Entry tags:
Lunch
Today, a cat picture lunch post. Tomorrow, we return to our regularly scheduled fannish topics.
Tomorrow I go back to working full-time hours after being part-time for July and August. (It's going to be such a shock to my system!) I am trying to save money by bringing my lunch with me most days of the week. I don't cook a lot and when I do, it's usually something that doesn't generate leftovers. So, I'm trying to figure out some fast, easy, and tasty lunches.
When I was growing up, I took my lunch to school most days. And I would only ever eat tuna sandwiches. Every day, for years and years, tuna sandwiches. Bread, mayo, tuna, and salt. It's still a big favourite of mine, but I don't think I can eat it more than two or three times a week right now.
What do you take to work for lunch? How much time do you spend making it? Is it really worth the bother?
Tomorrow I go back to working full-time hours after being part-time for July and August. (It's going to be such a shock to my system!) I am trying to save money by bringing my lunch with me most days of the week. I don't cook a lot and when I do, it's usually something that doesn't generate leftovers. So, I'm trying to figure out some fast, easy, and tasty lunches.
When I was growing up, I took my lunch to school most days. And I would only ever eat tuna sandwiches. Every day, for years and years, tuna sandwiches. Bread, mayo, tuna, and salt. It's still a big favourite of mine, but I don't think I can eat it more than two or three times a week right now.
What do you take to work for lunch? How much time do you spend making it? Is it really worth the bother?
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Every once in a while I'm reminded that no, most people's offices don't stock up on Oreos, crackers, Coke and other stuff for the employees to consume.
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Salad I make every day. But with pre-washed greens, so I just have to throw in a handful, quickly chop some cucumber and mushrooms, and be done with it.
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As you know, I do cook a lot, so many of my suggestions might require more effort than you're used to. For instance, I often make a big batch of stew at the weekend that can cover three or four meals. Stew is easy: chop everything, put it in the pot with herbs and stock/water/wine/beer to cover, and simmer over low heat until everything is tender and delicious. You can go about your business while it cooks. And it's even better on the second day. Same goes for soup, which takes even less time to make. If you're willing to devote an hour or so to cooking on Sunday, you will wind up with a lot of portable lunches for the week. Let me know if you want recipes. Soups and stews are both easy and cheap, and quite rewarding -- especially when the weather gets colder.
I'm not a big sandwich person, so these ideas are preferable to me than some quicker options might be. But if you do like sandwiches, you can vary your tuna with things like cheese/avocado, turkey, or good o' pb&j.
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(And you may know Rosalita from way back in TXF fandom.)
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Leftovers, either deliberately made (an extra burger, an extra chicken breast, an extra piece of fish) or the result of a large pot of soup or stew or spaghetti. Time spent making? Negligible for the main ingredient. Two minutes if I'm making a sandwich out of the leftovers.
Salad and tuna fish (not tuna salad per se. Bowl of salad plus small can or pouch of tuna on top.) Time spent making - done on the spot.
Sandwich purchased the night before. (Depends where I go, but I often go to a sub shop and get a variety of yummies.)
Leftover pizza or pizza purchased just for lunch.
Frozen meal of some kind. 6 minutes in office microwave.
As for it being worth the bother - there are no kosher places where I work. If I want to eat, I have to bring my own food anyway. And if I don't eat, I become an unpleasant snarly person. And I'm the receptionist. :)
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--peanut-butter sandwich on whole-wheat bread
--hummus and pita bread
--cottage cheese
--yogurt
Sometimes, when I'm mentally organized, I'll use an occasion when I'm in the kitchen cooking anyway to whip up some simpleminded burritos (canned pinto beans mooshed up with sauteed onion/garlic, a little pureed chipotle, cumin, red pepper flakes, cheese, wrapped in tortillas). Then I stick them in the freezer and pull one out as I'm heading out the door, and microwave it at work.
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I've got a nifty collection of the plastic microwaveable boxes that Chinese takeways use in the UK - they are £5 for 50, leakproof, freezer proof, reuseable - and I have tried to fill them with meals I can take to work.
But either a.) a forget or b.) something else crops up at lunch time and they moulder in the work fridge for a month....
I should try to do better - I spent more on lunch last month than the whole of the rest of my food and grocery bill!
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Every Sunday...
Then, I pack some baby carrots, a small handful of almonds, a small non-fat yogurt or a 1 oz stringcheese, and a piece of fruit -- that covers a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack.
I can't stop myself from grabbing free food when it's available (people bring in cookies, bagels, etc.) but I do feel taken care of enough that I'm almost never tempted to actually go out and pay for food. HTHs!
Re: Every Sunday...
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I'm the worst...
I don't like the idea of keeping food in the communal fridge--we've a staff of almost 600 and I've heard horror stories, plus it doesn't seem very clean. So I try to bring non-perishable type things--pepperoni sticks, or granola bars, nasty shit like pop-tarts and cookies on those not so peppy days. And I drink coffee like a madwoman, but enjoy a fruit juice (tetra packs, or I freeze a bottle the night before so it's cold by lunch) for lunch too.
Of course, somedays it's a handful of sunflower seeds and a cigarette, but we all gotta have days like that, right? ;)
Oh, last thought of this way too much information ramble--yeah, it saves money in the long run. Although my thermos of coffee is what's been the lifesaver to me--I buy a container of coffee for 6 bucks that makes a thermos a day all month. That's 20 thermoses. That's roughly four big mugs a day. To buy in the machines at work is 1.25 each time. That's 5.00 a day x 20 days is 100.00. Six bucks...one hundred bucks....lunches work out even better. (Bagel from home approx .45 if bought in bulk, crappy from the machine bagel at work 1.50)
Okay, as 3P0 says, shutting up now!
Re: I'm the worst...
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It's really no extra time. I've got an insulated bag which a freezer pack in the bottom. (It's easier than wrangling for space in the fridge.) Somedays I also stick something to drink in there because that is way cheaper than buying soda out of the vending machines.
On days when I use my crockpot, I bring leftovers.
Oh, and chili! Every so often I make a pot of chili that makes 8 servings. I spend about an hour making it. (Not an active hour as after the initial can opening is doen, there's not much to be done but stirring once in a while.) I seperate it out into servings right then and there and then pull one out for lunch.
(Then go up to that last paragraph and replace chili with lasagna. Except leave out the part about the stirring.)
Oooh, and since it's summer, I almost forgot!
1 can of soup + 1 spoon + 1 microwaveable bowl = lunch heaven in the winter.
Very easy. Very economical if you wait for the $1/can soup sales.
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Hmm, chili. That sounds like a good idea. Also tasty. :)
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At my current job, I don't get a lunch, just alternating five and ten minute breaks, so I don't want to waste time heating stuff. I also don't have a desk, so whatever I bring has to fit in my messenger bag. Here, I bring a peanut butter sandwich or some pretzels or granola bars, or I end up getting a Snickers from the vending machine.
I think it's important to have something to eat. Brain work is still work. You need to stay focused. Once I didn't eat before work (I work nights, so I have breakfast and lunch before and then a snack at work and a small dinner when I get home) and my hands started shaking by the middle of the evening and I couldn't walk in a straight line. SCARY.
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Hmm, maybe a brain cookbook, to plan the perfect meals for cogitation. *g*
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(Anonymous) 2005-09-05 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
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I always bring yogurt (plain with a little bit of jam added - the fruit yogurts are too sweet, but just plain is too boring) and either a sandwich or leftovers. I also bring snacks - it's much more satisfying, and healthier, to eat some nuts rather than chips from a vending machine. And granola/protein bars are cheaper by the box (or homemade when I'm really ambitious) rather than bought singly at work.
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I only have lunch at work once a week, so it's pasta salad every time, and it's very much worth the time I spend making it IMO.
I boil the pasta in the evening. Then, in the morning, I make a sauce from tomatoes (I'm sorry, but my english sucks when it comes to cooking recipes. I think it is strained tomatoes? You can buy them in a can), approx. 1 table spoon low-fat cream cheese (pure or with herbs, whatever you prefer) and a little bit of orange juice. Just try the combination of these three that you like best. Add black pepper, salt and basil according to taste.
That takes about 2 minutes.
I add dried tomatoes (I actually buy them dried and soak them in water over night, but you could use the ones that come in olive oil), small cherry tomatoes (cut in half) and every piece of vegetable that I find and like. Zucchini are fine (raw, or boiled for a few minutes with the pasta), sweet corn, peas, mushrooms, pepper... whatever is left over from the week. If you like, add olives and freshly grated parmegiano.
If I boil the pasta in the evening and cut the vegetables in the evening, it takes me about five minutes to throw everything together in the morning. Otherwise, maybe ten to 12, since it's only for me, so there aren't that many vegetables to clean and cut.
If you choose 0,1 zero fat cream cheese and olive oil free dried tomatoes, this has almost no fat, so it's actually good for you. Plus, it allows for dessert. :-)
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Something I've just discovered that's wonderful and unexpectedly filling are smoothies. I just got a blender last week, so I've been experimenting like crazy. The banana+peanut butter+honey is my favorite, but the strawberry+blueberry+raspberry is good too, and the chocolate+peanut butter was a big hit with the roommate. Infinite varieties! I'm gathering courage to try the carrot-apple that my cousin swears is so amazing. You wouldn't believe the crazy things you could put in a blender and make taste all right.
The trick I've discovered for making a smoothie filling enough for a snack or a meal is to add a generous serving of vanilla yogurt or smooth tofu (or both) for protein and weight. I would never actually eat a serving of tofu straight (ew, that texture! ew ew ew!), but you can't even tell it's there when it's all blended together. Plus, hey, extra source of calcium! Never bad.
The beauty about smoothies is that they're even better chilled, so if you blend them the night before, just decant into a travel mug and throw it in the fridge, and the next morning, it's ready to go with no hassle!