A few weeks ago, we started packing our lunches with us to work, so I tried to think of recipes that we could make ahead and have on hand specifically for lunches, so there was never an excuse to say %$#& it and just buy our lunches instead. Amazingly...it worked.

Back in Ottawa, I bought my lunch nearly every day. There was this great Greek place in our building that makes the most amazing Greek salads topped with grilled vegetables, with a side of hot yogurt dressing. It cost $6.82 and it was fantastic. It was also costing me $34.10 each week. Kurt would also buy his lunch and since he worked in this little hick town, I don't even want to think about what he was eating. He's prone to making healthy food choices, but when the options are pizza or Chinese food...which is the lesser evil?

Anyways, I decided that we should arm ourselves with a whole boatload of recipes for salads made with rice, beans and/or lentils. Those things are nearly as cheap here as anywhere else and they fill you up for hours, so they're the perfect packed lunch. We've made a few different recipes now, but keep coming back to this one - our favorite so far. Keep in mind that the recipes are for enough salad to feed us for at least 2 if not 3 days worth of lunches, so you might want to scale back a bit if you don't need as much.

Curried Brown Rice Salad

1 c. brown or wild rice (we've used both brown, wild, a mix of the two, and some more exotic rices such as wehani)
½ c. toasted slivered almonds
½ c. seedless raisins (we use the yellow raisins)
**some sort of protein - we have diced up a cooked chicken breast or thrown in a can of chickpeas for this**

Dressing:

½ c. white wine vinegar
½ c. extra-virgin olive oil (I've cut this back to 1/4 c. and it worked fine)
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. each coriander, sugar, salt (I've left out the sugar and it tastes fine)
1/4 tsp. each ground nutmeg, turmeric, ground cardamom
pinch each of cinnamon, cayenne and ground cloves

Directions:

1. Cook the rice however you want. Rice cookers are fabulous. Once cooked, mix together the rice with the almonds, raisins and protein.

2. Mix together the dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Yum.