Portable Food ideas?

Cafe Society
1

In addition to needing portable hobbies, I also need portable food. Right now, my schedule has me eating two of my three meals and all snacks away from home on weekdays. Mostly, I’m buying these meals. I would really prefer to stop that, but I can’t stand the thought of nothing but sandwiches for ten meals a week. So, currently I eat out.

At school, where dinner will occur, I have access to a microwave. I won’t be at school most of the time but at my research facility, where lunch & snacks will mostly occur. Here, I have access to a microwave, a fridge and (possibly) a stove. There is a stove here, but I’ve never seen it used and I don’t really want to be the lowly grad student who manages to burn the place down/smoke the place out by screwing around with the stove. I mention it because I may later find out that it’s usable, and will update at that point.

I’m not adverse to leftovers, but they have to travel well. I walk a bit to get to my research facility, and some of that is up and down footpaths and hills. So, sauces aren’t really good.

kangaroo_in_black is on a wildly different schedule than I am, and also eats “out” a great deal. I think he eats more sandwiches than I do, but when he buys something, it’s from the local 7-11.

I have the world’s tiniest kitchen at home, which contributes to these issues. However, the biggest issue is that I’m not great in the kitchen. I’m not thrilled with cooking, despite loving to eat.

So, what can the kangaroos do?

2

If you wash pasta in cold water right after it’s done, it holds up well and doesn’t turn into a big stuck-together ball. So you can bring pasta with tomato sauce, pasta bolognese, pasta salad…

If the sauce is tomato, you can bring it all in one tupper; if it’s a different kind you may like it better if you mix it all right before eating. I know people of both schools of thought.

In Spain we make omelettes with about anything. Adding an itty bit of onion (not even enough to be tasted) will act as a natural preservative.

Pasta salads, pasta with tomato sauce and potato omelette are three things that people here usually have to be careful about, for potlucks meals: probably the biggest reason to ask people to tell in advance what are they bringing.

For potato omelette, the potatoes must be sliced thin, fried but not deep-fried, then you take them out of the pan onto the prebattered eggs, add salt to the whole thing, pour back into the pan, shake the pan as that side cooks (you don’t have to shake it the whole time, but it’s to keep it from sticking), then turn it over using a plate (put the plate on top of the pan, flip over, place pan back on fire, slide omelette back in). This is the only one I see people make for more than one person.

Tuna omelettes, chorizo omelettes (pepperoni. Salami doesn’t work so well), mushroom omelettes. You don’t heat them a lot, just enough that they’re not cold. Even if you bring them in a thermal bag it may be a good idea to woosh them into the microwave for a bit.

Snacks: fruit, yoghurt (better the one that’s not pasteurized, since that one has lost the bacteria that makes it healthy in the first place).

Fried chicken is unbreaded, here in Spain. KFC has never taken hold and I seriously doubt they will. Cut in small parts, big pan, just enough oil to keep it from sticking, a couple of pieces of garlic (not sure how each individual part is called in English, but I’m sure you know what I mean… the triangles) that get fried at the same time but not eaten. The official name if you want to sound like a gourmet is “pollo al ajillo” (POHyohahl ahJEEyoh - yes it becomes two words when you say it)
That’s about all the potluck dishes I know how to make :slight_smile:

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Doh forgot something else, I’m sure you know it but heck…

Battered and fried steaks, battered and fried fish.

4

Thank you for all of the suggestions, but I’m not sure what you mean by “prebattered eggs”. I can see battering a solid substance like chicken or fish, but I can’t see how to effectively batter a liquid substance.

5

Nothing beats homemade chili for reheats, IMO. Make a big batch of your favorite recipe, and divide it into serving-size containers for reheating. I’m pretty sure chili freezes well, so you can even keep some for later down the road.

Other good reheats: beef or veal stew, plain bean and cheese burritos, rice pilaf studded with lots of veggies.

I, too, am sick to death of sandwiches in my lunch bag. If I never see another ham ‘n’ cheese on white bread, I’ll die happy.

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I used to bring a lot of salads for lunch. I was lazy about it and just bought the pre-bagged stuff and cut up a few things to add to it (tomato, onion, maybe a radish or two). I also used to add a bit of shredded cheese or some cut up turkey or ham.

Keep the dressing separate, and add it when you are ready to eat.

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If you have access to a microwave, you can always go for the frozen meal thing. Even if you don’t have a freezer to keep it in, if it’s only out a few hours, it’ll be fine. You just don’t heat it as long as the instructions say.

Michelini’s and Budget Gormet are not bad for not a lot of money.

If you don’t have access to a microwave, I suggest you get a good thermos and you can bring suop or stew.

8

I eat leftovers for most of my breakfasts. If they’re left out for a couple of hours, it’s no biggie. I’ll eat them room temperature, or nuke them.

You say you don’t cook much. If you could just make a big pot of something once a week, it would help. Chicken and dumplings - cut up a couple of boneless chicken breasts, throw in a carrot and a rib of celery, and some salt and pepper. Cook until chicken is done, then add a couple of cans of biscuit dough, pinched into small pieces. Simmer about 20-30 minutes. Easy-peasy!

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That sounds yummy Delores. I just worry about the liquid portion leaking out of my tupperware. I know it shouldn’t, but kangaroo_in_black and I have had problems with this before.

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate it.

10

One really good portable meal I make is to cook up rice in a rice cooker, add some frozen veggies, and a frozen eggroll. If desired, you can divide this up into several single-serving Tupperware and freeze the whole deal, heating when needed. You might keep a small bottle of sweet & sour sauce in the fridge at school. Or, if you freeze the sauce as part of the whole deal, you’ll probably be safe from leaks.

Another good variation is to cook brown rice and chili, maybe grate some cheese on the top. This can also be frozen. If making chili is not your thing (although it’s a great place to start building more cooking skills) there are many good ones available canned.

A slow cooker and a rice cooker could be good additions to the small home kitchen that would help improve the variety of your leftovers.

11

I would echo Harriet’s advice. Get a slow cooker and make batches of stuff, you’ll get several meals from each go. You could make several different soups/stews/sauces and freeze them, then just grab the one you want that day. They should stay frozen enough to not leak till after you arrive.

Re-heating cooked pasta in the microwave is good too, it’s not like fresh-made, but it works, I rinse mine well then toss with just a few drops of oil. Don’t try to freeze it, but it needs to be refridgerated.

As for snacks, how about fruit and cheese? Throw some grapes or apple wedges or whatever in some tupperware with a couple hunks o’ cheese, makes a nice snack. For variety, change the fruit and the cheese, and it’ll be different every day.

Also I always throw the tupperware containers into a large zip-lock bag for safety. Kind of a double-bagging. And it’s no problem re-using those bags for a long time.

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I have a slow cooker, and I do like to use it when the recipe works. My friend gave me a yummy chili beans recipe that I use a lot. The problem is that I only unearthed said recipe after the move last week we moved in in late August). Unfortunately, I’ve purchased or had given to me several slow cooker cookbooks recently, and many of the recipes were bad or needed tweaking. As I said, I’m not really a cook, so I don’t know what to use for this “tweaking”.

That was actually going to be my next thread, “Fix this recipe-Please!” Or something like that. I just didn’t want to overwhelm the Cafe with Kangaroo questions. So, I figured I’d wait a bit on that one.

I don’t have a rice cooker, but I have no trouble making rice on the stove.