6 February 08 re: portable lunch foods

mb:

My husband, J, works in the construction field, so he spends his days being active and incredibly busy. His last job had a set lunch hour where he could sit and enjoy a real spread, so I got up every morning and made him his favorite sandwiches (peanut butter and honey) and sent him to work with whatever leftovers we had from dinner the night before. It was easy, and I enjoyed doing it (made me feel all housewifey and like I was living in the 1950s).

The job he has now does not have a set lunch hour, which means he can't just sit down and take time off during the day. To hear him tell it he is running around, up and down ladders, banging on things with his hammer, or driving around in a big ol' truck, from the moment he arrives at work until the moment he leaves. So no sitting still, no spreading out an amazing feast prepared by his loving wife, no enjoying of good food. Nope. Instead he's been grabbing food from DD's and the dreaded Golden Arches while on the run.

This takes a toll two ways: on his health, and on our wallets. I needed to figure out a way to fix it.

A friend of mine recently mentioned that since her toddler loves to eat on the run, she's been experimenting with cooking everything into muffins. What a brilliant idea for my husband too! I had forgotten about the time-honored tradition to add vegetables to baked goods, disguising them so they are more edible to the faint-of-tongue. This was perfect. It was going to work.

I searched the Internet for the healthiest zucchini muffin recipe I could find and then tweaked it A LOT. The picture above is of the 3rd generation of muffin, and this is the keeper. I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but let me just tell you that it contains whole wheat flour, homemade oat flour, nonfat yogurt, applesauce, banana, flaxseed meal, and brown-rice syrup. It's the pinnacle of crunchy hippie food.

And despite how it sounds, it is fabulously delicious.

J loved it, loved being able to eat something that wasn't disgustingly bad for him, easy to eat, eminently portable, and tasted good too. But, of course, it wasn't enough. Like every reasonable person, J wants more than just one type of food to eat during an entire day, and he's a complete carnivore, so he wants meat. So it was back to the drawing board.

Flipping through one of my many pie books I saw a recipe for cornish pasties and all of a sudden realized that this could be the answer to all our problems. Pot pies are portable, filled with meat, totally tasty, and can be made so that they're not too unhealthy. Amazing!

The pie is a traditional beef pot pie, but (of course) alteRed to be healthier. I made the crust with whole wheat flour and the filling is jam-packed with veggies (carrots, celery, and onions). They were very well received. Again, portable, easy, and tasty. I think next time maybe I'll try to get away with not actually using any meat, just veggies and meat stock. I'm sure he'll notice, but I'm not sure he'll mind. And that's just another step toward a healthier lunch.

I've also been experimenting with two different kinds of homemade power bars, but those will be saved for another day.

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