quick and easy

the last two nights haven't lended themselves to careful and studied meal preparation. on monday, i left work at five and needed to have dinner on the table at 5:30. last night, i was working (kind of - it was more fun than work) until almost 9, and was ready to eat when i got in the door. so. what is a girl to do? 1. salad! monday i went back to an old recipe that never fails to please - non-cobb salad. when you're having salad as a meal, you'd better make it substantial, right? right. our non-cobb had romaine, annie's cheddar bunnies, hard-cooked eggs, boca chicken, and tempeh bacon. if you don't consider that salad a meal, we can't hang out. unless you're training to be an ultimate fighting champion or something. that's pretty cool. 2. ragout! i'm going to find out exactly what a ragout is. right now. wikipedia says: The term ragout (French ragoût) can refer to a main-dish stew or to a sauce for noodles or other starchy foods. The basic method of preparation involves slow cooking over a low heat. The potential ingredients are many: ragouts may be prepared with or without meat, a wide variety of vegetables may be incorporated, and they may be more or less heavily spiced and seasoned. huh. all right. well, the recipe in vegetarian times called this dish a ragout, and i'm not going to call them out, though the cooking time was under 30 minutes. think of the dish as garlic-y cannellinis and mushrooms. i added peas just because i needed something green. with toasted breadcrumbs, it was a really nice, quick, comforting meal that came together in the commercial breaks for that search for the new pussycat doll reality show. don't judge me. for both meals: eggs: farmer's market. unfortunately, i wasted two eggs by trying to get ahead of the game and cook them during my lunch break. i remembered them after my 3 o'clock meeting. oops. cheddar bunnies, romaine, peas: organic, from co-op boca chicken, lightlife tempeh bacon, breadcrumbs, garlic oil, mushrooms: from co-op. can't remember if they were organic right this moment, as i type away from home. cannellis: goya, from co-op. no organic white beans around, and i had the recipe in mind. ranch dressing: not-so-supermarket. there's no light ranch at the co-op. shocking, yes. waste: 2 hard-boiled eggs that sat in lukewarm water for 5 hours, plastic chicken wrappers, plastic tempeh wrapper. quorn doesn't wrap its patties individually, in case you were interested. but is mycoprotein sustainable? guess it's time to find out.