Time for lunch

Food photography: sometimes it seems as though I’ve figured it out, other times I’m pretty sure that my camera actually chews the meal, spits it out and places the contents onto my memory card. And sometimes I'm just the victim of insufficient natural light. So instead of dealing with a potentially unappealing photo, I present to you a collection of the things that comprised my lunchtime salad. The plate, cup, utensils and pretty napkin are just to provide a lovely ambience. In reality, they’re just replacements for my real-life Tupperware, plastic fork and paper towel from the office break room. Anthropologie has these plates right now that look like they were painted by a 10-year-old Francophile. I can’t decide if it’s adorable, or if it’s just one of those things I really want to like because it’s Anthropologie and I generally trust their style. This Eiffel Tower plate does seem appropriate here because Joel and I have been steadfastly packing our lunches, cutting down on our number of frivolous purchases and using up everything in our fridge (good everyday habits, really), all in the name of Paris.

Lately I've made it my weekly challenge to fix myself something that I'm certain would make the Lean Cuisine ladies in the office swoon, not only from its colorful culinary beauty, but also from the comparable amount of dollars it takes to create. Two weeks ago it was chicken wraps. Last week, it was a spicy bulgur and kale soup. I've done it again with this one, I think. A big box of greens, a can of green olives, a can of kidney beans, a log of goat cheese, carrots, and sometimes I’ll add in a hard-boiled egg or beets (never the two together so as to avoid hot pink egg whites – ew).

Through this whole process I'm coming to realize that frugality is about thoughtfulness. When I buy things, I'm getting better about thinking of what other things I can do with ingredients beyond a one-time meal. And sometimes it's just a matter of giving myself more time to think about what to pack for lunch than the crunched minutes at the end of my morning routine. "Food prep" is one of those activities that I've avoided for its lack of spontaneity, for the way it screams "soccer mom," and even for the Rachel Ray style abbreviation. But for whatever spontaneity in eating I feared I'd lose, I'm finding all these new pockets of free time because the food part is already taken care of. More than anything, I'm actually feeling a lot more creative because I've got to figure out what the heck else I can put kale in. (A couple weekends ago we heartily enjoyed banana-blueberry-yogurt-kale smoothies. Crazy, I know!)

Okay, moms, you're onto something here.