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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Lunch Box Mania

How do you have lunch at work. Do you eat out or grab something on the go to eat at the desk ? I used to enjoy going out for lunches to hang out with colleagues and swap bitch stories but sometimes a bit of solitude at the desk is comforting.

T doesn't have time to eat out due to the nature of his work, there is no lunch hour so he has to grab food from the office canteen. The food there apparently is notoriously bad and every week someone from the office has food poisoning, so he's steering clear of it for good reason. Which means he has to take a packed lunch to work, which means I have to prepare him a lunch bag everyday.

One of my favourite things to do is menu planning, I enjoy being domesticated and proud of it too. Eating is on the top of my list and my dreams are filled with recipes, and thinking about what to eat and serve. My obsession keeps me alive and makes me very happy.

It was not always like this, my friends would remind me that not so long ago, I was a disaster in the kitchen.

So typically I make dinners for 3 so that he can bring the leftovers to work the next day. He takes it in a simple plastic bento-box like tupperware and carries it around in a plastic bag, which is ugly and environmentally unfriendly. I wanted to start reusing stuff around the house to make paper lunch bags for him so I started looking around for inspiration.

What I found were mostly oilcloth lunch bags that you have to sew together. Or you could buy this one for USD 17 from MissNatalie on etsy.


Or this from Farfalla Gialla


Sewlongziploc has these on the market, set of 3 for USD 18. Sandwich bags in wonderful patterns.


The sewing doesn't appear to be rocket science but I don't know if I could be asked. Sewmamasew has detailed tutorials if anyone is interested.

The ones that you can buy are all lovely but rather girly and I came across this hilarious discussion forum on Art of Manliness ( A real website I swear), here's one of the postings and if you want to read more, here is the link.

"....I use a soft sided cooler bag. I got it for free (actually my wife did and I stole it) it does the job. If you are concerned about appearances you could always get one of those black construction worker lunch boxes, but not even construction workers carry them anymore. I am told Tiffin Carriers are the best, but I've never tried one."

The postings from these men are actually serious and apparently, they think about lunch bags as much as the next woman. :)

3 comments:

Z said...

You were a disaster in da kitchen?! That's like ancient history!! When you gonna cook for me?

Datthang said...

Remember the tofu incident at One Tree Hill? I will cook for you when I can see you ! Guess we either have to take another holiday together or you come over here !

Z said...

Oy, who cooks on a holiday?!?! We'll figure something out ;-)