Monday, September 12, 2011

The Lunch Box Chronicles

Happy September, everyone! I could go on about crisp fall air and burnished leaves, but just to recap, I live in San Francisco, where the weather is schizophrenic, and summer is just finally beginning. I've been reading fashion week coverage with wistful sighs, thinking about the red, pressed wool coat that's going to be sitting in my closet for another two months. Sometimes life is hard.

In cookbook land, however, September means back-to-school month, or in other words, lunch boxes! Am I going back to school this year? Absolutely not, but when has that ever stopped me from indulging in new school supplies. A confession: I really, really enjoy packing my lunch. To be fair, I mostly pack my lunch because I work in print publishing and am poor and thereby, you know, have to. But also, I really, really enjoy packing my lunch.

Around this time of year our neighborhood Whole Foods puts up a display dedicated to lunch boxes, containers, and accoutrement. It's hard to resist. The scenario goes somewhat like this:

"Stephen!" I exclaim.
"Yes?" says Stephen, inching towards the deli meats.
"Haven't you always wanted a multi-tiered tiffin?!"
"No," says Stephen.

And so on.

Nevertheless, we've built up a pretty solid collection of different types of containers: a bento box, the tiffin, various glass jars, milk jugs, etc. When I was little I had a great plastic lunch box with examples of different dinosaurs on it. I wonder if my mom still has that. ALSO, Williams-Sonoma (WS to its friends) now has a vintage Star Wars lunch box. I hope Stephen isn't reading this, because that has Christmas present written all over it.
Photo courtesy of http://www.williams-sonoma.com.


This year, things escalated. First, I bought a new stainless steel sandwich box (Stephen said no, but I hid it under some tortillas in the cart and snuck it through at the check out). Then my company came out with an aaaaa-dor-able! little cookbook (shameless plug here). Plus I was super broke after I came back from my European vacation, so packing lunch every day became a kind of personal challenge.

Would you accept a word of advice? Life gets a lot easier when you stock up on easy-to-grab snacks, like carrots, sugar snaps, mini cheeses, individual yogurts, and bagels. Dare to join the ranks of the lunch ninjas? Set yourself up over the weekend with a batch of toasty granola, some leftover grilled chicken breasts, or a big pot of soup. If it's there, you'll pack it. Here are some of our current faves:

Yogurt and muesli
Oat scones
Black bean and cheese burritos
Spicy peanut noodle salad
Smoked salmon wraps
Veggie and hummus wraps
Chicken caesar wraps
Caprese baguettes
Apple and brie baguettes
BLT's
Broccoli and cheddar calzone
Tuna melts and tomato soup
Carrot-ginger soup
Cobb salads
Curried chicken salads

Happy packing, happy lunching, and happy September, whether that means back-to-school or still-at-work.