Weekend Cook and Tell: Lunch Box
Welcome to the Weekend Cook and Tell. Every Wednesday we browse through the food sections of various national newspapers to come up with an article or recipe to inspire a weekend cooking project. We want all of you to cook along with us and share your experiences, recipes, and photos.
This week's inspiration comes from the San Francisco Chronicle. Staff writer Amanda Gold had a revelation a few weeks back while putting together a weekday lunch at a local deli. She chose a small piece of chicken, some macaroni and cheese, a few raw vegetables, and a cookie. This balanced lunch came in at just under $20, a lot more than she was willing to spend on a simple lunch for the office.
In Lunches That Pack a Punch, Gold lays out a number of easy, healthy, and locally-sourced lunch ideas that can be prepared quickly the night or morning before work. She surveys her co-workers to find out their favorite brown bag lunches, shares five easy office lunch recipes, and lists her favorite take-alongs.
Whether it's a Tupperware filled with last night's leftovers or a lovingly crafted bento, this week we want to know what you are eating for lunch at work. It certainly doesn't have to be fancy but if it's more interesting than a diet soda and a bag of chips from the vending machine, we want to hear all about it.
Show us your photos on Photograzing (make sure to include "Cook and Tell" in your submission title) and tell us about your recipes here! If you'd like to blog the experience, please leave a link in the comments below. We'll post a round-up of your photos and recipes next Wednesday.
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26 Comments:
Oh, I am so psyched for this one. :-)
maxcriden at 7:05PM on 09/16/09
Hmmm....I work from home, so my refrigerator is my lunchbox.
dbcurrie at 12:15AM on 09/17/09
I have been using my Totoro bento, because I'm a big, dorky kid. It has two sections. The last two days, I've filled one with eggplant curry and one with mock biyrani. Today, one half has rice and one half has homemade falafel/avocado lettuce wraps.
KarynMC at 8:26AM on 09/17/09
I make Bentos for my hubby every day for lunch. I often use leftovers and add fruits and raw veggies and other assorted goodies. Sometimes I make him something specifically for lunch not made from leftovers. Today he got Beef w/ Broccoli over brown rice, veggie dumplings, fresh fruit. I always take pics too and put them on my FB page. He loves them and I love making them for him!
arm1970 at 9:43AM on 09/17/09
Yesterday, slivers of juicy roast chicken, grainy bread, Greek yogurt with honey and a small V-8; today, some Thai chicken with rice, sliced tomato with a dollop of mayo, diced cantaloupe, and a fizzy fruit juice.
BobbieAnne at 12:20PM on 09/17/09
Spaghetti Squash with Herbed Goat Cheese, Roasted Broccoli, and Parmesean shavings. Mmmm. Dinner leftovers.
rockinTACO at 1:30PM on 09/17/09
Croissant + a hunk of Gouda, with a side of baby carrots and hummus. I grab whatever's sitting around.
hungryhungryhippo at 7:00PM on 09/17/09
i baked too many cherry and peach pies over the summer and couldn't zip my jeans on the first cool day {was wearing skirts for months and didn't pay attention}. now i'm living on fruits, vegetables, nuts, wasa bread, and canned fish. my lunch today consisted of carrots, sprouts, a tomato, some cucumbers, olives, two apples, some melon, and a handful of tamari almonds. that or some variation of it will be what i'll be eating every day until my pants are not so tight.
cybercita at 10:40PM on 09/17/09
We fill our Glass Lock containers with last night's leftovers -- today was oxtail stew with carrots and potatoes, over rice. Mmm.
avaryne at 4:43PM on 09/18/09
I usually bring my lunch to work four days out of of five. I have one big cooking day a week (usually on a Saturday morning) and lunch is always taken into account. Yesterday was chili, rice, artichoke tapenade from Smitten Kitchen's recipe, Grille Toasts, and yogurt w/dried cherries. The day before was humus, artichoke tapenade, carrot chips, jalapeno strips, Grille Toasts, yogurt w/dried cherries (I always have yogurt w/dried cherries), the day before was ziti w/tomato butter sauce and lots of parm, romaine salad, kalamata olives and oven dried tomatoes (my favorite thing to make), the day before was a steak sandwich w/boursin cheese, shaved pistachios, arugula, super thinly sliced tomato and a black bean and corn salad. I think I spend more time and effort on my lunches than I do on dinner. I like to have lots of different things to eat at one time, and I like them packaged attractively. I have 6 or 7 bento boxes that go through a regular rotation, plus a Mr a Ms. Bento, scads of Lock & Lock's, ice packs and insulated lunch bags.
I may sound a little anal retentive on this subject, but honestly, it's what keeps me going. If I was just looking forward to a ham and cheese sandwich every day, I'd chuck the whole thing and just hit the deli instead.
Regarding @arm's bento boxes? I've seen them. They're pretty awesome. If only she could cook for me...
chisai at 7:52PM on 09/18/09
I got really psyched by the bento thread a week ago, and have plans to prepare a stash this weekend. This is just the extra nudge I need to make sure I get it done. Will report back.
lemonfair at 8:36AM on 09/19/09
acorn squash and cracked pepper soup from last night with granny smith apple slices for dipping (it was good, although i was skeptical while packing lunch in the morning.) and Kavli 5grains with butter.
slograffiti at 3:09PM on 09/19/09
I ended up having a bento-type lunch at home yesterday.
I had leftover rice and leftover nimono (gobo/burdock, dried shiitake, carrots, chicken), so I made a Japanese dashimaki omelet, stuff it in a container (rice occupied it about 1/2) along with the nimono, sprinkled sesame seeds on rice.
typical bento!
hmw0029 at 1:34PM on 09/20/09
I look forward to making my lunches. Yesterday it was an Italian sausage and mushroom ragu over spaghetti squash with basil pesto mixed in. i think I might eat the leftovers for breakfast!
erikasimi at 11:51AM on 09/21/09
leftover roasted salmon on top of baby greens with swedish cucumbers, a bit of sour cream-red onion-dill sauce, and a dash of white balsamic vinaigrette.
kiira at 5:36PM on 09/21/09
Today's lunch was home-grown cherry tomatoes tossed with homemade pesto with basil from my garden and fresh mozzarella.
ChefDJen at 6:31PM on 09/21/09
A few weeks ago, I started making Bento box-style lunches for my girlfriend to take to work everyday, and it's been a lot of fun. This past week, I made her corn fritters with fruit salsa, DIY crostini open-faced sandwiches, homemade polenta, and a Manchego cheese quesadilla. All her co-workers are very jealous! :)
Here's a link to my write-up of these lunches (with a pic of each lunch), for those interested:
http://beachcitycooking.blogspot.com/2009/09/weekly-bento-round-up-4.html
maxcriden at 2:22AM on 09/22/09
Meatballs made from the remains of what was last night's steak tartare. Over elbow macaroni. With some olive oil and herbs.
Lorenzo at 10:27AM on 09/22/09
I got Annie's pasta mixes on sale at the grocery store, whee!
This week is cheeseburger macaroni with leftover sloppy joe meat. Last week was creamy penne with chicken. This week is definitely better. The sauce curdled and separated last week - it tasted fine but looked like "when dairy products attack".
akk328 at 1:16PM on 09/22/09
My buddy at work whips us up a stuffed tortilla with scrambled eggs, bacon, salsa, browned on a flat top. Then we dip it in hot sauce. You could do this the night before. Hope you don't get heartburn.
munchin out at 5:23PM on 09/22/09
@maxcriden - nice write-up on your bento boxes.
I made my first bento box for lunch this weekend. Didn't get as much done in the way of "stash" as I wanted, and the boxes won't really take off until I do. Did an homage to the bento's Japanese roots for my first box, making Totoro in rice, corn, and kiwi. Teriyaki sauced veggies to go with the rice, plus broccoli, kiwi and melon., few grapes.
lemonfair at 8:46PM on 09/22/09
I originally wanted to make a cute bento box with heart and star shaped hard boiled eggs, but my egg shapers failed me. Instead, I created a delicious lunch of food my mom cooked and sent with my brother to bring back to me. I had a lunch of stir fried shrimp with edamame beans, rice, and soy sauce egg. http://www.kirbiecravings.com/2009/09/bento-box.html
kirbie at 1:00AM on 09/23/09
I've been on a Greek kick for over a week now, and I'm not over it yet, thank goodness! I found recipes on the internet for homemade gyros made with ground beef and ground pork and spanokopita turkey meatballs. Both recipes were easy, and made a lot, so I was able to share with friends and co-workers. The gyros were served with a regular tzatziki sauce, and then this was extended by adding cumin, coriander and dill with the meatballs. For some unknown reason, none of the 3 grocery stores in my town know what plain, unsweetened yogurt is, so I drove over 25 miles to the next largest town hoping to find plain yogurt, and was absolutely ecstatic to find organic, greek-style yogurt. Also, I was in the middle of trying out new recipes for no knead bread, and I made naan instead of pita bread because I could just cook it in the skillet.
LanaRae at 1:01AM on 09/23/09
@lemonfair: thanks so much! I only started doing these Bento write-ups recently, but they're a lot of fun to write.
Your Bento sounds wonderful, did you take a pic? I'd love to see how the Totoro came out!
maxcriden at 2:23PM on 09/23/09
recent bento talks here make me miss "hot bento" shops! especially the ones you can pick and choose bento fillings to create your own bento... they are a lot of fun!
hmw0029 at 2:46PM on 09/23/09
@maxcriden - I did take a picture! And started my blog as part of my weekend project. I'm sort of embarrassed by my first bento, which I very much wanted to look like Totoro, and I'm afraid it looks a lot more like Cookie Monster. But here it is:
http://verbento.blogspot.com/
lemonfair at 6:04PM on 09/23/09