Well, that sounds delicious.

I love meals made up of lots of yummy little things - keeps it interesting and it's also a great way to get a lot of various vitamins into your system.

This is my favorite way to eat, actually. A little fruit, a wedge of cheese, some meat (bonus points if it's cured!), maybe some olives, some bread or crackers... I love it. Tons of textures, flavors and I pay more attention creating the "perfect bite" which means I slow down and enjoy my food more.

That looks like the lunch I gave my toddlers yesterday! (No bread, whole grain crackers) yummy!

I love this. It's not radically new, but I sometimes forget that delicious doesn't have to involve cooking.

I call these "Grownup Lunchables" and love them! Some good cheese, water crackers or slice of French bread, a bit of cured meat (usually pepperonis), some cut up fruit... delicious!

Such a great idea. I love eating like this for dinner, never thought to bring it for lunch.

I love this style of eating and, if you're in a public library, take a peek at a little book called Bread & Jam for Frances. It cured me of being a picky eater as a child as Frances lays out her little picnic very much like the one above. Whenever I'm in a food rut I think of that childhood favorite and then I make my own little picnic.

I work from home which more often than not means I eat hunched over my keyboard while trying to finish a project. We have a rooftop deck on the top of our apartment building. I'm thinking my typical soup or salad would taste even better sitting in the sunshine on our roof!

This is how I've eaten lunch, and sometimes dinner, for years! I thought I was a little weird, but apparently not. I think it's luxurious to have good cheese and cured meats every day. :)

I love it.. The other benefit I find in eating like this, is that I eat less. Since I am paying attention, and the combo of flavors/textures etc. are satisfying, I tend to notice when I am full and stop eating.

Yum, we call this snack platter at our house and it regularly appears on the menu. Now I know what I am having today!

I do this sometimes too. I'm curious to know how other people package something like this-- I either end up with a million containers that don't fit in my lunchbag or a lot of plastic baggies (which I try to avoid in general).

Also, I would probably cut down on the quantity of cheese and/or almonds from what's pictured because that's a huge amount of food!

I'm curious... how do you make your own celery salt?

LSUGRAD03 - Grownup Lunchables! I think you're on to a winner there. I'm going to swipe that one to market homemade lunches to my boyfriend who still picks up Lunchables for his midnight shift. :)

After years of experimenting with packing every kind of lunch imaginable, I finally figured out that a lunch like this is pretty much the only kind of lunch I actually want to eat by the time lunchtime rolls around and never get sick of. I typically pack whole grain crackers, cheese, apple slices, carrot sticks, dried fruit and nuts.

@engineergirl-- I have a small metal lunch container like this one http://www.amazon.com/New-Wave-Enviro-Stainless-Container/dp/B001THRYGG
that holds just the right amount of food, and I just put everything in there together. As long as nothing is too wet, and I pack the container pretty full so that nothing has space to roll around, it works perfectly. I just put the crackers to one side, and the apples and carrots at the other end. dried fruit/nuts go in the middle as a barrier to prevent the crackers from getting soggy.

@Rucy - So glad you brought up Bread and Jam for Frances. I love that book (loved it as a child and still love it today). An excerpt for those folks who have never read the book (This is Frances' friend Albert eating his lunch) :

"He took a bite of the sandwich, a bite of pickle,
a bite of hard-boiled egg, and a drink of milk.
Then he sprinkled more salt on the egg and went round again.
Albert made the sandwich, the pickle,
the egg, and the milk come out even.
He ate his bunch of grapes and his tangerine.
Then he cleared away the crumpled-up waxed paper,
the eggshell, and the tangerine peel.
He set the cup custard in the middle of the napkin on his desk.
He took up his spoon and at up all the custard.
Then Albert folded up his napkins and put them away.
He put away his cardboard saltshaker and his spoon.
He screwed the cup on top of his thermos bottle.
He shut his lunch box,
put it back inside his desk, and sighed.
'I like to have a good lunch,' said Albert."

@Engineergirl - My husband and I use the boxes from Laptop Lunches http://www.laptoplunches.com/. Perfect for this sort of lunch... helps with portion sizes too!

Reminds me of the lunches in the children's book Bread and Jam for Frances. (Smile.)

studio57: For homemade Celery Salt, I use Heldi's recipe from 101 Cookbooks which I reviewed here. It's very easy and very tasty. The hardest thing is finding enough celery leaves.

I haven't tried this type of lunch at work yet but I definitely will soon. I use this for my sandwiches but it probably work great for this type of lunch too:
http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/martha-stewart-collection-storage-container-two-section-lunch-cube?ID=447503

That egg looks remarkable! Now I am so sad that I can't get perfect hardboiled eggs like that (living without a stove, cafeteria doesn't know how to make a boiled egg without a chalky yolk and green sulphury bits! yuck!)

Wait, is there a way to make hardboiled eggs in the microwave?

I use clear fishing tackle boxes for our lunches, they have removable segments so you can use either no segments, 1 middle segment or any variation with the 6 additional segments. I just check the plastic recycling number to avoid the nasty plastics. Our ones are a number 5 which in new Zealand is food safe and phb free.
They don't seem to leak at least not by lunchtime and with all the segments in place you get 8 slots which makes for a lot of variety

When I worked in an office, I packed lunches like this every day, mostly because they were easy to prepare and pack the night before without the risk of anything getting soggy or wilted. Now that I work from home, I've reverted back to this kind of lunch because I've discovered it is actually just so much more satisfying and enjoyable to me than a sandwich or salad. I have the exact same combination every single day, but it never gets boring :o)

I loved Bread & Jam for Frances as a kid! The story and illustrations were so cute.

I eat somewhat similar to this way as well. Today I had half an avocado, two small tofu strips, a piece of whole toast and an apple and orange.

I really like that the tastes are all very different and the fiber in the fruit makes you eat more slowly and savor the flavors.

@ KRDavis- If you can't have a stove (I'm guessing dorm room?) you're probably still able to have a hot pot/electric kettle, which can make perfect hardboiled eggs. Just add the egg(s) with enough water to cover, let it come to a boil, turn off the heat, and leave for 12 minutes before running under cold water.

Even a cheapo $15 hot pot from target works well, it won't be built to last forever. They're also really useful for tea or coffee, plus other food like ramen noodles.

Krdavis- eggs explode in microwaves.

Don't ask how I know....