Our office refrigerator is broken at the moment. For a card (sack?)-carrying member of the Brown Bag Lunch Crew, this has made lunchtimes a little challenging.
As I see it, I have two – check that, three – possible lunch options.
- Bring non-perishables for lunch
- Go out for lunch
- Skip lunch
Since I really enjoy eating, I don’t think option three works for me.
I’ve been grabbing a variety of non-perishables, trying to make do.
I tell you all of this because yesterday was an extraordinarily long day. I ate my non-perishables while working at my desk, then headed out to guest lecture at a local college. It was nearly 8 pm before I drug myself home. And I was ab-so-lute-ly starving when I arrived.
I’m hungry! I told The Boy and The Niece. I’ve hardly had anything to eat today.
Then I proceeded to describe my lunch:
- 1 apple
- 1 roll (leftover from dinner earlier in the week)
- 1/2 cup black beans (rinsed, not mashed, leftover from dinner earlier in the week)
- 2 oz. cheddar cheese
- 4 half-strips beef jerky (any more and the sodium will kill you)
- Rice Krispie treat
- Diet Coke
I finished my list and The Boy looked at me. You ate what?!
Hey – that sounds like a crazy meal that I might eat, said The Niece.
And that got me to thinking – I eat some really crazy things sometimes.
When I’m cooking for friends and family, I put on a good show. Main and sides, dessert and nibbles. It’s all there. And if I’m heading out of town for work, I put together casseroles and take-out menus for The Boy.
But if The Boy leaves and I’m on my own, I’m just as likely to grab an avocado and piece of toast, or leftover spaghetti with a leftover egg roll on the side.
Crazy, I know, but hey – sometimes leftovers just have some odd, well, leftovers. And what else can you do with them if you’re loathe to toss them out?
I’m wondering, though, if this might simply be a Me thing. But since The Niece has similar strange eating patterns – and I swear I watched one of my colleagues drain a can of tuna and dump it on a small bit of lettuce, accompanied by crackers from the office share drawer – I think this might not be my problem alone.
So now I’m curious. Is this just me? Is this common to women {in general}? Or is there something larger at work here?
Discuss.
um, Adella has lunch with her every day. She uses an ice pack to keep her food good from the time I pack it, to the time she gets to eat it. Is this impossible for you?
Ed beat me to it. I was going to offer up the fourth option – a couple of hard-case Blue-Ice packs in an insulated lunch bag keeps lunch cold all morning. That's what I use in Wonder Child's school lunch bag.
(Oh, and I have a mini-fridge in my office so I don't have to depend on the office fridge. Option five?)
I always carried an insulated lunch bag with Blue-Ice packs when I was working. For years I had no access to a mini-fridge and when I eventually did it was often too full (usually of others' leftover odds and ends) for my stuff.
RE preparing those fantastic meals when your partner, friends, or children are not there with you, I say "Forget it". I take the lazy way out and usually will eat just whatever is left in the fridge, no matter how well it goes together or not, until I absolutely have to cook again. I save the fancy cooking for when others can enjoy it with me.
I could write another blog post altogether on the inability to run errands even when necessary.
Like when I need a blue ice pack because the office refrigerator is out.
I also don't have body wash (using The Boy's), day moisterizer (using my night cream), or the critical missing elements to complete five craft projects currently residing on my wet bar and foyer floor.
And so glad to hear that I have company in the "toss it together, it all ends up on the same place anyway" eat-on-my-own bunch!!
I need to ship you some, I have them breeding in my freezer!