I am a devout food lover. My thoughts never stray too far from what my next meal might be. In 2009, my husband and I moved to Oregon and joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). My first goal was how to handle the CSA abundance. Since my husband, Clay, is either allergic to or strongly dislikes many CSA vegetables, I quickly realized much of it would need to be processed for storage or would go into my lunch.
For many years, I had relied on Amy’s organic entrees for lunch. These were usually eaten at my desk and accompanied by celery, carrot sticks and hummus, with the occasional Lara Bar thrown in for variety. I didn’t want sad desk lunches anymore, so committed to cook as much as I could on the weekend to prepare lunch using the abundance from our CSA basket or from the local farmer’s market. I became very practiced in identifying foods that would freeze nicely and could be microwaved and still taste good.
My new found lunch obsession reminded Clay of his grandma, who as young child not yet in school, implored her grandmother to fix her a little lunch like her cousins who were headed off to school. Little lunches have turned into entrees, breakfasts, snacks, and frozen dinners. It’s a new ethos in our house of food prepping in large batches, canning, preserving, drying, freezing and generally staying as far away from processed food as we can.
I’m also the envy of my office, particularly on days when my lunch includes pesto, which wafts the smell of basil and garlic throughout our ventilation system. Frequent questions about what I’m eating each day led me to think that writing a blog might not be such a bad thing. Each week, I’ll share with you what was in my lunch, along with recipes and tips for large scale food preparation and how to manage the beauty of seasonal living.
