Laptop Lunches #305

A can of brown sugar baked beans doctored with some sauteed onions and green pepper, mini bell pepper salad (a variation on the recipe at Natasha's Kitchen), a vegan version of the potato salad from Going Solo in the Kitchen, and cucumber salad from The Joy of Cooking.

Bush's now labels their brown sugar baked beans as vegetarian, and I'm pretty confident nobody puts dairy products in baked beans, so I grabbed a few cans when they were on sale. It's amazing what a bit of fresh produce sauteed and put in a can of beans can do to elevate them. I hadn't tried doing this with baked beans before (beans in tomato sauce, yes, you've seen plenty of variations on that and so I'm bewildered that I haven't), but I'm so pleased I did! I will be doing that again.

The Joy of Cooking cucumber salad recipe isn't my favorite but it was quick and easy. I'd leave out the sugar next time, though.

There are very few potato salads I don't enjoy, and this was not one of the exceptions to the rule--this was good! All I really had to do to veganize this recipe was to leave out the optional things (like hard boiled egg) and use vegan mayo.

This is a gluten free lunch, incidentally.