A Moveable Feast

I have a confession to make: Sometimes, when I'm going someplace, I look more forward to packing something to eat than to what I'll be doing. This is especially true of going to work. And so, here's a post dedicated to the food I've been packing myself for the last few days.

Behold! Today's lunch!

I recently purchased a new hot plate for my desk at work. After melting three plastic containers on it, I decided I needed something a little more sturdy and got the To-Go Ware 3-tier tiffin (I already had their utensil set and was quite pleased with it. Most To-Go Ware products are available through herbivoreclothing.com, slightly cheaper than you'd get them directly from To-Go Ware, due to shipping charges). I went with the three-tier because the diameter of that one is smaller than the two-tier. In retrospect, I'm not 100% sure I made the right choice, since you can only use the top tier independently of the other two; you can't just carry two tiers. Also, the thing is too tall to fit in my office mini-fridge fully assembled, so I have to eat my breakfast before putting it away (woes!). For scale, here it is with the utensil set:

In today's tiffin, we have (going clockwise from 6 o'clock), a breakfast of corn crisps with peanut butter and apples (yes, I did listen to Sigur Rós while eating). Lunch is spinach potato curry over tamarind quinoa from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming healthy book (more on that another time), For snacktime, there's raw cashews and an orange (and I always keep chocolate in my desk).

Before I had the tiffin, I either packed my lunch in take-out containers or this thing, that I picked up for pennies in Penn Station, almost two years ago:

I totally expected it to leak or fall apart on me, but it's been really good. The tines on the fork haven't even broken off yet! Here it is, toting yesterday's lunch (I don't know why this post is in backward chronological order):

I always fill the large section with salad. Yesterday's was kale, sprouts, cucumber, yellow pepper and grape tomatoes. The right hand section is always hummus, to eat with the salad, and celery for the leftover hummus. I get my variety in the left hand compartment, which is usually something warm, like roasted vegetables or Bubbles Don't Squeak. Yesterday, I had a small piece of Bajan Macaroni Pie (it looks a lot bigger than it is because it's sitting on a bed of tin foil). I wrap it up in tin foil so I can heat it on my hot plate without making too much of a mess (hopefully). So far, that's worked out pretty well.

On Sunday, I took a very long walk. I knew I'd need sustenance, so I packed two St. Lucian Salt Bakes (Vegan in the Sun testers) for breakfast. I hoped to eat them on the boardwalk and get a nice picture of the biscuity treats in front of the beach, but no luck. I was starving. Here's a picture on the subway instead. At least I had the wherewithall to wait until we were above ground and I had some sunlight.

Despite what the name would lead you to believe, these bakes are actually fried.

But they're not overly greasy and they're really easy to make (only four ingredients!). Another thing I love about them is that the recipe makes three bakes. Making a dozen scones just because you want one is kind of annoying. Sure, it makes you popular, but really, I love being able to just make a few of these.

It's time for another confession: Before this weekend, I'd never made a wrap. Really. But I wanted something handheld for the walk and was craving the Puttanesca Scramble from Vegan Brunch, so I made it and the Diner Home Fries, wrapped them all up, called them a breakfast burrito and ate it for lunch. So. Good.

Here it is, ready to wrap:

As you can see, my wrapping job was less than stellar:

I thought it would totally leak all over the place, so I wrapped it up in way too many layers of tin foil, then put that in a plastic baggie, but it didn't drip even once! I must admit I was rather proud of that. It's the little things, really.

That concludes our three-day lunchtime retrospective. What foods do you like to pack for going out and about?