My workplace has an on-site cafeteria. I go down there to eat there every day of the week. I need the break away from my desk- a chance to talk to friends and recharge for the second half of the day. But, until recently I rarely brought food from home. Mostly I bought my food from the cafeteria offerings. None are especially tasty, few are healthy, and fewer still are inexpensive. And after a friend told me he lost 5 pounds just by giving up cafeteria food, I knew I had to make a change.So I have been making a serious effort to bring food from home. This weekend was my big push to give myself the tools I need to never eat cafeteria food again! I did our grocery shopping while the rest of the family took a much needed nap. I picked up some Hormel ComplEATs, which are shelf stable dishes. Think MREs in pretty packaging. I got some cans of soup, easy to take in. And I bought ingredients for stew, and broke out the Crock-Pot when I got home. I’m no chef, not even a greasy-spoon line cook. I’m doing good not to burn water. But the Crock-Pot is Man’s Best Cooking appliance. Put stuff in, turn on Crock-Pot and viola:

STEW!

I probably made enough for 2 weeks worth of lunchtime meals. So I packed it into lunch-sized tupperware and froze some of them for next week or later. I also repackaged the existing leftovers in a similar manner for this week.

I also made sure to get some portable snacks for work, to keep me away from the vending machine. A bag of apples, and all the extra carrots and celery from the stew will be coming to work with me for those morning and afternoon munchies.

It did take a little more extra time this weekend, but I’ll be saving nearly $4 a day this way, and hopefully some inches in the waistline too.

Oh, look it’s lunchtime!

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