Share-Time: Your Best Instant Lunches

While on vacation, a group of us were talking about how to handle lunches on days when there is no time to cook or even to prepare much, especially since we don't buy lunchmeat on a regular basis. We all agreed that there are days when you just can't be picky, and anything is better than nothing. It's a matter of just putting random foods onto plates and calling it good.

By the way, my definition of an instant lunch is one that takes 5 minutes or less to throw together.

Here's my instant lunch from today:

apple quarters (fruit) with peanut butter (protein), slices of cheese (protein/dairy), canned pumpkin puree mixed with salt and butter and heated (vegetable), 

and for dessert, two of these part whole wheat applesauce-raisin bars (grains).

Mostly, I try to include a fruit, a veggie, some protein, and some grains or other starchy food. It's usually some version of peanut butter and/or cheese, a bread product, and any type of produce (canned, frozen, fresh, dried).

When I needed to grocery shop after church on Sunday my priorities were cheese, peanut butter, and fresh fruits and vegetables. I can throw together very basic (but complete) lunches, snacks, or breakfasts in minutes if I have those items on hand. And as these are normals foods that I almost always keep in stock, they're very budget friendly. If I didn't have the bar cookies, I'd have had a slice of bread and butter.

These are the types of lunches that we all call working lunches. I may be working on taxes, getting dinner prepped, cleaning, starting seeds or tending the garden, or working on a home painting project. My lunch sits on a plate and a grab a bit here and there.

For those of us who commute to work, these foods can also be grabbed in minutes before heading out the door when there are no leftovers waiting in the wings -some bread and butter, slices of cheese, apples or oranges, and a carrot make a complete lunch.

By the way, years ago we were in Scotland. In a pub they had something called a Ploughman's Lunch. It consisted of a chunk of bread, a wedge of cheese, an apple, and some pickles. Nothing fancy, but it got the job done. My instant lunches remind me of that simple Scottish cold meal.

So how about you? What's your favorite instant lunch? Bonus points if you can take the meal on the go, and extra points for lunches that use ingredients that you have in your kitchen right now.

From Packet to Plate: What criteria I use for choosing which vegetables to grow in my garden

It's seed-starting time!

Although I have a good-sized backyard vegetable garden, I still need to be somewhat selective in what I grow, as space is not unlimited. I've come up with 4 rules for how to choose what to grow each year.

grow what I want to eat

I didn't say what I love to eat. There are foods that I want to eat for their wellness benefits. But I do think of these choices as what can I eat and at least mildly enjoy.

grow what grows in my area

I don't limit this to what grows best in my area. Otherwise, I might be eating nothing but kale. But if I can get a particular vegetable to grow modestly well, then it's a "go." I do have to say no to melons, eggplant, okra, and a few other veggies/fruit that I would enjoy having, as I just don't have the time, energy and resources to get those varieties to grow where I live.

grow what makes economic sense

I've discovered that cabbage grows well in our garden. So I grow green cabbage every summer. But green cabbage is a budget vegetable. So I'm really not saving all that much money by growing green cabbage. My family also enjoys red cabbage. And red cabbage is more expensive per pound to buy in the grocery store. So it makes sense to at least try to grow a few heads of red cabbage this summer. Kale may seem ordinary to my family because we've been eating it every summer for years. But kale is a pricey fresh vegetable to buy. I grow 4 types of kale and hope to add a 5th this summer. Salad, slicing, and Roma tomatoes are the standard grocery store varieties. They're the ones that I find for about $1/pound at WinCo all summer (and in winter sometimes, too). Less common tomatoes, like yellow pear, are also nice to have in summer but more expensive per pound than the grocery store standard varieties. I continue to grow salad tomatoes in my garden, but I've added yellow pear tomatoes to last and this year's gardens. 

grow what makes me happy

This final category takes into consideration what will please me just to see them growing. For me, this is pumpkins. There's something exciting about growing pumpkins for me. They're my babies. I practically skip out to the garden each day to check on them.

Keeping a vegetable garden isn't just about saving money on groceries. Having an abundance of fresh produce each summer and fall motivates us to eat a healthier and more varied diet than if I were to purchase all of our fruits and veggies. We eat what we grow, and we eat it freshly harvested, something not possible with supermarket veggies. Beyond these material motivations to garden, touching the soil, smelling the earth, and caring for my plants have a grounding affect on my mind. It's a therapy of sorts. 

I may be choosy in picking which seeds to plant each year. But once those plants are in my garden, I love and care for every one of them as if each is my very favorite.

If you plant veggies each year, how do you decide what you'll grow? Is there a veggie that everyone says grows really well in your area, but you just can't stand?