Commuting And Cooking Aint Easy

My spouse and I commute – a lot. Almost two hours a day. We’ve noticed a significant decline in our energy levels and health since we started 5 years ago. The main culprit – take out. We’re usually pretty hungry by the end of the day and often we cave in. We are commuting from a large city, so there are a lot of options. The majority of the takeout we get is from burger joints, pita places, and the odd burrito. The pita – not so bad, but no one is ordering salad at the burrito, or burger joint.

After getting home and walking the dogs it’s pretty late and we’re both hungry. We bought a box of granola bars. It’s helping us home without temptation. We need something easy, fast, and healthy. I found an old love that fits all these things. Spring rolls!

I love spring rolls! They are perfect and I found three packages of rice paper in my cupboard! They are so easy to make. First, I chop up 8 pieces of tofu (that usually takes half a thick block, or 2/3 of a thin block, of extra firm tofu). I don’t drain it. I probably should, but I’m not a chef and not that concerned about it. I dump them in a container and toss them with tamari (I don’t measure – sorry). I cut eight pieces for the two of us – four each. While that is marinating I cut up the rest of the ingredients.

I grate mushrooms (I ended up needing more), chop mango into long thin slices, and have a bunch of basil ready.

I soak the rice paper in hot water in a pie plate until it’s soft and pliable. I put some spinach down and two basil leaves, per roll.

Then I put in a bunch of grated mushrooms, a piece of tofu, and two slices of mango. The mango really makes it. I like the mango at the firm, but still easy-to-cut stage, for this recipe.

Roll it up tight (I still haven’t quite got this down)

and serve it with sweet chilli sauce. No particular brand, I generally like them all.

They are so good! I’m making them again tonight. Mr Lobster Shorts wasn’t fond of the basil, so I’ll leave it out of his from now on. From start to finish, it took 42 minutes to have them ready and served on the table. That’s really impressive to me. It’s not unusual for dinner to take me a couple hours. I think I can have these ready in 20 minutes after the refresher.

Another bonus of spring rolls, there weren’t too too many dishes. There were definitely some, but not heaping countertops full of them. I made myself a tea of fresh mint and let the last bit of the evening fade out.