It’s a rare day that I don’t turn on the stove or break out the cutting board to whip up something at home to eat – no matter how quick or small. But on Tuesday of this week, I found myself under the weather, and under the covers, without any energy reserves up for the kitchen. 

Therein lay a dilemma. 
When you’re sick, the best thing to nourish you back to health is a good home-cooked meal. But, what if the only chef in the house is off-duty, or taking a sick day? The take-out list by my phone didn’t have anything with the panacea-punch my body was craving, and so I ate my fruit and a few pieces of toast, and — food-wise — called it a day. 
 
Later, I took a trip to my neighborhood natural foods store, Good Health, to get some herbal lozenges, and I happened to pass by the refrigerated prepared foods section. I was casually perusing through the packages, when one container caught my eye – it looked identical to one of my favorite meals to make at home! In it lay a big mix of brown rice and vegetables, with a small swirl of noodles and a cute cluster of dumplings on the side. It was called the Bento Box – “A complete meal in a box!” — and it was made by Macro Vegetarian, a company based out of Sunnyside, New York. I still didn’t foresee any cooking in my future, so I picked one up, hopeful that it would taste half as good as it looked. 
 
It was doubly good!

The Bento Box, one of Macro Vegetarian’s many prepared dishes, is a scrumptious medley of Organic Brown Rice with Organic Carrots, Shitake Mushrooms, Scallions, Parsley and Corn, paired with Whole Wheat Cabbage Dumplings and Buckwheat Soba noodles marinated in Sea Salt, Tofu, and Sesame Oil. The ingredients have a unique, homemade simplicity that taste like they’re straight from your own kitchen. When I got home, I simply tossed it into a small skillet and warmed it up for about 3 minutes. It was the epitome of comfort food that I wanted, and all the nutrition that I needed, in one. I can’t say it was all due to the meal, but when I went to sleep that night, I felt a hundred times better already!

I’m now on a scavenger hunt for more delicious, healthy “whole-grains-on-the-go” meals to have in my mind’s arsenal for busy or sick days. I know that many natural food stores in Boston and New York carry the Macro Vegetarian line. But I wonder, what else is out there? And which whole grain meals are on your go-to list? Write me and share your ideas! (Sarah)

 

Comments

Anonymous
August 8, 2011
Sarah, thanks for sharing--I too love the Macro Vegetarian meals! They are so satisfying and delicious. The varieties they offer are so so good. I know they sell them on a lot of college campuses but do with they were more widely available.

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