Healthy Lunchbox 2012: Brian, The East Bay Celiac

Today, I am happy to introduce this wonderful Healthy Lunchbox post from my lone male participant. 

You may be familiar with Brian, The East Bay Celiac from his site where he blogs about living and eating in the East Bay Area of San Francisco (one of my favorite places in the whole-wide-world!). 

Or you may be familiar with Brian through this interview he did with me for BeBesty back in May, which is also celiac awareness month.

Either way, no doubt you know that Brian is great!

When I mentioned to Brian that he was the only man to have signed up for this event, he explained that he is the cook of the family and that he is used to packing lunches..so writing this post was right up his alley. 

I love that Brian has been proactive in everything from his diagnosis to making foods that are safe for him to eat.

Thank you for joining us, Brian! xo

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I love sandwiches. You name pretty much any kind of sandwich, and Iʼve probably had it
for lunch. Well, before I had to go gluten-free. That really killed my lunch sandwich
intake quota. But, it has opened my taste buds up to a lot of other lunch options. One of
which Iʼm happy to share below.
Iʼve recently gotten over a cold, and my normal lunches didnʼt really fit with a “get better
soon” diet. My go-to meal for lunch and dinner on a “get better soon” diet is soup.

When my wife and I first started dating, she made me her familyʼs version of West Lake Soup
once. It replaced chicken noodle soup in our household fairly soon thereafter.
One of the best things about this soup is that it goes well with just about anything –
breads, crackers, or by itself, itʼs a great meal to warm up the body just about anytime.
We typically serve the soup over rice, either freshly made or leftover. Because leftover
rice never turns out well by itself. However, placed in the bottom of a quart-sized bowl,
with 3-4 heaping ladles of soup, heated in the microwave for 4 minutes, and it is
perfection in a bowl.
As this is a lunchbox post, the soup can easily be taken to work or school in a thermos,
or microwaveable glass container. (Keep in mind that your little ones wonʼt be able to
heat up the lunch at school.)

Gluten-Free West Lake Soup
Ingredients
1 ½ lbs ground pork
2 Tbsp gluten-free soy sauce
2 Tbsp garlic salt (or garlic powder)
100oz gluten-free chicken broth
1 pkg of tofu
3 sprigs of green onion
Bunch of cilantro
1 cup frozen peas
2 egg whites

Cooked rice
Steps
1.) Mix the ground pork, soy sauce, and garlic salt or powder, and set aside.
2.) Over medium-high heat, pour the chicken broth into a large pot.
3.) Cube the tofu, and finely chop the green onions and cilantro.
4.) Break up the ground pork into small chunks and place into chicken broth.
# NOTE: This can be down either with hands, or with a masher in the broth.
5.) Cook the pork until all of it turns white and floats to the top of the broth.
6.) Place the tofu, green onion, cilantro, and frozen peas into the soup mixture.
7.) Once the peas have cooked, stir the soup and drizzle the egg whites into the broth.
This will create wispy strips of cooked egg.
8.) Place rice in bottom of bowl (1 cup for a 1qt-sized bowl), ladle soup over rice and
serve.