apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have some leftover lasagna from Maggiano's (sp?) that I can't wait to revisit. They even threw in some extra sauce and bread.

I just bought fresh mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, and focaccia to make sandwiches. I've also been craving Tabbouleh since it was posted on a certain blog, so I'll be snacking on that during work.

Anything is better than the ham and cheese lean pockets I just ate today...Need to motivate myself to actually cook dinner tonight so that I can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow in the first place.

I just had leftover spaghetti squash tossed with olive oil and black pepper, muscadine grapes, and cashews. I love leftovers for lunch.

Spring mix salad with leftover roasted chicken. Also, Pepperidge Farm's 100 calorie packs are rocking my world right now.

Last night I made enough egg salad (with bits of scallion, celery & carrot) for two lunches. Today had it on multi-grain bread. Think tomorrow I'll have it over some romaine lettuce with fresh tomatoes wedges and a slice of multi-grain toast on the side.

I usually pack my lunch--I try to always have fruit (bananas are great), maybe some nuts or dried fruit, and either leftovers, a salad or a sandwich. All can be assembled in the amount of time the coffee drips and the toast toasts :)

I'm ALL about the leftovers for lunch. On the menu today: a random-veggie curried stir-fry with beef (using up some CSA basket stragglers).

I bring food to work every day. But I prefer to bring lots of little snacks to eat throughout the day. A piece of organic flax bread for toast in the morning, a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, fruit, a 1/2 turkey sandwich, leftover food from the previous evening's dinner. I'm a snacker, so having little meals throughout the day leaves me feeling better than one big lunch. And I also get a wide variety of food this way too!

I pack my husbands lunch in the morning it's usually leftovers from the night before or if we've eaten it all it's a sandwich and soup. I work from home, so no need to pack it, I just make a quick sandwich at lunchtime. A couple of weeks ago I made him this fused plastic lunch bag to take his lunch in.

http://aestheticonion.blogspot.com/2007/08/fused-plastic-lunchbag.html

He was fond of taking it in plastic grocery bags, so I made him a reuseable one out of the grocery bags.

This is not going to sound good.

Occasionally after I cook dinners for friends, I freeze leftovers in single portions. Sometimes I grab one of these "UFO's" ("unidentified frozen objects") when I need to take in lunch and by noon it has defrosted and I can see what I've got. Surprise!

(Am I barred from kitchen therapy now?)

I just discovered that I love Townhouse Bistro Cornbread crackers topped with salami and havarti. So tomorrow it'll be those, a cuke and an apple from the farmer's market, and maybe a brownie if I get all my schoolwork done early tonight and have time to bake.

I love bringing my lunch with me. So worth the effort for the price and quality. I mix leftovers with fresh foods and some prepackaged things. Like the individual packs of caramel dip with an apple for desert. My other proven lunch idea is to make up a bunch of mini-casserole dishes over the weekend. Small glass dishes are best for this, because they can go in both the oven and the microwave (to reheat at work). Right now I have a bunch of chicken pot pie and tortilla casserole dishes in the freezer. Older cookbooks (I got mine at a thrift store) have lots of casserole recipes. You have to wade through for the ones that still have appeal, and make some changes, but it's a great resource.

Lentils cooked in chicken stock with carrots, onions and butternut squash

and

Brown rice cooked in the oven low and slow in chicken stock with beans and canned tomatoes

then I freeze different size portions in zip lock baggies. Then I peel the baggie off my lunchcicle and microwave in my favorite mug.

Today I brought a romaine salad with avocado, grape tomatoes, feta, and homemade vinaigrette.

Tomorrow will be some leftover butternut squash-white bean soup.