Gastronomics

[radegund]

The trouble with staying at home, of course, is that I have to think about lunch. At work there are scores of eateries within spitting distance, given a good flick of the upper body and a following wind, so I step out at lunchtime each day with a pleasant sense of possibility pervading my every gesture.

Not so at home. Here, lunch has to be planned and then conjured out of the motley assortment of foodstuffs that find themselves, through no fault of their own, in our kitchen. The state of my arm at the moment means that serious choppage is out of the question, and when you add to this a mild but persistent headache and a general feeling of can't-be-arsedness, strange meals are likely to result.

Yesterday, for instance: two raw carrots, a hard-boiled egg and a brace of ageing bananas blended in about a pint of milk (childhood comfort food, that last bit - yum!). Today, I may rise to toasted cheese sandwiches.

So I'm curious now: What sort of stuff do you have for lunch when you're at home for the day?

Comments

[stellanova.livejournal.com]

I have cornflakes for lunch far too often. If not, I usually make a sandwich, often a panini, which I make with our fancy George Forman-esque grill thing and one of those part-baked rolls. If you just make a sandwich with the squashy roll and clamp down the grill thing, it turns into a lovely thin panini. Much nicer than a regular toasted sandwich!

Oh! I forgot to ask you before, and I'm sure you did it, of course, but I thought I should check - did you remember to post that letter for me?

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[radegund.livejournal.com]

I think it might be time to start liking sammidges again. (Cheaper, too!)

And yes, I did post your letter. No harm at all in checking!

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I almost always have cous cous with something like tomatoes and sunflower seeds in (unless it's summer, then tomatoes and feta cheese chopped up). Everything generously doused in some sort of vinegar and oil, of course. Because with cous cous, you can have a hot meal, which is particular to the staying-at-home experience, but it also takes almost no preparation. Tomatoes need chopping, though.

If I'm feeling the need for comfort food, I have pasta with just cheese and lemon juice. I have absolutely no idea where that comes from, at all. And, clearly, the Atkins diet would not be for me, for I am a slave to carbohydrates.

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[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

Yes, cous-cous is magic - tomatoes and broccoli for me. Or, quick stir-fried vegetables with Thai curry paste and a few noodles. Or, some defrosted soup from the freezer. (There's oodles in there, you know, Radz!) Or... plain and simple leftovers. Or even simpler toast.

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[radegund.livejournal.com]

Cous-cous: the forgotten carbohydrate! Hmmm. You, Glitz, have the ultra-quick-yet-tasty-meal thing down pat. I tend to let myself believe that anything nice will take aaaaages, moan, whine, so I'll just boil an egg and feel sorry for myself. To be combatted :-)

[ailbhe]

Today, natural yoghurt, bagel and cream cheese, slice of melon, lemon and ginger tea. Yesterday, ummm, I ate out because I had errands (maternity bras, wahey!). Monday, I think beans on cheese on toast.

I try to arrange to have some non-diuretic liquid and some fruit content for lunch. But I went through a phase where I ate macaroni cheese every day for ages.

I'm not a sandwich person; I find them boring to make and usually unrewarding to eat, unless they are freshly made by someone-not-me. I don't like the newfangled superthick sandwich slices, either. If I'm miserable, I'll eat toast and peanut butter, or toast and peanut butter and bananas, or toast and chocolate spread. Sometimes, a toasted banana sandwich, but that's *really* dessert.

It's easier in summer, when I make lavish salads and eat them with glee in the garden. My warm potato salad is very good.

A.

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[radegund.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes - can't wait for salad season to roll round again. In winter I just go completely off them. I try to eat fruit and vegetables in season (apart from the staple bananas and apples), and this is, come to think of it, the worst time of year for that. Tomatoes, in particular, are horrible in February.

[ex-siren-so.livejournal.com]

Oh, God, I'm *rubbish* at doing lunch :-( Usually I just eat up whatever the kids leave, lol. Today I had lunch on my own - a really great lunch of cheese and onion crisps and a couple of pieces of fruity soda bread. Soup tends to be the default when all else fails...Or a bowl of Coco Pops ;-)

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[radegund.livejournal.com]

So I'm not alone! The annoying thing is that making something nice actually requires maybe ten minutes more attention than simply fuelling the machine. It's purely a mental obstacle (at least in my case - I could see where two small children might complicate the equation a bit!).

There's also, of course, the fact that if I'm at home for lunch during the week it's usually because I'm not well ... why didn't I think of that before? Come back, brain - all is forgiven!

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Lord above, all these people eating Proper Food at lunchtime! As I'm on a weight-loss kick at the moment, I usually have one of those powdery-soup things and an apple. And numerous cups of tea.

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[radegund.livejournal.com]

See, this is why I don't think I could do the dieting thing: if I had only that much for my lunch I'd be a howling beast by four o' clock and a quivering wreck by six :-)

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[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Ah, but the tea works wonders in calming the howling beast!

Besides, you seem to forget that I have met you in person, and a person less in need of doing the dieting thing is hard to imagine. Which I mean in the nicest possible way!

[oddcellist.livejournal.com]

The past few days, I've been eating nothing but jook/zhou, which is rice porridge. It's kind of labor-intensive to make without a rice-cooker, and even with, it needs a couple of hours... but it's one of the best foods to have when one is sick, and takes most flavorings well.

Mostly, though, I don't get to stay home unless I'm sick, so nothing more adventurous than that.

Re:

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Mostly, though, I don't get to stay home unless I'm sick

Yes ... embarrassingly, it only occurred to me that this applies to me too when someone else pointed it out. Um.