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Hot tea today, but if I was having coffee it would be iced. I'm lowering my caffeine intake this week so that when I can't have any coffee on Saturday morning (Yom Kippur) I won't get the dreaded headache from lack of caffeine.

Invest in a cheap electric can opener, so you can open cans of beans etc.

Get a whole bunch of little freezer containers, and make sauces - marinara and stir-fry sauce. This way you have it ready the way you like it and can just heat it and pour.

If you have a food processor, use it - it can shred things as well as chop them up. Also maybe one of those tap choppers could be useful (which I know some people malign but I love for things like jalapenos).

Honestly, this might just be a situation where you need to rely on some pre-prepped food - containers of onions chopped up, jarred tomato sauce (unless you have some in your freezer), pre-shredded cheese, etc. Use frozen veggies - those are already cut up.

Consider cooking meat and freezing it. Make it neutral - just season with salt and pepper, and slice it before you freeze it (so you have chicken breasts ready to go, or roast beef). Even if the quality deteriorates a bit from the freezer, if you mix it with other stuff it should be fine. Or, prepare things like hamburgers and freeze them in patty form. Then you just need to throw them on the pan.

Good luck and I hope the surgery goes well!

HA sorry - just saw that you said you didn't want a place where you needed reservations. Nevermind then! But good luck anyway :) (and to you too, shoneyjoe!)

norma's, if you can get a reservation. get the waz za waffle. it is made from happiness and fairy dust.

I was there 2 years ago - I can empathize with the misery!

Don't go out for lunch - there isn't much of anything around there, and the last thing you want to do is risk eating something that will upset your stomach. In fact, I don't know anyone who didn't bring their lunch.

I brought the same lunch both days, it fit fine into the bag we were allowed to bring - a challah roll with a piece of grilled chicken, with baby spinach, sliced tomato, mustard, and mayo, and a baggie of grapes. You want to eat something that won't drag you down but will fill you up. I also brought a baggie of gummy bears/sour patch kids and another of peanut butter m&ms.

A couple non-food related tips - wear layers - it was FREEZING in there when I took it so you want to make sure you have a sweatshirt but something underneath it in case it isn't as cold there and for during lunch. I brought 2 watches - my regular one, and an old one that I don't wear anymore for which I can stop and reset the time easily - before each section started, I set the watch at twelve, so that I could easily tell how much time has passed.

Maybe something that is very related to the culture/ethnicity/country of original (or whatever) of your family? ie... swedish meatballs, arancini, borscht, etc

(maybe not borscht. imagine the stains if that sucker broke open in the car!)

I love ketchup. mmm mmm ketchup.

I also use dried herbs almost exclusively, unless I am making something in which the herb is a main component (my roasted grape tomato, mozz, and basil pasta for instance).

I always have a bottle of lemon juice AND another of lime juice!

Canned beans. Boxed stock. Boxed mac n cheese at times.

I don't mix hot dogs into mac n cheese but I will saute an onion, add a can of baked beans, and add in some sliced hot dogs along with a TON of ketchup and mustard. mmm mmm ketchup :)

@sherri - I like the trader joes roasted garlic marinara, and barilla makes some pretty good varieties as does newman's own. I had a jar of the emeril sauce and it was really good

Use frozen fruit instead of ice cubes, or use fruit juice cubes!

Or, the other option is just to make the drink in the pitcher and put the ice on the side.

@dm - if I deep fried something every time I had an urge (especially for mozzarella sticks....) I'd be the size of a house! I admire your restraint.

Maybe some no-bake cookies? Haystacks?

Maybe make guacamole and salsa and bring cheese and chips and make nachos?

@jerkfaceirl - I've seen haloumi at Garden of Eden on 14th Street, though I haven't seen it recently (and I've been looking!). Maybe one of the other G of Es in the city will have it?

Or, I can't remember if Sahadi's in Brooklyn has cheese, but if they do they might have haloumi.

I buy different dried fruit and nuts from trader joes, and then I make my own snack mix.

Maybe yogurt or string cheese?

azuri azuri azuri!

man now I want a falafel.