I haven’t forgotten your questions, I promise.  Things have just been busy ’round here, what with testicles getting snipped and tossed and all.  (Hippo’s doing fine, by the way.  And his eye got fixed as well!  He’s a new pup.  One who walks a little gingerly at the moment.)

But enough about testicles.  Let’s talk about lunch!

Okay, so I maybe need to work on my transitions.  I’ll get on that.

Jessica wrote to ask:

What recommendations do you have for those who work in an office and would like to bring healthful lunches that won’t take 90 years to make in the morning? My one catch is that I live in the frozen tundra of the north, and I want something warm in the winter.

Ah, the frozen tundra.  I remember the tundra.  Fondly.  But distantly.  I have to say, I greatly prefer the frozen tundra at a distance.  The non-frozen months in the north are lovely.  It’s just the frozen ones that lose their appeal for me.

So.  Lunch that won’t take forever to make in the morning.  Let’s get to it!

Tip #1: Don’t make your lunch in the morning.  I swear, I’m not being snarky in the least.  I am one of those people who prefers to be out the door 30 minutes after waking, which means I have my stuff packed and my lunch made the night before.  I want every last minute of sleep I can get in the morning, especially if it’s cold and dark outside.  Because I care about you, I am counseling you convert to my side on this one.  Make your dinner at night.  You’ll thank me.

Tip #2: I am a big advocate of making large batches of food a few times during the week and eating off them during the week.  For example, in our house, we just polished off a batch of a rich and spicy Lima bean soup with smoked pasilla de Oaxaca peppers that provided 4 or 5 meals, we’re just starting on the tamales and black beans (I left enough for about 4-5 servings in the fridge and put another 5-6 in the freezer), I have a huge bowl of taboulleh which will be lunch for a couple days, and we’re just about due for making another jumbo-batch of hummus.  Plus, remember those cinnamon rolls from the other day?  The whole “make-a-double-batch-and-freeze-one” concept?  I love that.  If you are making the investment to cook one batch of something in the first place, it increases your work time very little to double or triple that recipe.

Now, I’ll admit that this works well in our house because we have no problems with eating leftovers, as long as they are tasty leftovers.  For people that have a low threshold for food fatigue, you might wind up freezing more of what you make and rotating it in at more widely-spaced intervals.  Or you might just work on raising your food fatigue threshold.  Honestly, cooking like this has had a lot of benefits for our family.  First, it saves quite a bit of time, it cuts down on overeating (you know you can have more for the next couple days, so you’re less likely to overeat at any given meal), it cuts down on impulsive restaurant dining by severely reducing the co-incidence of having nothing ready and a lack of desire to cook (thereby saving money and cutting out some unhealthy options), and overall, it makes eating healthier a much more realistic option.  Try it.  Really.  If you’re making these big batches of food, it’s simple to pop a mason jar of soup or a Pyrex container with casserole, enchiladas, or the like into your lunch bag and run with it.  (Because you mentioned wanting hot food, I assume you intend to microwave it.  That being the case, I discourage you from using plastic containers.  Glass, glass, glass, my friend.  I understand that many plastics are supposed to be fine when heated, but some of them aren’t.  Besides that, plastics are incredibly damaging to the environment, and I would prefer that everyone used less of them when possible.)

Tip 3: So, what might you be popping into those glass containers to enjoy hot?

• Soups
• Chili
• Pasta with sauce and veggies
• Whole-grain rice with stir-fried vegetables
• Enchiladas
• Tamales
• Stuffed bell peppers
• Empanadas, calzones, pierogies, or other delicious pocket food
• Homemade pizza
• Lasagna
• Curry and rice
• Casseroles

And the list goes on.  Basically, whatever you eat for dinner, you can pack as your lunch.  Avoid things that don’t microwave well, like eggs, but it’s pretty fair game other than that.

Tip 4: What about those of you who, like me, don’t want to microwave?  Whether it’s the smell of the shared office microwave (been there), the concept of microwaving, or the way it changes the texture of your food, you have options as well.  You can consider a cold lunch, use a toaster oven if you have one at work (or you could get one for less than $10 at the Goodwill and bring it in yourself, as the Unicyclist has done), or, if it works for you (like it does for me), you can enjoy foods at room temperature at work if you pull them out of the fridge an hour before you plan to eat.  Because I have a vegetarian diet and don’t eat much in the way of high-risk items (meat, mayo, dairy, etc) and DO tend to flavor things with natural antibacterials (lemon, garlic, ginger, to name a few), I have never been worried about leaving food unrefrigerated for a little bit, but you’ll have to assess the risks posed by your particular diet and health situation.  In any case, consider the following options if you’re microwave-shy.  And remember, sometimes just a nice, steaming cup of tea with a cool meal can be enough to combat the winter chill.

• Hummus with raw or roasted veggies and whole grain pita
• Sandwiches (avocado, hummus, roasted eggplant or portobello, mozzerella and tomato, nut butter with apple and celery)  Eat them cold or choose one to toast open-face if a toaster oven is available.
• Salad of your invention; make it heartier with beans, wild rice, or roasted veggies thrown in.  Think tabbouleh, lentil fattoush, or something like my sunchoke and mesquite candied squash salad.
• Sushi rolls with shiitake mushrooms, avocado, and cucumber
• Dolmades (stuffed grape leaves; I’ll post on them eventually, as I love them) with a salad
• Soup, chili, stew, or curry warmed on the stove at home and stored in a high-quality, wide-mouth thermos

Tip 5: In order to avoid lunches unexpectedly disappearing (whether at home or at work), it often helps to parcel out the food at soon as you make it.  Pop it into jars or containers with sticky notes or tape reading “Jessica-Monday,” “J Tuesday,” and the like.  That way, it won’t get accidentally snarfed.  It might still get snarfed, but obviously not accidentally.  Plus, it makes it easy for you to reach, grab, and go in the mornings.

Tip 6: You didn’t ask, but I also encourage taking a snack or two.  Some days you discover you’re hungrier than you thought, and lunch isn’t holding you.  The artificial colors and flavors lurking in the office vending machine begin to call your name.  The thickeners and preservatives do their best to seduce you.  It’s easier to stick with your goals of eating real, healthy food if you take snacks with you.  I try to take one morning and one afternoon snack, planning generously.  If I don’t need it, then I have it for the next day.  Consider some of the following snacks:

• Nut butter sandwich (I usually split this in half—half in the morning, half in the afternoon)
• Fresh fruit!  (especially during citrus season, when I have piles of it, free)
• Homemade granola, with or without yogurt
• Trail mix (nuts, raisins, dried fruit, maybe some good chocolate when I’m feeling in the need)
• Hummus or muhammara with veggies for dipping
• Extra sushi or dolmades
• Roasted squash seeds
• A Clif bar or the equivalent.  Not the best option, as it’s got a lot of added vitamins and significant processing done to some of its contents, but you could do a lot worse.  They’re just really easy to keep in your bag or in a drawer at work in case of emergency.  Actually, Lära bars or Clif Nectar bars have only a handful of ingredients, all recognizable.  They’re just dried fruits, nuts, and spices.  However, I don’t know that they’re an ideal option for anyone with blood sugar concerns; dried fruit can have a pretty significant impact.

How’s that for starters, Jessica?  I’m thrilled that you’re looking for ways to make healthy lunches on the go a reality.  Really, the single key is probably big-batch cooking.  It’s what allowed me to make sure I had healthy, homemade, and delicious lunches 95% of the time that I was working 60 hours a week.  (The other 5% was the occasional leftover pizza slice from a dinner out, or a lame peanut butter sandwich day when I really wasn’t feeling it.)  Make food a priority, and it will fall into place.  There may be hiccups occasionally, and sometimes you may choose a frozen insta-meal or a fast-food stop, but you’ll still have a much better overall lunch life, even with those occasional hiccups.

Perfect is overrated.  Better is good.

Guten Apetit!