Four Moms on Hubby's Lunches

Hey, hey, hey, it's another FOUR MOMS THURSDAY!! And today is a LINKY!! I love these. LOVE them.

Okay, I'll quit shouting. Our topic this week is hubby's lunches. My husband works at a grocery store, so he is expected to forage for his lunches.

The end.

Ahem. Not precisely. I don't expect him to forage, in fact, I'd rather he didn't as it makes me happier to know he has something healthier than Mt Dew and a Snickers bar. But the sad truth is that I go in and out of lunch making mode like a firefly goes in and out of usefulness as a nighlight. If you've been reading here a while, you know I can get more than a little twee about this.

Ahem.

Why, yes, yes, that is a row of cheese slices cut in the shape of Christmas trees and sprinkled with green herbs. And the carrots are shaped like flowers, complete with a cheese filling also shaped like a flower, and the bread is heart shaped.

Why do you ask?

(Here's how I do the cheese garnishes in case you wondered.)



Sometimes I am so seriously into lunch making mode that I even make him lunches and freeze them ahead of time.

When I do this I usually can put them together quickly by using already frozen fruits and veggies for the sides, and then he can microwave them when he's ready to eat. I got ahead and add a small spoonful of water to the frozen veggies as well as butter and seasoning.

And in case you are wondering, I have been known to peel the butter into pretty curls or cut it into cutesy shapes, too.

I cut other things into cutesy shapes, too.  Sometimes I even surprise myself.  For instance, while writing this post and looking up previous posts on my husband's lunches I came across this one and thought, "Is that?  Surely not.  But you know?  It looks like a chicken."

And sure enough, it did,and I discovered when I read the post that it looked like a chicken because that's what it was. I used a chicken cookie/canapes cutter to make a bit of fresh sweet corn into a chicken.



I hate people like me.


 Because, really, what's wrong with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?  I mean, seriously?

I prepared jello especially for this lunch and used a peach shaped copper mold to put it in, topped with some mint leaves to look like the leaves to my jello peach.

I've used cookie cutters, scissors, fun little carrying cases I found at the thrift shop, and even fun shaped paper punchers to pursue the twee I seem to crave. It doesn't always turn out quite so pretty, but still, my lunches, when I make them, usually get compliments or envy from his co-workers. 

When I make them is the rub, isn't it?  Because my level of inspiration ebbs and flows and sometimes goes completely kaput, sometimes for months at a time I am in a lunch making funk.  But the HM still needs to eat, does he not?
He does.
It's those paralyzing perfectionist tendencies that make my house a mess, too.  I don't get things done because I can't do them the way I want to do them.
But while he actually has told me he enjoys the fancy lunches when I make them,  my husband also really just wants to eat.
And recently he's told me he's so busy he doesn't bother heating up his lunches or putting on the salad dressing which I provide in cunningly devised little salad dressing containers.  He just eats his salad dry, with his fingers.  So there's no point in cunningly devised little salad dressing containers, is there?

I've also been contemplating certain mottos that have been popping up around me as though I were meant to hear them:
Housework done imperfectly still blesses your family.
Anything worth doing well is worth doing badly.
Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good enough.
And my favorite:

Sloppy success is better than perfect failure. (the EC read this in the Edison Trait)


And so this week his lunches have looked a little more like this:

Except I added the cupcake papers of nuts, dried fruit, and gum because I was taking a picture.Otherwise, I'd have probably wrapped them in saran wrap, or left them loose in that section, a bed for the cookies.  So what do we have here?  We have storebought cookies, grapes, cubed cheese, and two polish sausages (they look like hot dogs, but they aren't) with Bok Choy instead of a bun.  He can eat this all cold if he wants, and he probably will. Miniature muffin papers with, from left to right, dried cherries, walnuts, and a few pieces of cinnamon gum.

I explained about the cookies here- we don't usually have store-bought cookies.

So this week the HM's lunches are greatly simplified.  I rummage through the fridge and look for what we have and there are no fancy garnishes or paper punched seaweed shapes.  This is also a good way to keep on top of leftovers, especially smaller amounts, and of vegetables before they go bad.

So here are some basic tips:

Keep your eyes open at thrift shops and yard sales for good lunch containers- or just go brown bag and sandwiches.  Look for a thermos, too, for hot soups and stews in cold months.

A good time to make lunches is when you are putting away the food from a meal.

A good thing to have on hand is tortillas or pocket bread to turn leftovers into something else, quickly.  We had a sausage and bean chip dip, and I added cheese to it and wrapped it in a tortilla.  A leftover slice of meatloaf makes a great sandwich in a piece of pocket bread.  Don't go off the deep end, just give a bit of thought to making leftovers recreations rather than reserved same old same old.

 If you can, buy a couple special things just for your husband's lunches and learn from my error and draw a skull and crossbones on it to warn everybody else off.

Do some planning ahead- Buy a couple extra things at the store, keep lunch containers and their lids together and accessable, freeze juices in small containers to help keep his lunch cool, freeze leftovers in small, individual servings for later.

Multi-task: when making a big lasagna for the family dinner, make a small one for the Husband's lunch.  You already have all the ingredients out and all the cheese grating done.

When you put the food away after a meal, see if any of it would freeze nicely in individual containers.

There are some great tips on safety here.


And honestly, my lunches, even the fanciest, aren't really all that spiffy.  I'd love to be able to do something like one of these.


But, no. I've cut back on the cuteness factor.



Although I still add the napkin with the love note:

I also have a Q and A post on making lunches here.


What about you?  Share your tips, smashing successes, dubious efforts, and colassal failures at lunch making for hubby below!

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