This week's lunches: July 13-17 2009

Lots of repeats this week, but lots of fresh, colourful and delicious produce. Yay summer!


Monday: Lentil, broccoli and orange salad (recipe here) on romaine, blanched asparagus and broccoli, peas, oranges, cherries and a cherry filled bun (more on that later)


Tuesday: Some sort of bastard pasta primavera with garlic scapes, asparagus and peas, oranges and an oatmeal molasses muffin, peas, broccoli, and cherries, with a fancy lettuce liner for the container (which I ate)


Wednesday: Delicious, steamy, spicy, chock full of stuff vegetable black bean clean-out-the-fridge/freezer soup. Except frozen, so that it won't leak. Cornbread in the red diamond shaped silicone...thing, and the usual fruit&veg.


Thursday: More soup, more everything. A simple salad of romaine, sunflower seeds, black sesame seeds, salt, pepper and lime. I don't have a container that can reliably hold dressing without leaking, but this was delicious.


Friday: The on-the-ball reader will notice that Friday is in fact tomorrow. It's lunch from the future! I usually pack my lunch the night before, because it's one less thing to do in the morning. And if you've been in the position of standing in front of the fridge 10 minutes before you need to leave wondering what the heck you can chuck in a container to bring, you'll understand why I avoid it. The only new thing here is a vegetable curry under brown rice (so that the rice doesn't get soggy)

That's it for this week folks, stay tuned tomorrow for another exciting episode of Food Waste Friday! Woooo!

This week's lunches: July 6-10 2009

I take a packed lunch nearly every day. When I'm on the ball I pack it the night before; when I'm really on the ball I take a picture and post it on the Internet. It's more for the sake of record keeping and my own interest than anything else, but I thought I'd share a bit.


I started putting more effort into it when I was putting in long days at school and was often packing both lunch and dinner. I often take inspiration from Japanese bento box style meals, mostly in terms of preparation and packing rather than the actual dishes.


Despite my interest in food and cooking I eat a lot of the same things. An example is carrot sticks. I could eat raw carrots until I turn orange. (Hopefully I won't, apparently that's an actual possibility...wasn't there a House episode about that?)


I love love love my Lock&Lock containers...they're air and water tight, and the large sizes are perfect for lunch, while the smaller ones hold snacks well. I generally don't microwave the plastic, so if there is something I want to microwave I put it in the large...muglike thing. It doesn't seal as well though; if I'm bringing soup I'll often freeze it so it stays solid and is less likely to leak.


Most things I eat at room temperature: my lunch only spends ~3-4 hours in my desk in an air-conditioned building so I'm not too worried from a food safety perspective. The eggs you see got eaten midmorning, so they were only out of the fridge for 2 hours.


You can see more in my flickr stream.