Lately, I’ve been trying to economize by bringing my lunch to work. This has always seemed like a simple idea, but I’ve never been able to pull it off with any regularity. This is partially because cooking for everyone else in the house uses up all my energy. After spending hours making food for the girls and Santa Maria, it’s hard enough for me to think of my own dinner, never mind my lunch. Plus, my office has a very good and, at least for midtown Manhattan, reasonable cafeteria. So I haven’t been all that motivated to bring my lunch. But as I’ve watched the economy wither and thought a bit about what that might mean, I’ve started to reconsider. I’m making a renewed effort to save money.
Last Monday night I happened to have cooked one of our old favorites for dinner: shrimp and fennel risotto. I make this recipe with a whole lot more shrimp (a pound), rice (about three-quarters of a cup), stock (four cups, or so), and fennel (two organic heads, which tend to be smaller, or one large conventionally grown one). Sometimes we eat all of it. Sometimes there’s enough left over for one more meal, such as lunch.
This morning, Santa Maria had bold plans for the children. She was taking them to the Liberty Science Center. She’d heard great things about it, and was determined to go, even though getting there involves three different modes of public transportation and the crossing of state lines. It’s in New Jersey. We live in Brooklyn. We don’t own a car. This led to a lot of mad scrambling to get out the door early.
Santa Maria grabbed the lingering plastic container of risotto on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. I scratched my head and tried to figure out what I would eat for lunch. I reached deep into the fridge and came up with a container of chicken, which Santa Maria had picked off the bone after our Sunday night dinner, and some rice from the day before. And then there was all of that glorious basil I had washed the other morning.
I paired the chicken with the rice and basil to make a salad, something I learned from Santa Maria, who learned about them years ago when she lived in Spain. I put the three ingredients together. They looked sad and boring. I went back to the refrigerator and found green olives, and my saving grace–a ripe avocado. I cut it up and carried it to work in a separate container, and mixed it in right before eating. Not a half bad way to save money, at all.
When planning the week’s menus, I like to choose at least a couple of recipes that will generate good leftovers. I never seem to have quite enough time in the mornings, and if I have to actually assemble a lunch, I probably won’t be bothered. (The offerings at my place of work aren’t much to speak of, but the taco truck down the street is comparatively cheap and quite delicious.) But if I have some good leftovers ready and waiting, I grab them, a piece of fruit, and I’m all set.
Taco truck? I wish there was a decent one near my office. That would be mighty tempting.