la Matriarch

I got this awesome Bentos Laptop Lunchboxfor xmas.  Ever heard of them?   As near as I can tell it’s just a fancy way to bring your lunch and not use all the evil disposable stuff like Ziploc bags and individual yogurts.  It’s sort of like a lunchbox for hippies. 

Wiki says - Bentō (弁当 or べんとう, Bentō^?) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento is readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya^?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend considerable time and energy producing an appealing boxed lunch.

The outside carrying case (above) looks like a thinner well-made lunch box.  Inside the carrying case is a drink bottle and a plastic box (left) which holds all the Bentos, and a fork and spoon. 

The plastic containers are recyclable and very sturdy.  Plus, they are lead and BPA-free. 

I also love that it was designed by a couple of moms who are committed to reducing waste and improving lunchtime nutrition.  Although I think this lunch box is the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time, I’m already concerned about the lack of lids provided.  According to what I found on the Internet, research showed that moms usually pack their kids’ lunches with exactly this number of wet items, therefore this is how many lids (below) are needed.  But, hey, what about grown-ups who want to take left-overs rather than chips?  I’m having trouble thinking of dry, healthy stuff to bring for lunch and it seems that they don’t sell extra lids for these things.  That’s kinda irritating, laptop lunches people!  Can you make one of these things for grown-ups, or sell me some lids for Christ’s sake?

Anyway, I’ll be bringing my lunch in this thing as much as possible over the next year.  It should help me reach one of my other 2009 goals which is to purchase no more than 1 lunch per month from the cafeteria at work or a restaurant.  I’ve been doing OK with this over the past few months but only because I’ve stocked up on Lean Cuisine meals.  I try to find them on sale then buy as many as I can afford at the time.  (If you eat these things, try Target.  They’ve got  Lean Cuisines for cheap). The trouble is that these packaged meals contain a huge amount of sodium and then there’s the packaging.  Each time I throw the empty container in my office trash can, I shake my head in disappointment.

If you own one of these Laptop Lunchboxes or another Bentos type contraption, I’d love to hear from you.  What kind of stuff do you pack in yours?  I need ideas! 

I’ll also be trying to post my lunches here in a new I’m calling In My Bentos.

The more aware I become of the finite resources on our planet and my consumption habits, the more angry I get at myself for wasting food.  I don’t do it intentionally.  In fact, the wasting of the food seems to always result from my efforts to eat better, backfiring.  Here’s how it works…

I decide I need to eat more fresh fruits and veggies (which I do at least every other month), then run out to the grocery store or farmers market and buy a bag of apples or oranges, a couple of bags of salad greens (they force me to buy two because that’s the only way I can get the sale price - the bastards!) and whatever other fresh vegetables seem appetizing while I’m sitting on the couch planning my amazing new eating habits.  Then, when it’s time for dinner, I never want the crap that I’ve bought.  I’d much rather just throw a veggie burger and fries in the oven.  And a few days later, I’ve got a science project growing in my fridge from all the wholesome food I bought but did not eat. 

Over the past year, every time we’ve thrown away food, I’ve gone on a mini-rant about how much we suck for wasting food and money and quite frankly, I’m sick of feeling bad about it.

I don’t think any of us need to hear more lectures on wasting food (starving kids in third world countries, fuel to ship my oranges from God knows where, blah blah blah), we know the deal. 

One of the goals I set for 2009 is to reduce and record the food that we throw away.  As you can see from the picture, I just slapped a piece of paper on the fridge for us to write down everything we discard.  I’m hoping that it will encourage us to eat the food that we buy/prepare before it spoils, but, even if it doesn’t, it should be an interesting exercise at the end of the year to tally just how much food we wasted and estimate the cost of it. 

If you are a food waster like me, feel free to play along.  The only thing you need is a convenient place to write down what you throw away, and a moderate commitment to eat the stuff you buy (or grow for us gardeners) before it spoils.  I know my best friend has this same problem because we talked about it on the phone last night. 

Me “what if I compost the bag of rotten oranges? Do I still need to write that down as wasted food?” Her “Um, yes, you should be eating the oranges and composting the peels, anyway.  OK, maybe you can have partial credit for that but you are really reaching.”

So far, it’s January 3rd and we still have nothing on the list.  But, I presently have two bananas that need to be eaten in the next 48 hours, and left over black-eyed peas, collard greens, salsa chik’n/rice and a 2 day old container of organic salad greens that is virtually untouched in the fridge.  All good stuff, but, it’s Saturday and we almost always eat only bad food (pizza, burgers, etc…) on the weekend.  Plus, my guy will not touch the black-eyed peas or collards and the bananas are already past the point where he’ll eat them (he likes them almost green which totally grosses me out).  As you can see, I’m under a lot of pressure, here!  Wish me luck!

Like most fat chicks, I’ve tried all sorts of crazy ass diets in my life.  I’ve yo-yo’d with the best of em peaking during the Fen-Phen era where I lost enough weight to finally get the ole “you don’t need to lose any more weight or you’ll be too thin”, comment.  Yee Hah!

Fad diets aren’t all bad.  In fact, I credit Adkins for my vegetarianism.  In the late 90’s I finally gave in to the carb free delusions of gradure.  I remember sitting in the cafeteria at work one morning eating a piece of chicken thinking how fucking gross it was to be eating chicken for breakfast.  Before Adkins, I’d never eatin meat 3 meals a day, every day.  Several days later I was sitting in the cafeteria again, eating a piece of gross broiled chicken, again.  And I decided right there in mid-chicken breast that I’d be just fine if I never ate another piece of meat again for the rest of my life.  I ate it very sparingly for the next few months, then cut it out completely.  I’ve never regretted it.

The other day I was purusing the Omega Institute (this awesome wellness place in New York with a focus on eastern philosophies) website and ran across this diet dude who was facilitating a weight loss conference there.  I wanted to go so bad but it was too sort of a notice to get my crap together and too expensive to justify for a single weekend of “fat camp.”  Since I liked the sound of the conference so much I decided to check out the guy leading the conference and discovered he’s got a book (shocker!) So, in keeping with my impulse decision making style, I ran out and bought his book and I’m ready to start diet number 785 come Monday. 

The basis of the UltraSimple diet is that were all full of toxins from the chemicals in the food we eat and the air we breathe.  This toxicity prevents us from being healthy, and losing weight.  What I love about this theory is that it makes it so that I am not required to accept any responsibility for my overweight-ness, and I love that! 

The UltraSimple Diet is 7 days of taking all kinds of supplements in conjunction with eliminating almost anything that could possibly be an allergen.  My guy calls it the “joy free diet.”  No sugar, gluten, trans-fat, dairy, soy, peanuts.  You name it, you can’t eat it. 

Day one (and two and three and so forth…) starts with drinking the juice of a 1/2 lemon with a teaspoon of olive oil in it (YUM) which supposedly helps detox the liver.  Just thinking about it nearly activates my gag reflex. 

The shopping list for this diet is pretty extensive since it’s mostly stuff I don’t buy on a regular basis.  Here’s what I’ve bought so far.  Flax seed, Calcium/Magnesium/Vitamin D, Almond Milk, Lavender oil (for the nightly bath treatment), frozen organic strawberries, fish oil, wild salmon, brown rice, organic green tea, lemons, almond butter.  I still need rice protein, probiotics, mag citrate, vitamin C powder, and the veggies to make the Ultra broth. 

So, Saturday and Sunday I’ll be trying to get mentally prepared for a week of misery starting on Monday morning.  Care to join me?  I’ll be Plurking (ginag) and Twittering (gina_g) about my experience so feel free to follow my progress there.

Dear Red Robin

We finally made it to your restaurant last night.  I’d seen all your commercials and was seduced by your claims of hamburger fancy-ness.  And the fact that you you’ll vegetize any of those spectacular burgers with a Boca or a Garden Burger sealed the deal for me.  Two veggie burger options is unheard of!

Here’s the thing - it is simply criminal for you to offer bottomless steak fries.  We are a nation of fattys and speaking for all the people who feel that the french fries are the most important part of the hamburger/french fries meal, it’s just too hard not to be a glutenous pig with bottomless fries.  And the onion ring tower?  Can you make that any more embarrassing?  We ordered this as an appetizer and I watched horrified as our waiter walked through the restaurant carrying it with every table in its path gawking, mouths dropped open as it made its way to us. 

Since your restaurant was so veggie friendly we went out on a limb and asked our waiter a couple of cheese questions.  I’m pretty sure he thought he was on candid camera.

me “Do you guys have soy cheese?”

waiter “No, no soy cheese”

me “Would you happen to know if the cheese that you use is made with animal rennet or is it vegetable rennet?”

waiter “What do you mean?”

me “Some cheeses are made with vegetable enzymes rather than animal ones?  Do you know if yours is animal or vegetable?”

waiter “No, we only serve real cheese.  All our cheese comes from cows.” 

me “OK, great, thanks.”

Poor guy.  What kind of freaks even ask questions like that. 

What we loved:

1. All the veggie burger options
2. The A1 peppercorn burger was off the chain!
3. The bottomless steak fries
4. Onion rings (the taste) and the barbecue mayo sauce that comes with it.

What we didn’t love:

1. The singing.  There was entirely too much singing and clapping of the employees.
2. The presentation of the onion rings.  I was imagining all the other customers saying “What big fat pig ordered those?”
3. The strange relish on the Monster burger.
4. The bottomless steak fries.
5. The heart attack factor.
6. The post meal food hangover.

In closing I’d love to see you provide some cheese education to your employees for freaks like us but even if you don’t, we’ll be back.  We loved it.