Nourishing Portable Food Challenge

“I think that this should do,”, said he (Sherlock Holmes), glancing into the glass above the fireplace. “I only wish that you could come with me, Watson, but I fear that it won’t do. I may be on the trail in this matter, or I may be following a will- o’-the-wisp, but I shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few hours.” He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the side board, sandwiched it between two rounds of bread and thrusting this rude meal into his pocket, he started off upon his expedition.

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Like Sherlock Holmes, we are faced with having to grab a bite to eat on the run. While we may not be solving mysteries, we still can have busy lives that make it hard to sit down for dinner. Or, we just face the daunting task of trying to find healthy, nourishing meals for loved ones as they leave for school and work.

Sometimes this is only daunting because we have developed bad habits. It can sometimes be quite simple to send healthy portable lunches, we just have to retrain ourselves. I am going to suggest just a few things that have been helpful to me and then I will put a Mr. Linky for you to share all of your ideas and recipes with us as well. I think that we can learn something from the Sherlock Holmes quote above. He took food that was prepared for dinner and made it into a portable meal for himself while on the trail of a mystery. If we can adopt this practice, the advantages are obvious. Instead of having to prepare separate meals for lunch and dinner, we can just use leftovers for lunches. Here are some ideas to make that possible.

Sandwiches and Salads

Many meat, chicken, and fish meals can be made into an easy sandwich the next day. Roasted chicken leftovers can be made into a chicken salad sandwich. Leftover roast beef also makes a wonderful sandwich. We used to make meatloaf sandwiches for my dad by thinly slicing cold meatloaf and using it as “lunch meat”. It was surprisingly good! You can also make healthy salads by topping them with leftover meat and sending salad dressing (such as Our Everyday Salad dressing) on the side.

I also like to send small side salads, like leftover Savory Carrot Salad, Cucumber and Red Onion Salad, and simple green salads. If you keep washed lettuce and homemade dressing in the fridge, you will always have some on hand to send at the last minute.

Soups

We eat soups a lot around here and we usually have leftovers. Joel has greatly enjoyed bringing them with him to work. I found a small stainless steel thermos on sale that has made this very simple to do. In the morning, soon before he leaves, I pour very hot water in it while I heat up the soup. The hot water heats up the thermos and will keep the soup hot longer. When the soup is very hot, I pour out the hot water, and pour in the hot soup. I usually also send a small side salad and muffins or bread.

Freezing Baked Goods

This is something that I want to incorporate into my week. It’s really just as simple to make two dozen muffins as one. So I want to try to always make extra baked goods and put the extras in the freezer. That way I will have a supply of ready made snacks to send whenever I need them. You can browse though the Baked Goods to see some of the recipes I use. Speaking of which, I think that I better start freezing the Flourless Nut Butter Cookies, otherwise I will eat them all instead of sending them in Joel’s lunch!

Don’t forgot the obvious!

And there is always fresh fruit and carrot and celery sticks as well! There is nothing wrong with sending a simple lunch meat sandwich (I recommend nitrate free meat), a cheese sandwich, or a nut butter and honey sandwich either! My mom would sometimes send celery sticks with nut butter in them, which was a fun snack growing up. It’s okay to do the simple thing. So there are a few simple ideas that have worked for me. You can check out some of my new nourishing portable recipes in the links below. 🙂

Now it’s your turn!

If you would like to be part of this carnival, do the following:

1-Post on your blog your tips and recipes for nourishing portable foods. (If you don’t have a blog, please leave your tips in the comment section, or email them to me at [email protected]). Feel free to do more than one post!

2-IMPORTANT: Please also include a mention and link back to this post. 🙂

3-Then, using the Mr. Linky below, link to your post (not your blog, but the actual post). In the top space include not only your blog name, but also your post’s title. Thank you!

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KimiHarris

I love beautiful and simple food that is nourishing to the body and the soul. I wrote Fresh: Nourishing Salads for All Seasons and Ladled: Nourishing Soups for All Seasons as another outlet of sharing this love of mine. I also love sharing practical tips on how to make a real food diet work on a real life budget. Find me online elsewhere by clicking on the icons below!

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