Category Archives: cooking

Lunchtime solutions!

Last week I was hoping to show some progress on my Lunchtime struggles from a recent post but I never did for various reasons. Those reasons are mostly based on my disorganization and tendency to forget or lose things.

However, I have been improving the process this week and have made some small achievements, I think! On Monday evening I went to the Kaufmarkt across the street from the office and purchased: almonds, salad leaves, mushrooms, shredded carrot, sprouts, olives and goat’s cheese. I also found a tiny bottle of olive oil although I am still looking for a similar-sized balsamic.

Lunch ingredients
Lunch ingredients

I took these back to the hotel and assembled the team.

Lunch!
Lunch!

I’ve decided to ditch the grains as a part of the salad as it’s just too much mess and effort to organize. The sprouts are a good substitute, though.

Last week I was affected by my typical morning forgetfulness and left my salad in the hotel fridge instead of packing it for work. This week I prevented this omission by hanging a colourful tote bag on the fridge doorknob and a bright reminder not to forget again and it seemed to work!

Next week I might keep it all at work if possible which will hopefully prevent forgetful problems entirely. The issue here is that one day a week I am supposed to work in a different building across the river. This could perhaps be solved by making the salad after work and then transporting it to the hotel and then to the second office. I don’t love it, though. Perhaps on these days I should just suck it up and eat in the canteen.

I can see why none of my other consulting colleagues ever bother with this. It’s a pretty big hassle to buy and assemble the ingredients and you certainly aren’t saving any money. I’m going to try to stick with it, though: mostly because the canteen food is simply so dire and depressing.

Lunchtime struggles

Lunches at the moment are a bit of a struggle. The office I work in is located across the road from a sort of supermarket mall thing with lots of discount stores and terrible takeaway joints. The office of course has a canteen, but there is only ever one vegetarian option and it’s… well… it’s not very delicious.

So, the problem is, how do I cater for myself a healthy lunch while living in a hotel room? My plan for next week is to stock up on some of the following and throw a little lunch salad together each day. It might be the same boring thing day after day, but at least it won’t make me feel ill while I’m eating it and I will feel a little healthier.

Options:

  • bag of mixed salad leaves
  • bag of julienned carrots (I’ve seen these in the market across the street)
  • mushrooms (these don’t even have to be chopped! Just throw them in as is)
  • fetta, cubed if possible
  • nuts (I’ve always liked walnuts in a salad)
  • balsamic / olive oil (if I can find two small jars)
  • olives (the olives here are generally not great, but I’ll try a few sorts and see if I can find some nice ones)
  • pearl barley

I think the pearl barley might be might be a challenge as I can’t actually cook it in a hotel room, but I think that soaking it overnight might work. I have a backup options if it is inedible – couscous or bulgur wheat, both of which just need a soak to be ready to eat.

I’ll post an update later in the week discussing how well it is (or not) going.

What’s for dinner?

You know that song “What’s for dinner?” by King Khan & BBQ Show? Or “Stormy Weather” by Reigning Men? Well somehow, lines in these songs have become a running joke in our household:

Mashed potato, chicken pie / What’s for dinner? became simply a refrain of Mashed potato, lots of pie / Where’s my dinner?

Don’t know why/ There’s no sun up in the sky has become Don’t know why / There’s never any pie

Great songs, so good. Still, the constant discussion of pies all culminated in the creation of not one but TWO enormous homemade pies on the weekend.
Continue reading What’s for dinner?