag, so I called in a little help; this post'll be peppered liberally with Pavel's helpful hints.

So let's give this a whirl, shall we?

Basic Vinaigrette
A good vinaigrette is essential to any good salad, and knowing how to crank one out on the fly will do wonders for your budget. Storeboughts are made with cheap shit and bulked with HFCS; better to make your own, no?

1/4 c. flavorful acidic. Vinegars are the most obvious choices here - apple cider, red wine, and balsamic are popular and delicious choices, of course. If you want to use a citric acid, try going half and half with white vinegar to start - lime and lemon get pretty assertive if you go straight up.

2 tsp. emulsifying agent. Mustard is your go-to here, be it Dijon or whole-grain or Guilden's Spicy Brown. American Yellow is kind of iffy. Basically, you need something viscous to help you blend the acid and the oil together. As you get more and more adventurous, I recommend going half honey half mustard, especially with lemon.

1/2 c. oil. You can use pretty much anything here - corn, flaxseed, olive, whatever. I only recommend staying away from extra virgin olive oil because the flavor will pretty much obliterate anything in its path. Plus if you beat the shit out of it, which is likely considering the application, it starts getting bitter.

Combine these ingredients into a resealable container, like a tupperware (or better yet, a stainless steel cocktail shaker) and shake the shit out of it until all the ingredients come together. Season with salt and pepper to taste after everything comes together; you might find you'll need less salt given the acidity of the dressing.

I avoided listing any one specific acid, oil, or emulsifier here because a) they're relatively interchangable and b) if you want to keep yourself interested in your food, you have to mix shit up on the regular. If you're putting balsamic dressing on everything, you're going to get bored. And when you're bored is when you roll out for a couple of slices for lunch instead of eating what you brought.

This recipe can be scaled up and down to your heart's content. You can add all kinds of shit to it - minced garlic, thinly sliced scallions, fresh herbs, whatever you want. It's only a template for you to build off of, and experimentation is encouraged.

That being said, if this seems out of reach for you or you just want a more shelf-stable answer to this, Pavel's informed me that Trader Joe's has a really tasty organic balsamic vinaigrette on the cheap with good ingredients that rings in at something ridiculous, like 45 calories a serving. So keep that in mind.

Roasted Vegetables
We're supposed to be eating more vegetables than we are. This statement goes for something like 98% of the population; I know of maybe three people in my life who are actually eating the right amount of veggies daily, and none of them are me.

This one's pretty easy. Whether you're working with carrots or mushrooms or whatever, the process is pretty much the same. Wash your veggies, then trim them. For tubular veggies, this usually means trim both ends. For asparagus, cut off the woody stems at the base (if you're unsure of where to cut, just take one and bend it with more pressure at the stem end until it snaps. Use that one to measure out the rest of the bunch.) Cut them into bite-sized pieces (I like to split zucchini lengthwise on the y and z axes, then cut down into 1/4" pieces), toss them onto a sheet pan, drizzle with oil, season lightly, toss to coat, then drop into a 400 degree oven for 15-25 minutes. Times will vary from vegetable to vegetable, so after the first 15 minutes, taste to determine if it needs more time. You'll get the hang of it.

Proteins
Chicken is going to be your obvious choice here, be it breasts or my personal preference, thighs. Just make sure you're working with boneless/skinless if you want to make this easy on yourself. You can season this with anything you damn well please - salt and pepper being the easiest and most obvious choice, you can marinate it in Italian dressing (just pat it dry before cooking), whatever. The process will remain the same. Preheat a pan over medium heat with a Tbsp or so of oil until it shimmers, or until a droplet of water skitters off the surface. Then cook the meat for four minutes on each side and remove it to rest. After five minutes off the heat, cut it open to see if it's cooked. If it's not, then back onto the heat with it for another minute or two per side. This is a learning process; after the first couple of times, you'll know exactly how long to cook your proteins based on thickness and weight.

Incidentally, steak works well here, too. A 1/2" to 3/4" steak will net you a good medium rare at four minutes a side. Again, this'll vary depending on your cut, but practice practice practice. Once your meat is done cooking, let it cool, then slice into pieces that won't choke you.

Also, so long as you don't mainline the shit out of it, bacon's a fairly good option when it comes to prepping lunches - a little bit goes a long way flavorwise, and using it means you can cut back on the salt in your other components. Rather than go through the pain-in-the-ass process of cooking it on demand, you can fire off an entire package of bacon by lining a sheet pan (or two) with foil, laying out the slices, and baking it at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Once it's cooked, drain and cool, and you can cut it into bite size pieces or crumble it for a delicious topping.

(if you really want to get fancy with it, try sprinkling said bacon with cayenne and brown sugar before it goes in the oven.)

It's important to note that all three of these things can be cooked ahead of time, prepared, and stored in the fridge for 7-10 days. Which is a good thing, because you're going to be building meals out of these components. I'll tell you how tomorrow.