Thursday, September 15, 2011

Childhood Lunch, Grown-Up

What did you eat for lunch growing up?  Were you a "packer" and refused to eat the "nasty" cafeteria lunch, or were you a "buyer"?  At our house, when the teachers sent home the monthly lunch menu, my mom, brother, and I would sit down at the table and decide for each day whether we wanted to pack or buy (talk about kids getting what they want! haha)  ...but at least we weren't too picky, and bought most days (except for "macaroni and glue" and "breakfast for lunch").  I think every child in the cafeteria bought on pizza days, if not for the pizza, definitely for the peanut butter fudge!!!  ...my mouth is watering thinking about the peanut butter fudge, and how people used to eat their lunches so fast so they could be first in line to snag the extras!

I remember eating a lot of turkey sammiches when I packed, and a lot of bologna sammiches.  I loved eating white bread, bologna sammiches with ketchup and mustard.... I think I would still devour it if I bought that stuff now.  While Mr P and I have been renovating the new apartment, we haven't been cooking much.  Last weekend when he made scrambled eggs, it was the first time we had used the stove in a week! 

Our cheap meal of choice has been salami sammiches... yes... the salami packaged like bologna.  It looks gross, sounds gross, don't think about how they make it either.  But, I can assure you it's delicious!!!  ...and cheap!  1 pound of the stuff is only $2.50!  We found really good multi-grain bread for $3.86, 2 for 1, making it $1.93/loaf.  Put it together with some lettuce and mustard, and there you have the grown-up version of your favorite bologna sammich!  Go for some nice mesclun greens and Gulden's Mustard, and you've gone gourmet, haha.

Today I've got regular yellow mustard and leftover iceberg lettuce (from almost 2 weeks ago!  It may not be that nutritious for you, but it's cheap, and it last FOREVER!)



I also packed some full-fat 4% cottage cheese.  Wait, what? ...doesn't it have a bunch of unnecessary calories??  No.  If the difference between low fat cottage cheese and 4% cottage cheese is only 25 calories.  4% cottage cheese has 115 calories per serving (check the label of your salad dressing, I bet it has more!!)  I suppose if you are really watching every single calorie that goes into your body, maybe it will matter.  If you like cottage cheese though, I suggest you try it.  It tastes so.. much... better, and it's so much more satisfying.  Same goes for whole milk.  Whole milk doesn't have that many more calories in it than 1% or 2% milk.  If you drink a lot of milk, though, those calories can add up quickly!! (so... maybe you shouldn't try whole milk! ...or get just a small container of it and eat it on your cereal as a treat on the weekend... it's heaven I swear!)

What do you pack for lunch now?  Do you eat out everyday?  I'm curious what the rest of you do for lunch!  Mr P always get teased in his office because he brings lunches that are more gourmet than dinners for most people!

Toodles.
J&H

2 comments:

Dana said...

I am definitely a lunch packer! It's usually a taco salad (leftover from Taco Tuesdays) or spicy tilapia with rice, mushrooms, and peppers all mixed together. Leftover pasta is something I have often too. If there are no dinner leftovers my go-to's are tuna on a whole wheat wrap with lettuce and tomato or a spinach salad with cranberries, walnuts and basil balsamic dressing! Sammiches are for sure one of my favorite foods and I would eat them every day if lunch meat was healthier!

Megan O. said...

Mmmm I remember the Peanut Butter Fudge. Now that's all I can think about!