This Imperfect Plot

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September 23rd, 2011

At the end of week 4 of the brown bag challenge, I have a few observations to make:

1. I eat a lot of pasta.

2. I will often forget about packing my lunch until right when I’m walking out the door in the morning.

3. I somehow managed to lose that Pyrex bowl. I may have left it in the little kitchen up here on the second floor.

4. I may have lost a little weight, too. I’ve been fastening my belt in the second position for a while now, but on Monday, I had to move to the third hole.

5. According to the Internet, the holes in a belt are just called belt holes. They have no special name.

6. I am slightly disappointed that belt holes don’t have a special name.

Here’s my recap of the week:

Monday
Fusilli with sweet potatoes, sausages, and various other veggies.

Tuesday
Here’s the thing about Tuesday. I packed my lunch, but I never ate it. You see, my wife had a meeting in the building, so she brought the kiddos with her. I entertained the girls while she had her meeting, then we went out to a local coffee shop for lunch. So I give myself credit for packing a lunch of leftover pasta, but I give myself a fail for not eating it. I had a tasty sandwich of salami, asiago cheese, and some kind of special relish from a place called Baked in town.

Wednesday
I ate a leftover cheeseburger. Technically, it was a patty melt. What’s the deal with that? A hamburger on a bun is called a hamburger, but a hamburger on slices of bread is called a patty melt. I don’t get it.

I didn’t pack anything else so I was starving by the time I got home. Starving.

Thursday
I found another leftover hamburger in the fridge. This one had a bun. I also brought some leftover potato wedges. Sort of like steak fries, I guess. And a cookie.

Friday
Another bowl of Fusilli with sweet potatoes, zucchini, onions, broccoli, and Italian sausages. And a cookie.

Sorry for the lack of images. Hopefully, next week I’ll be better at snapping photos of my food before I eat it.

I’m taking part in the Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Tags: brown bag challenge, lunch

September 16th, 2011

I read somewhere a long time ago that if you want to start a new habit, you have to repeat the behavior 12 times before it will likely stick.

Well, I’m not quite there yet. I have only packed my lunch 10 times in a row. But I feel good about it. I am confident that I’ll complete this brown bag challenge and make it to the end of the month. And who knows—I might just continue to brown bag it after that, saving trips to the corporate cafeteria for special occasions and dire emergencies.

Last week, I mentioned that one of the unlooked-for benefits of packing every day was that our fridge didn’t fill up with orphan leftovers and moldy containers of last week’s suppers. But this week, I report on the downside. My wife and daughter would usually eat some of those leftovers for lunch and this challenge has been depriving them of some quick lunches. Hmm…what to do, what to do.

Here’s my Brown Bag wrap up for the week:

Monday.

Another leftover i-oy: Fusilli with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. In this picture, you get a glimpse of how I sometimes spend my lunch break: reading Paul Krugman in the Times and compiling a list of semi-obscure holiday tunes to record this year for the annual family Christmas record.

Tuesday.

Leftover Frittata. This meal was inspired by a recipe in next week’s Garden to Table Newsletter.

Wednesday.

A roast beef sandwich with horseradish, cheese, and a tomato from the garden. And a side of organic grapes. This is a leftover sandwich because my wife actually cooked the roast the night before. Local, grass-fed beef. Plus a cookie from Kimberton Whole Foods.

Thursday.

Another excellent chicken soup. With corn, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli and who-knows-what-else. My wife makes good soup.

Friday.

I swear this was a bowl of tortellini. With a red sauce made from Eden Organic crushed tomatoes, strained tomatoes, & tomato paste, cooked with onions and fresh parsley from the garden. I was so hungry today that I simple forgot to take a picture until it was all gone.

I’m taking part in the Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Tags: brown bag challenge, lunch, organic food, tomatoes

September 8th, 2011

One week ago today, I started packing my lunch, instead of buying my lunch from the café downstairs. My first lunch was a glorious chicken salad sandwich made by my loving wife. My subsequent lunches have been reconfigurations of leftover dinners.

Friday, September 2, was leftover homemade chicken soup with lentils and vegetables.

Monday was a holiday.

Tuesday was leftover Pasta Fazul. That spelling looks weird to me, but then again, I’ve never tried spelling it before. It’s my mother-in-law’s recipe and it’s good. A little Locatelli cheese and some red pepper flakes and you’re all set.

Wednesday was leftover i-oy. What? Yep. I-oy. That’s what my wife’s family calls aglio olio. Maybe it’s a regional dialect thing, but whatever it’s called, i-oy is always good. I made this one the night before with onions, beans, garlic, basil, parsley, and tomatoes from the garden. Plus I added frozen organic spinach, broccoli, and peas. I also made meatballs from some local ground pork. Again, a little Locatelli and some red pepper flakes and you’re good to go.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the i-oy, but I did manage to remember to take a picture of the homemade cup cake I had for dessert.

When I heat these meals up in the microwave, I use a Pyrex bowl. I never put plastic in the microwave, because I’m sure that microwaving plastic leaches all sorts of toxins into your food.

And today, I had another chicken sandwich. This time made by yours truly, so it wasn’t quite the sandwich event that last week’s was, but it was still pretty good: Leftover chicken cutlets with a slice of cheddar cheese on multigrain bread. I brought a whole avocado and a tomato and sliced them up right on the spot.

Why do i like the Healthy Eats Brown Bag challenge? Yes, I’m saving money. Yes, I have complete control over what I’m eating. But there is something else: the dinner leftovers aren’t piling up in the fridge. Our refrigerator is sort of famous for being the place where leftovers go to die. So the surprising benefit of the brown bag challenge? A cleaner fridge.

I’m taking part in the Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Tags: br, brown bag challenge, leftovers, lunches

September 1st, 2011

Lunch is one of the most important meals of the day. It’s in my top 5 for sure. Which is why this brown bag challenge might be, uh, challenging for me.

Here’s the thing: here at Rodale, the café is pretty amazing. The food is always fresh, usually local, and mostly organic. I’m totally spoiled. Here’s a screen shot of today’s menu.

So why would I want to pack my lunch every day for a month? Two reasons come to mind:

• It’s an exercise in self-discipline and self-sacrifice. I will become a better person by packing my lunch.

• I will save money. The café isn’t SUPER expensive, but it adds up. Plus, if swipe my employee card, the money comes right out of my paycheck, so I hardly ever pay in cash. It’s easy to forget that this food is costing me money.

I admit, though, that I loathe the idea of having to prepare a meal in the morning before work. I did this every day for years when I worked in the electrical and solar trades. In my early morning pre-coffee fog, I would throw together the saddest little lunches you’ve ever seen. And then these lunches would sit in my truck all morning until it was time to eat and they would be wholly unfulfilling. So when I got to Rodale, the café was an oasis of goodness.

This morning, however, something wonderful happened: My wife offered to make my lunch. Now, you have to understand that she doesn’t just make a sandwich—she builds a sandwich. She takes such care with each ingredient. Her every action is deliberate. The result is an amazing testament to good food made with real love.

So my first day of the challenge, I will have the pleasure of eating a chicken salad sandwich (local, organic, free range chicken of course), with onion, tomato, and parsley from our garden (picked this morning), on multigrain grain bread. Plus, a handful of organic grapes, a box of raisins, and a piece of leftover blueberry cake that my wife made for my daughter’s third birthday 2 days ago.

I’m probably more excited about lunch today than I’ve been in a long time. So thanks to the Good Eats people at the Food Network for challenging me in such a way, and thanks to my wife for making this incredible meal.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some eating to do.

(wondering now if the other challenge should be to not eat lunch in my office.)

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Tags: brown bag challenge, food, lunch