The Price of a Lunch Salad Went Berserk While You Were Working From Home

[solon]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/inflation-lunch-work-from-home-11647611074?st=ddv2ix4mo3ljyr9&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The whole article is interesting, but this is the money quote:

Mark Davis, a 30-year-old tech sales representative in Chicago, returned to working from the office two or three days a week in October. He says he is spending roughly $50 more every day on food and commuting than he was while working remotely. 

“But whether it’s because of the commute, having to carry an extra bag, putting it in the floor’s fridge and all the additional steps, I don’t enjoy bringing food in.” What was once a $9 sandwich from a local sandwich chain now costs $15 or $16, he says. “But what am I going to do, not eat something?”

[Zikoris]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

[Villanelle]

It's less frugal than DIY, but you can even by pre-made salads with all the ingredients included so you just have to mix, and that is goint to cost far, far less than $15. 

That likely has far fewer "additional steps" than going to a local sandwich chain.  You'd have to walk to the office fridge twice (once to drop off, and once to grab it to eat, although even those are likely optional as a salad in a climate-controlled office area for a few hours would be just fine), open, dump everything together, and stir.  They even come with silly little plastic forks packed in the salad! 

Compare that to either going to a sandwich shop or even calling a delivery order in, and it is probably faster, and of course far, far cheaper.  A quick check on Amazon grocery and I see they range between $2.84 and $3.70, depending on what type.  And yes, those include a small portion of meat, even. 

https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Pac-Chef-Salad-7-5oz/dp/B01KTEJVGU/ref=sr_1_3_0o_fs?crid=13BCL5L4WYJ18&keywords=ready+pac+salad&qid=1648140311&sprefix=ready+pac+salad%2Caps%2C56&sr=8-3

[Sailor Sam]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

I think it comes down to the kind of “hidden” labor that lately come to attention inside the gender wars. Being a brown bagger also comes with “all the additional steps.” It’s just that my steps happened way, way before lunch was packed, so don’t really come to mind.

Example: I’ve spent my adult life learning what I like in my lunch salads. And how to prevent salad greens from turning to mush inside my fridge. And how to make amazing salad toppers. And how to make delicious dressing. And how to pack the salad for maximum crispness. And the kind of container that keeps the delicious dressing from spilling.

If you’ve never been in the habit of packing lunch, none of those steps are intuitive. They take effort, and that effort could look incredibly inconvenient, when compared to the already known effort of walking across the street. Especially if your first attempts result in a sad, limp, gross salad, that is your reward for touching the horrific tragedy of the commons office fridge at least twice.

The pre-packaged salads that @Villanelle mentioned might be a nice bridge for such folks. Training wheels, as it were.

But yup, the larger article was good. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how the power now imbued in the labor market is tempered/increased by mentally upsetting amounts of inflation.

[NotJen]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

I can sympathize.  I was a lifelong brown-bagger.  Except that my brown bag was actually a laptop bag that never carried a laptop - but held my lunch salad containers, snacks, and enough water to get me through the day.  Every so often, I would get down about carrying that bag around.  Usually in the evenings when I had to wrestle the lunch bag and exercise bag out of the car, into the house, spend 15 minutes unloading and cleaning up.  It felt onerous.  I couldn't just pop out of the car and into whatever I wanted to be doing at home.  I had so much stuff to deal with.

But my conclusion when I sat with it was that it was worth it.  Years ago I experimented with not packing my lunch, and going out each day to grab food.  I didn't work where anything was walkable, so it required driving.  I did it for a while (longer than a week, possibly months), then reverted to bringing my own.  As much extra work as it took, I really hated having to leave the office every day, deciding where to go.  Hated.  It.

Of course, the best solution was to quit work and stop lugging stuff around!  But I still kept my well-developed lunch salad habit - like Sam, I worked hard to figure out what was best for me, and, lo and behold, that still applied after retirement!

[Villanelle]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

I can sympathize.  I was a lifelong brown-bagger.  Except that my brown bag was actually a laptop bag that never carried a laptop - but held my lunch salad containers, snacks, and enough water to get me through the day.  Every so often, I would get down about carrying that bag around.  Usually in the evenings when I had to wrestle the lunch bag and exercise bag out of the car, into the house, spend 15 minutes unloading and cleaning up.  It felt onerous.  I couldn't just pop out of the car and into whatever I wanted to be doing at home.  I had so much stuff to deal with.

But my conclusion when I sat with it was that it was worth it.  Years ago I experimented with not packing my lunch, and going out each day to grab food.  I didn't work where anything was walkable, so it required driving.  I did it for a while (longer than a week, possibly months), then reverted to bringing my own.  As much extra work as it took, I really hated having to leave the office every day, deciding where to go.  Hated.  It.

Of course, the best solution was to quit work and stop lugging stuff around!  But I still kept my well-developed lunch salad habit - like Sam, I worked hard to figure out what was best for me, and, lo and behold, that still applied after retirement!

Back when I worked in an office (on a college campus), the worst part of going out to lunch was the parking  Trying to find a spot on a college campus--even when you have access to staff lots that the students can't use--was such a source of stress and could take 10+ minutes, and maybe then require a 10 minute walk back to the office if you didn't get a good spot, making a one hour lunch take far longer than an hour.  I didn't do this regularly, but occasionally joined in if my friend group decided to go out, or for a birthday in my Pod.  There were some locations we could walk to, but none of them were really the type of place you go to celebrate a lunch.  Some people did this weekly, and I always marveled at that because the parking thing was so stressful! 

Thankfully, my group of friends usually brought lunches, though sometimes we would walk to a scenic spot to eat them.  Or we'd walk to the food court so that those who wanted could buy and the bringers could still eat their brought-food. 

[seattlecyclone]

Yeah I get it. Packing your own lunch is real, actual labor, moreso if you're not very experienced at it. Go to work for eight hours, plus lunch break, plus commute time, and there aren't all that many waking hours left in the day. Especially for someone with a long commute or other commitments such as kids that eat into that remaining non-work time, that 15 minutes to pack a lunch could seem like a bridge too far. Outsourcing that task to a local restaurant is of course expensive, and a lot of people don't really do the math to realize how much money they could save in the long run by DIYing this task.

This dovetails nicely with the MMM advice to live close to work: if you're not spending two hours every day commuting, making most of your own food seems like much more of a feasible task. The monetary savings from living this way (even if your housing is a bit more expensive) compounds nicely over time.

[Zikoris]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

I think it comes down to the kind of “hidden” labor that lately come to attention inside the gender wars. Being a brown bagger also comes with “all the additional steps.” It’s just that my steps happened way, way before lunch was packed, so don’t really come to mind.

Example: I’ve spent my adult life learning what I like in my lunch salads. And how to prevent salad greens from turning to mush inside my fridge. And how to make amazing salad toppers. And how to make delicious dressing. And how to pack the salad for maximum crispness. And the kind of container that keeps the delicious dressing from spilling.

If you’ve never been in the habit of packing lunch, none of those steps are intuitive. They take effort, and that effort could look incredibly inconvenient, when compared to the already known effort of walking across the street. Especially if your first attempts result in a sad, limp, gross salad, that is your reward for touching the horrific tragedy of the commons office fridge at least twice.

The pre-packaged salads that @Villanelle mentioned might be a nice bridge for such folks. Training wheels, as it were.

But yup, the larger article was good. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how the power now imbued in the labor market is tempered/increased by mentally upsetting amounts of inflation.

I've packed lunch forever and ever and I've never had special containers or mucked around making special toppings or dressings. So I can safely say that none of that is a necessary part of bringing lunch from home, unless you refuse to eat anything but fancy salads. My process is more like "run the kitchen like a factory for a few hours on the weekend" and boom, all the food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks/baking) for two people for a week is ready to go. My daily effort on a weekday is pretty much nonexistent.

[Scandium]

Yeah I get it. Packing your own lunch is real, actual labor, moreso if you're not very experienced at it. Go to work for eight hours, plus lunch break, plus commute time, and there aren't all that many waking hours left in the day. Especially for someone with a long commute or other commitments such as kids that eat into that remaining non-work time, that 15 minutes to pack a lunch could seem like a bridge too far. Outsourcing that task to a local restaurant is of course expensive,

I still don't get the math. I tried going out to lunch with my collegues at the place I used to work (they went every day), and piling into cars, driving to a place, waiting in line, ordering, waiting, driving back took WAAAY longer than I ever spent making my lunch at home! I even stuck a jar of peanut butter in my desk drawer and brought a bread once a week, and made PBJ sandwiches in about 90 seconds!

[Sailor Sam]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

I think it comes down to the kind of “hidden” labor that lately come to attention inside the gender wars. Being a brown bagger also comes with “all the additional steps.” It’s just that my steps happened way, way before lunch was packed, so don’t really come to mind.

Example: I’ve spent my adult life learning what I like in my lunch salads. And how to prevent salad greens from turning to mush inside my fridge. And how to make amazing salad toppers. And how to make delicious dressing. And how to pack the salad for maximum crispness. And the kind of container that keeps the delicious dressing from spilling.

If you’ve never been in the habit of packing lunch, none of those steps are intuitive. They take effort, and that effort could look incredibly inconvenient, when compared to the already known effort of walking across the street. Especially if your first attempts result in a sad, limp, gross salad, that is your reward for touching the horrific tragedy of the commons office fridge at least twice.

The pre-packaged salads that @Villanelle mentioned might be a nice bridge for such folks. Training wheels, as it were.

But yup, the larger article was good. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how the power now imbued in the labor market is tempered/increased by mentally upsetting amounts of inflation.

I've packed lunch forever and ever and I've never had special containers or mucked around making special toppings or dressings. So I can safely say that none of that is a necessary part of bringing lunch from home, unless you refuse to eat anything but fancy salads. My process is more like "run the kitchen like a factory for a few hours on the weekend" and boom, all the food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks/baking) for two people for a week is ready to go. My daily effort on a weekday is pretty much nonexistent.

Okay.

[Zikoris]

Yeah I get it. Packing your own lunch is real, actual labor, moreso if you're not very experienced at it. Go to work for eight hours, plus lunch break, plus commute time, and there aren't all that many waking hours left in the day. Especially for someone with a long commute or other commitments such as kids that eat into that remaining non-work time, that 15 minutes to pack a lunch could seem like a bridge too far. Outsourcing that task to a local restaurant is of course expensive,

I still don't get the math. I tried going out to lunch with my collegues at the place I used to work (they went every day), and piling into cars, driving to a place, waiting in line, ordering, waiting, driving back took WAAAY longer than I ever spent making my lunch at home! I even stuck a jar of peanut butter in my desk drawer and brought a bread once a week, and made PBJ sandwiches in about 90 seconds!

Agreed. I cook close to 100% of the stuff I eat, and I spend WAY less time and energy procuring food than any of the frequent restaurant-eaters I know. People spend SO MUCH time and effort deciding where to go, getting there, waiting around, ordering, etc.

[Villanelle]

I haven't been doing it as much in the winter, but I find that jar salads are great.  I can pack 8 salads (lunch for 2 for a week, allowing for a day of leftovers) in about 30 minutes.  That is usually 2 types os salad.  I use the same greens with different additives and dressing just to have more variety.  Lunch for the whole week, for 2, in about half an hour.  Tha is with the proteins which are usually some combo of hardboiled eggs, chicken, ham or other cured meats, ready to go.  Some of those do take more time if you aren't using leftover or just adding another chicken breast to a dinner you are making, but buying lunch meats or salami eliminates that if one is looking to be most efficient.

And much like the prepackaged salads I posted above, there are shortcuts like pre-shedded cheese, hardboiled eggs bought already cooked, shredded greens instead of heads, etc.  Those all increase costs, but would still end up far below $15 per lunch!  I've never bothered to price mine out though. 

And none of this requires cooking skills. You throw dressing, some toppings (shredded carrots, sliced cucumbers, shredded cheese, feta, corn, whatever...) protein, and greens in a mason jar.  So you aren't even dirtying multiple containers or carrying more than 1 item to work.  You need to keep it mostly upright, then shake and either pour into a bowl or eat from the jar. 

The problem with this is a lack of understanding, and just generally being intimidated by the kitchen.  And I understand that.  I find cooking scary and stressful and my initial reaction to any new recipe or process is usually, "I probably can't do that", which is something I'm aware of and have to actively talk myself out of, again and again.  So for someone who is intimidated by just about anything that happens in the kitchen outside of sex on the counters, "make salad" probably seems like they'd be out of their depth, particularly if they are looking for an excuse to just continue doing what they have been, rather than moving outside their comfort zone.  And even more so if they have some sense that cooking isn't "manly", and therefore isn't for them.

[LifeHappens]

But yup, the larger article was good. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how the power now imbued in the labor market is tempered/increased by mentally upsetting amounts of inflation.

To me this is the more interesting point of the article. Workers largely benefited from WFH. Not everyone loves it, and not everyone wants to stick with it, but enough highly skilled workers DO want to continue at least hybrid WFH to have to potential to change the labor market.

On the other side are the managers who feel the need to keep everyone within eye contact. Probably more importantly are the conglomerates who own all that corporate office space that's been sitting empty for two years. They REALLY want people back in the office.

[Sailor Sam]

But yup, the larger article was good. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how the power now imbued in the labor market is tempered/increased by mentally upsetting amounts of inflation.

To me this is the more interesting point of the article. Workers largely benefited from WFH. Not everyone loves it, and not everyone wants to stick with it, but enough highly skilled workers DO want to continue at least hybrid WFH to have to potential to change the labor market.

On the other side are the managers who feel the need to keep everyone within eye contact. Probably more importantly are the conglomerates who own all that corporate office space that's been sitting empty for two years. They REALLY want people back in the office.

Yah! It’s going to be facnianting to see it all play out. For a certain value of ‘facinating,’ where the definition includes both interest as well as heartbreak and surrealism at human cruelty.

[YttriumNitrate]

Mark Davis, a 30-year-old tech sales representative in Chicago, returned to working from the office two or three days a week in October. He says he is spending roughly $50 more every day on food and commuting than he was while working remotely. 

While the $15 lunch is the subject of the article, I'm more interested in the other $35 he's spending on commuting. In order to rack up that much, he must be driving rather than using CTA or Metra.

[ixtap]

Mark Davis, a 30-year-old tech sales representative in Chicago, returned to working from the office two or three days a week in October. He says he is spending roughly $50 more every day on food and commuting than he was while working remotely. 

While the $15 lunch is the subject of the article, I'm more interested in the other $35 he's spending on commuting. In order to rack up that much, he must be driving rather than using CTA or Metra.

Well, don't forget the $5 coffee on the way in!

[wageslave23]

Mark Davis, a 30-year-old tech sales representative in Chicago, returned to working from the office two or three days a week in October. He says he is spending roughly $50 more every day on food and commuting than he was while working remotely. 

While the $15 lunch is the subject of the article, I'm more interested in the other $35 he's spending on commuting. In order to rack up that much, he must be driving rather than using CTA or Metra.

Yeah I call bs. I don't read those types of articles anymore because they are always full of holes. Is he driving 70+ miles round trip?

And it takes about 3 minutes to make a sandwich and bring a bag of pretzels. Not every meal you eat needs to be some gourmet 3 course meal. Just shove some crap in your mouth and get back to work.

[seattlecyclone]

Mark Davis, a 30-year-old tech sales representative in Chicago, returned to working from the office two or three days a week in October. He says he is spending roughly $50 more every day on food and commuting than he was while working remotely. 

While the $15 lunch is the subject of the article, I'm more interested in the other $35 he's spending on commuting. In order to rack up that much, he must be driving rather than using CTA or Metra.

Yeah I call bs. I don't read those types of articles anymore because they are always full of holes. Is he driving 70+ miles round trip?

And it takes about 3 minutes to make a sandwich and bring a bag of pretzels. Not every meal you eat needs to be some gourmet 3 course meal. Just shove some crap in your mouth and get back to work.

Many people do just that! Plus parking in downtown areas can be expensive in many cities. Driving is much more expensive than many people realize, and would be even moreso if we didn't subsidize it so much.

[Chris22]

Yeah I get it. Packing your own lunch is real, actual labor, moreso if you're not very experienced at it. Go to work for eight hours, plus lunch break, plus commute time, and there aren't all that many waking hours left in the day. Especially for someone with a long commute or other commitments such as kids that eat into that remaining non-work time, that 15 minutes to pack a lunch could seem like a bridge too far. Outsourcing that task to a local restaurant is of course expensive,

I still don't get the math. I tried going out to lunch with my collegues at the place I used to work (they went every day), and piling into cars, driving to a place, waiting in line, ordering, waiting, driving back took WAAAY longer than I ever spent making my lunch at home! I even stuck a jar of peanut butter in my desk drawer and brought a bread once a week, and made PBJ sandwiches in about 90 seconds!

Sure, but many people enjoy the time spent with other people going out to lunch. It’s social, I get to talk to other people, leave the office, it breaks up the day, etc etc. Even if it takes twice as long that’s way more enjoyable than standing in my kitchen alone making a lunch. But I’m guessing we’re back to introvert vs extrovert here.

I WFH now so I rarely do lunch out, but when I was in the office I looked forward to a lunch out with coworkers way more than eating a sack lunch at my desk.

[NotJen]

Yeah I get it. Packing your own lunch is real, actual labor, moreso if you're not very experienced at it. Go to work for eight hours, plus lunch break, plus commute time, and there aren't all that many waking hours left in the day. Especially for someone with a long commute or other commitments such as kids that eat into that remaining non-work time, that 15 minutes to pack a lunch could seem like a bridge too far. Outsourcing that task to a local restaurant is of course expensive,

I still don't get the math. I tried going out to lunch with my collegues at the place I used to work (they went every day), and piling into cars, driving to a place, waiting in line, ordering, waiting, driving back took WAAAY longer than I ever spent making my lunch at home! I even stuck a jar of peanut butter in my desk drawer and brought a bread once a week, and made PBJ sandwiches in about 90 seconds!

Sure, but many people enjoy the time spent with other people going out to lunch. It’s social, I get to talk to other people, leave the office, it breaks up the day, etc etc. Even if it takes twice as long that’s way more enjoyable than standing in my kitchen alone making a lunch. But I’m guessing we’re back to introvert vs extrovert here.

I WFH now so I rarely do lunch out, but when I was in the office I looked forward to a lunch out with coworkers way more than eating a sack lunch at my desk.

Doesn't it stop feeling special when you do it every day?  I did account for 1 day a week where I went out with coworkers or met up with my BF for lunch, because yes, that can be an enjoyable thing to do, I just don't find value in doing it every day.

Also, you don't have to go out to interact with your coworkers.  Throughout the years I would get together with different groups of people who also brought their lunch.  It was usually a fun time talking, looking up funny things on the internet (pro tip - don't look up "how are baby carrots made" at work because you will get carrot porn), and making connections.  Slightly less fun was the group who just watched TV episodes during lunch, but it was still better than eating alone, and there was usually some chatting involved.

[YttriumNitrate]

Yeah I call bs. I don't read those types of articles anymore because they are always full of holes. Is he driving 70+ miles round trip?

Round trip driving into Chicago from the Indiana suburbs I could rack up about $15 in tolls, $20 for parking, and another $10 for gas so it's definitely within the realm of possibility. But, back when I was commuting on a regular basis I'd just take the train which worked out to be about $6 round trip.

[Villanelle]

Yeah I get it. Packing your own lunch is real, actual labor, moreso if you're not very experienced at it. Go to work for eight hours, plus lunch break, plus commute time, and there aren't all that many waking hours left in the day. Especially for someone with a long commute or other commitments such as kids that eat into that remaining non-work time, that 15 minutes to pack a lunch could seem like a bridge too far. Outsourcing that task to a local restaurant is of course expensive,

I still don't get the math. I tried going out to lunch with my collegues at the place I used to work (they went every day), and piling into cars, driving to a place, waiting in line, ordering, waiting, driving back took WAAAY longer than I ever spent making my lunch at home! I even stuck a jar of peanut butter in my desk drawer and brought a bread once a week, and made PBJ sandwiches in about 90 seconds!

Sure, but many people enjoy the time spent with other people going out to lunch. It’s social, I get to talk to other people, leave the office, it breaks up the day, etc etc. Even if it takes twice as long that’s way more enjoyable than standing in my kitchen alone making a lunch. But I’m guessing we’re back to introvert vs extrovert here.

I WFH now so I rarely do lunch out, but when I was in the office I looked forward to a lunch out with coworkers way more than eating a sack lunch at my desk.

I sort of agree with this, which is why my work crew settled on eating our packed lunches away from our desks, or even in the food court so some could buy and others could pack.  That seemed to work well for everyone. 

[sonofsven]

Hah, another "too hard to bring a lunch" thread.
Sandwich, apple, snack. It's not rocket science.
Work a job that's ten miles from a store or restaurant and I think anybody could figure it out.

[Cranky]

We walk at the mall when the whether is bad, and I’ve been pretty surprised at how expensive stuff in the food court is now. It must be worse in a real restaurant.

[Fomerly known as something]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

I think it comes down to the kind of “hidden” labor that lately come to attention inside the gender wars. Being a brown bagger also comes with “all the additional steps.” It’s just that my steps happened way, way before lunch was packed, so don’t really come to mind.

Example: I’ve spent my adult life learning what I like in my lunch salads. And how to prevent salad greens from turning to mush inside my fridge. And how to make amazing salad toppers. And how to make delicious dressing. And how to pack the salad for maximum crispness. And the kind of container that keeps the delicious dressing from spilling.

If you’ve never been in the habit of packing lunch, none of those steps are intuitive. They take effort, and that effort could look incredibly inconvenient, when compared to the already known effort of walking across the street. Especially if your first attempts result in a sad, limp, gross salad, that is your reward for touching the horrific tragedy of the commons office fridge at least twice.

The pre-packaged salads that @Villanelle mentioned might be a nice bridge for such folks. Training wheels, as it were.

But yup, the larger article was good. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how the power now imbued in the labor market is tempered/increased by mentally upsetting amounts of inflation.

Wait a minute, I just ate at the cafeteria at one of your employers work locations today.  As a full paying “guest” it was $7.70 which was for anything in the chow line.  (My employer was using a classroom for in service training)

[Sailor Sam]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

I think it comes down to the kind of “hidden” labor that lately come to attention inside the gender wars. Being a brown bagger also comes with “all the additional steps.” It’s just that my steps happened way, way before lunch was packed, so don’t really come to mind.

Example: I’ve spent my adult life learning what I like in my lunch salads. And how to prevent salad greens from turning to mush inside my fridge. And how to make amazing salad toppers. And how to make delicious dressing. And how to pack the salad for maximum crispness. And the kind of container that keeps the delicious dressing from spilling.

If you’ve never been in the habit of packing lunch, none of those steps are intuitive. They take effort, and that effort could look incredibly inconvenient, when compared to the already known effort of walking across the street. Especially if your first attempts result in a sad, limp, gross salad, that is your reward for touching the horrific tragedy of the commons office fridge at least twice.

The pre-packaged salads that @Villanelle mentioned might be a nice bridge for such folks. Training wheels, as it were.

But yup, the larger article was good. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how the power now imbued in the labor market is tempered/increased by mentally upsetting amounts of inflation.

Wait a minute, I just ate at the cafeteria at one of your employers work locations today.  As a full paying “guest” it was $7.70 which was for anything in the chow line.  (My employer was using a classroom for in service training)

Yeah, the galley can be fucking fantastic.

How about I modulate down to “some portions of my adult life,” instead of “my entire adult life.” Cause sometimes, when your on some horrible land assignment, all you want is to control your own goddamn lunch. Thus, you learn to pack some leftovers. Or a salad.

[2sk22]

I worked in an office in the lower east side of Manhattan for about seven years. Twice a week, I would commute by bus and subway. The commute was arduous but at least it wasn't every day. I should mention that I was (very fortunately) mostly allowed to work from home very early, starting from about 2004.

The one great thing about Manhattan's lower east side was the dozens of excellent little indie restaurants around St Mark's Place. I always used to eat out for lunch and was the highlight of my day. I got to try almost all the restaurants in the area and some of them were truly wonderful - and usually quite reasonable, typically in the range of $6-$10. I don't miss work but I do miss going out for lunch.

[sonofsven]

The best lunch deal I ever had at work was free lunch; in fact, free breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I was the general contractor on a job in a low income neighborhood to repair the crumbling foundation for a nice old lady who, through the help of concerned neighbors, got a no interest loan from a city program.
The job took a little planning due to the bureaucracy involved, and in the meantime I learned that there was going to be a Hollywood movie filmed in the neighborhood, right on the same street!
The crew took over a few blocks, but they allowed us to park there and work as long as we were quiet when they were actually shooting, which was hardly ever.
The big perk was the 'craft services' food truck. Within days the construction crew and I were invited to eat there, for free, three meals a day. When the movie crew was done we were all disappointed.

[startingsmall]

I think it's worth remembering that work environments vary, and not everyone works in a big-city office building.

I worked for several vet clinics in rural/suburban areas that didn't have an employee break room, or didn't have adequate space in their "break room" for eating (it tends to become storage space). Eating in the treatment area is frowned upon, because of OSHA regulations, and most employees don't have a desk or office, so not eating at a restaurant basically means sitting outside. A couple of practices had a tablet or shady area outside, or a nearby park within walking or driving distance... but if you work in a strip-mall practice, you're basically limited to sitting in your car alone. That means no socialization, and it can be unpleasant on 90+ summer days. (When I worked at those clinics, I tended to bring my lunch most days, but go to sandwich shop when it was especially hot or rainy/dreary. The $10/day I spent on lunch those days was well worth it to me.)

[GreenSheep]

I not only survived on, but truly enjoyed, a daily PBJ, piece of fruit, and cup of yogurt for lunch. I don't know how I didn't get sick of it, from kindergarten till a couple of years before FIRE, when I changed my eating habits and therefore began to vary my lunches. It was ridiculously fast, easy, and cheap, though. But even post-PBJ, my lunch was usually just dinner leftovers, maybe with a piece of fruit or something added. I never bothered with the communal fridge at work -- just took a soft-sided cooler with an ice pack in it. Never bothered with the communal microwave, either, as there are good Thermoses (or other brands) out there that will keep things warm for hours.

The "where" can really be a problem. Most of my work was in a career that didn't have lunch breaks, so I ate a bite here and a bite there while I worked. But I did work in a different job for a couple of years before starting my career, and that meant I had to either eat in the break room down the hall and risk awkward conversation, or outside, which was obviously weather-dependent. I walked to work, so parking wasn't an issue, but that meant no car available to eat in, and it wasn't quite a short enough walk to go home for lunch and back. I have a friend who eats in her car every day, even in Canada, because she doesn't want to deal with break room drama. Not sure what the answer is, but it's definitely difficult for a workplace to please BOTH those who want to enjoy a peaceful lunch alone AND those who want to take the time to hang out with others.

Side note... I went to the Smithsonian Air & Space museum (the one outside DC, not the one on the National Mall) a couple of years ago and was inside eating my bag lunch while my friend ate her meal from the in-museum McDonald's. On the other side of the window, on a bench outside, were a man and his two kids, enjoying a homemade lunch from a cooler they got out of their car. I wanted to high-five them through the window. :-) Awesome demonstration of Mustachian principles, and probably a lot healthier, too.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

As long as you have a refrigerator, I don't see the big deal of making lunch for yourself. I even make it in the morning. I have it down to a science. It's a salad mostly of pre-made salad mix, add some combination of carrots, cauliflower, green pepper, tomato, onion with pecans, boiled egg, or chicken for protein. It takes me about 4 minutes in the morning and costs me around $2.00-$3.00. I throw in an apple and banana for a snack later. I just don't understand the issue. It tastes fine to me, and I have gotten compliments on it at work.

[mm1970]

LOL at "all the additional steps" - you mean taking it out of the fridge and maybe sticking it in the microwave? Holy shit. What person could ever handle something so arduous.

I think it comes down to the kind of “hidden” labor that lately come to attention inside the gender wars. Being a brown bagger also comes with “all the additional steps.” It’s just that my steps happened way, way before lunch was packed, so don’t really come to mind.

Example: I’ve spent my adult life learning what I like in my lunch salads. And how to prevent salad greens from turning to mush inside my fridge. And how to make amazing salad toppers. And how to make delicious dressing. And how to pack the salad for maximum crispness. And the kind of container that keeps the delicious dressing from spilling.

If you’ve never been in the habit of packing lunch, none of those steps are intuitive. They take effort, and that effort could look incredibly inconvenient, when compared to the already known effort of walking across the street. Especially if your first attempts result in a sad, limp, gross salad, that is your reward for touching the horrific tragedy of the commons office fridge at least twice.

The pre-packaged salads that @Villanelle mentioned might be a nice bridge for such folks. Training wheels, as it were.

But yup, the larger article was good. It’s going to be very interesting to watch how the power now imbued in the labor market is tempered/increased by mentally upsetting amounts of inflation.

I've packed lunch forever and ever and I've never had special containers or mucked around making special toppings or dressings. So I can safely say that none of that is a necessary part of bringing lunch from home, unless you refuse to eat anything but fancy salads. My process is more like "run the kitchen like a factory for a few hours on the weekend" and boom, all the food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks/baking) for two people for a week is ready to go. My daily effort on a weekday is pretty much nonexistent.

Yeah, but this is also work.

As a FT working mom with 2 kids, I've packed lunches for more than 20 years now, and I've done a bit of everything.  There were the months where every weekend I cooked 3 big meals - two for dinner and one for lunch.  So, one week lunch was chili.  The next: burritos.  Then there was a week of sandwiches.  A week of pasta. 

For a time, we just got into the habit of eating sandwiches for lunch.

The last several years it was salad.  Lots and lots of salad, with homemade dressings.  I am really good at salad!  It took awhile to get there though, and I started eating salad when I was trying to lose baby weight (starting in 2014).  What I learned with the salad is that I don't get the post-lunch sleepies with salad, because no heavy carbs.

Anyway, now I'm WFH and I am getting a little tired of salads.  So I want to do a bit more weekend meal prep, but that's work too!  I made a big crockpot Italian chicken, and I portioned it into freezer containers for the week and put it in the freezer.  Good, right?  But now we have ZERO dinner leftovers, for a family of four.  Fuck.  Yesterday I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight so that we have food for another couple of days.

TLDR, your system works too but ALL systems require work and planning and practice.  And even though I've got 2 decades into this AND I used your system for years - I'm at almost a complete loss on how to start up again.

[Zikoris]

I've packed lunch forever and ever and I've never had special containers or mucked around making special toppings or dressings. So I can safely say that none of that is a necessary part of bringing lunch from home, unless you refuse to eat anything but fancy salads. My process is more like "run the kitchen like a factory for a few hours on the weekend" and boom, all the food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks/baking) for two people for a week is ready to go. My daily effort on a weekday is pretty much nonexistent.

Yeah, but this is also work.

As a FT working mom with 2 kids, I've packed lunches for more than 20 years now, and I've done a bit of everything.  There were the months where every weekend I cooked 3 big meals - two for dinner and one for lunch.  So, one week lunch was chili.  The next: burritos.  Then there was a week of sandwiches.  A week of pasta. 

For a time, we just got into the habit of eating sandwiches for lunch.

The last several years it was salad.  Lots and lots of salad, with homemade dressings.  I am really good at salad!  It took awhile to get there though, and I started eating salad when I was trying to lose baby weight (starting in 2014).  What I learned with the salad is that I don't get the post-lunch sleepies with salad, because no heavy carbs.

Anyway, now I'm WFH and I am getting a little tired of salads.  So I want to do a bit more weekend meal prep, but that's work too!  I made a big crockpot Italian chicken, and I portioned it into freezer containers for the week and put it in the freezer.  Good, right?  But now we have ZERO dinner leftovers, for a family of four.  Fuck.  Yesterday I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight so that we have food for another couple of days.

TLDR, your system works too but ALL systems require work and planning and practice.  And even though I've got 2 decades into this AND I used your system for years - I'm at almost a complete loss on how to start up again.
[/quote]

I mean, yeah, until we have food synthesizers there's no such thing as an absolutely zero-effort meal, but I'd say my system is probably about as low-effort as you can get while still eating quality home-cooking for every meal. I think there's a lot of value in getting it all done in a weekend blast for both logistical reasons (namely time efficiency and dishes), and also eliminating that mental load of "what am I going to eat today?" entirely.

I'd say the amount of planning required really depends on how you cook. Following recipes vs free-form cooking. I know what volume of fresh ingredients we need in a week (my boyfriend's backpack full + one or two things in a small bag I carry), so I just get whatever and then figure out what I'm cooking as I go. It would be more work if you had to follow a specific list and plan everything out, for sure.

[Cranky]

I've packed lunch forever and ever and I've never had special containers or mucked around making special toppings or dressings. So I can safely say that none of that is a necessary part of bringing lunch from home, unless you refuse to eat anything but fancy salads. My process is more like "run the kitchen like a factory for a few hours on the weekend" and boom, all the food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks/baking) for two people for a week is ready to go. My daily effort on a weekday is pretty much nonexistent.

Yeah, but this is also work.

As a FT working mom with 2 kids, I've packed lunches for more than 20 years now, and I've done a bit of everything.  There were the months where every weekend I cooked 3 big meals - two for dinner and one for lunch.  So, one week lunch was chili.  The next: burritos.  Then there was a week of sandwiches.  A week of pasta. 

For a time, we just got into the habit of eating sandwiches for lunch.

The last several years it was salad.  Lots and lots of salad, with homemade dressings.  I am really good at salad!  It took awhile to get there though, and I started eating salad when I was trying to lose baby weight (starting in 2014).  What I learned with the salad is that I don't get the post-lunch sleepies with salad, because no heavy carbs.

Anyway, now I'm WFH and I am getting a little tired of salads.  So I want to do a bit more weekend meal prep, but that's work too!  I made a big crockpot Italian chicken, and I portioned it into freezer containers for the week and put it in the freezer.  Good, right?  But now we have ZERO dinner leftovers, for a family of four.  Fuck.  Yesterday I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight so that we have food for another couple of days.

TLDR, your system works too but ALL systems require work and planning and practice.  And even though I've got 2 decades into this AND I used your system for years - I'm at almost a complete loss on how to start up again.

I mean, yeah, until we have food synthesizers there's no such thing as an absolutely zero-effort meal, but I'd say my system is probably about as low-effort as you can get while still eating quality home-cooking for every meal. I think there's a lot of value in getting it all done in a weekend blast for both logistical reasons (namely time efficiency and dishes), and also eliminating that mental load of "what am I going to eat today?" entirely.

I'd say the amount of planning required really depends on how you cook. Following recipes vs free-form cooking. I know what volume of fresh ingredients we need in a week (my boyfriend's backpack full + one or two things in a small bag I carry), so I just get whatever and then figure out what I'm cooking as I go. It would be more work if you had to follow a specific list and plan everything out, for sure.
[/quote]

Weekends with kids look a lot different than weekends without kids, IME.  There is a lot more to do - swimming lessons, grocery shopping, anything social for the week. Adding a big cooking session is more work and stress for some situations than others.

My dd does zero cooking. Her weekends are for kid activities and church and resting up.

She does buy the heavily subsidized lunch at work every day. The rest of us eat leftovers. We are an oddly set up household, though.

[Catbert]

At one point when I worked we had a lunch club.  Each week someone volunteered to bring lettuce the following week.  Everyone else brought in *something* to go in salads.  *Something* could be olives, nuts, cheese, tomatoes, beans, roasted veg, raw veggies or whatever else you might put in salad.  The club part was pretty loose.  Anyone in the office could participate and you could be in or out on any given week.   

[mm1970]

Weekends with kids look a lot different than weekends without kids, IME.  There is a lot more to do - swimming lessons, grocery shopping, anything social for the week. Adding a big cooking session is more work and stress for some situations than others.

My dd does zero cooking. Her weekends are for kid activities and church and resting up.

I would say our struggles come down to a couple/few things:
1. We get our vegetables from two CSA delivery boxes.  It's great stuff and saves time.  They arrive on Tuesday and Saturday, so have to plan around what we get and around Tuesday and Saturday.  So, I can't "bulk cook" on Sunday for the stuff we get on Tuesday.

2. I have a teenaged boy YO!  And an almost 10 yo boy.  They eat so damned much.  And as they age, they are getting pickier.  Just eat the damn lentil soup and toast and salad and stop arguing with me and telling me that you want pizza.

3.  In the last few months I've put on a few (8) pounds, and dammit I'm menopausal and now I have to count calories and eat more protein and blech.  More calculus.

4.  I do bulk cook on the weekend, but only one day.  I don't have church, but I do potluck on Sunday mornings with the neighbors, and go for group runs, and you know, sometimes (like every weekend), I just want to sit on my ass in the afternoon one of the 2 days and read my book with a dog on my lap.  I'm 51 and I'm tired.

[OtherJen]

Weekends with kids look a lot different than weekends without kids, IME.  There is a lot more to do - swimming lessons, grocery shopping, anything social for the week. Adding a big cooking session is more work and stress for some situations than others.

My dd does zero cooking. Her weekends are for kid activities and church and resting up.

I would say our struggles come down to a couple/few things:
1. We get our vegetables from two CSA delivery boxes.  It's great stuff and saves time.  They arrive on Tuesday and Saturday, so have to plan around what we get and around Tuesday and Saturday.  So, I can't "bulk cook" on Sunday for the stuff we get on Tuesday.

2. I have a teenaged boy YO!  And an almost 10 yo boy.  They eat so damned much.  And as they age, they are getting pickier.  Just eat the damn lentil soup and toast and salad and stop arguing with me and telling me that you want pizza.

3.  In the last few months I've put on a few (8) pounds, and dammit I'm menopausal and now I have to count calories and eat more protein and blech.  More calculus.

4.  I do bulk cook on the weekend, but only one day.  I don't have church, but I do potluck on Sunday mornings with the neighbors, and go for group runs, and you know, sometimes (like every weekend), I just want to sit on my ass in the afternoon one of the 2 days and read my book with a dog on my lap.  I'm 51 and I'm tired.

Bless you. I don't have kids, but I'm struggling with the responsibilities/time demands of both a recent work promotion and an elected leadership role (with one more year in my term). I had to put the weekend vegetable delivery on hold because it was arriving on my only full day off. I don't even have time to pursue hobbies right now, so bulk meal prep is waaaay down the list and even the thought of it makes me despair.

Husband may be laid off in the next week or two due to a company buyout. I will not be sorry at all to turn over most of the grocery stocking/meal prep tasks to him. I usually love cooking, but lately it's yet another chore.

Adolescent boys are black holes when it comes to food. I wish you the best of luck.

[Channel-Z]

The price of a "lunch salad" was already berserk, even 15 years ago. I know of one place that sold boxed salads at $10 each, back in 2007.

[Runrooster]

As long as you have a refrigerator, I don't see the big deal of making lunch for yourself. I even make it in the morning. I have it down to a science. It's a salad mostly of pre-made salad mix, add some combination of carrots, cauliflower, green pepper, tomato, onion with pecans, boiled egg, or chicken for protein. It takes me about 4 minutes in the morning and costs me around $2.00-$3.00. I throw in an apple and banana for a snack later. I just don't understand the issue. It tastes fine to me, and I have gotten compliments on it at work.

I need a youtube video of this.  I take 3 containers to work most days - 1, fruit - strawberry and mango say 2. veg - tomato, cuc, pepper say 3. lunch - ravioli with spaghetti sauce say and often 4. a banana.  Ideally I will pre-pack the lunch portion, sometimes making a batch on the weekend to last through the week.  I've been doing the fruit and veg in the morning (not ideal) and that alone takes 10 minutes.  I even used already-cut pineapple this morning rather than having to cut a mango.

4 minutes for a salad - yeah I get the pre-made mix, but do you cut anything else?  Even pecans need chopping.  I'm reminded of my brother, an engineer, who bragged about his easy no-chop salads - he'd take leaf spinach, baby carrots and cherry tomatoes.  I thought it sounded awful.  I know I have a habit of being literal, but who says 4 minutes if it really takes 20?

[jrhampt]

You don’t have to chop pecans!  If they’re too big for you, use pistachios or pepitos instead

[Runrooster]

You don’t have to chop pecans!  If they’re too big for you, use pistachios or pepitos instead

I'd chop pistachios too, but I like my salad small.
Maybe Wolpack has one of those round cleavers I've seen at that salad store, Chop't.  They assemble ingredients in a bowl and then throw everything onto a plastic cutting board and do these fast chops with the circular cleaver.  That's worth a youtube video if you've never seen it.

But even their ingredients are pre-chopped.  I like my carrots grated; julienned is okay but still a little hard.  And cauliflower diced, not big florets.

[jnw]

"It's $16 per day for a sandwich, but what am I gonna do?   So I am FORCED to spend $4160 dollars per year on sandwiches.  I just can't get myself to bring in my own sandwich for $2.00 per day.   I rather spend an additional $4160 - $520 = $3640 per year than have to bring my own.  Yeah I know $3640 invested each year in an index fund, over 30 years will yield me around $370k.  But to me the $370k is not worth it because of the 2 minutes involved in the preparation of the sandwich each day -- my time is worth more than that (even though it takes me 15 minutes each day to drive round trip to the diner); I can afford to pay servants to make it for me every day, even though I am living paycheck to paycheck with no emergency savings in the bank."

"Oh and I have calculated it. It would take 32 eight hour work days to make those sandwiches over the 30 years, but those 32 days of work just isn't worth it for $370k.  I much rather spend 243 eight hour work days to drive to and from the diner for lunch so I can show off my new vehicles around town -- the extra 211 eight hour work days and the loss of $370k is worth it to me."

"And this is just for sandwiches, don't get me started on the daily coffees, dinners, and the hundreds  other things that have gone up in price which I am FORCED to buy."

[solon]

"It's $16 per day for a sandwich, but what am I gonna do?   So I am FORCED to spend $4160 dollars per year on sandwiches.  I just can't get myself to bring in my own sandwich for $2.00 per day.   I rather spend an additional $4160 - $520 = $3640 per year than have to bring my own.  Yeah I know $3640 invested each year in an index fund, over 30 years will yield me around $370k.  But to me the $370k is not worth it because of the 2 minutes involved in the preparation of the sandwich each day -- my time is worth more than that (even though it takes me 15 minutes each day to drive round trip to the diner); I can afford to pay servants to make it for me every day, even though I am living paycheck to paycheck with no emergency savings in the bank."

"Oh and I have calculated it. It would take 32 eight hour work days to make those sandwiches over the 30 years, but those 32 days of work just isn't worth it for $370k.  I much rather spend 243 eight out work days to drive to and from the diner for lunch so I can show off my new vehicles around town -- the extra 211 eight hour work days and the loss of $370k is worth it to me."

"And this is just for sandwiches, don't get me started on the daily coffees, dinners, and the hundreds  other things that have gone up in price which I am FORCED to buy."

THIS is the level of sarcasm I was expecting from this thread. Nicely done!

[Runrooster]

Wait a minute, I just ate at the cafeteria at one of your employers work locations today.  As a full paying “guest” it was $7.70 which was for anything in the chow line.  (My employer was using a classroom for in service training)

Yeah, I wonder when office cafeterias will come back.  My last large building had a deli, the current one has nothing.

I can imagine paying $16 for a salad regularly if it was a good salad, rather than the average restaurant salad.  My boss bought us lunch from California Pizza Kitchen, and I wasn't in the mood for pizza so I got the banh mi salad. I've raved about it.  It had bean sprouts, which I never think to put in salad, plus cucumbers carrots, radish, chicken, quinoa which I do put and avocado I add only same day.  I ate the whole thing, but it was big enough to split in two.  All the sandwiches my boss has bought have been two meals.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

As long as you have a refrigerator, I don't see the big deal of making lunch for yourself. I even make it in the morning. I have it down to a science. It's a salad mostly of pre-made salad mix, add some combination of carrots, cauliflower, green pepper, tomato, onion with pecans, boiled egg, or chicken for protein. It takes me about 4 minutes in the morning and costs me around $2.00-$3.00. I throw in an apple and banana for a snack later. I just don't understand the issue. It tastes fine to me, and I have gotten compliments on it at work.

I need a youtube video of this.  I take 3 containers to work most days - 1, fruit - strawberry and mango say 2. veg - tomato, cuc, pepper say 3. lunch - ravioli with spaghetti sauce say and often 4. a banana.  Ideally I will pre-pack the lunch portion, sometimes making a batch on the weekend to last through the week.  I've been doing the fruit and veg in the morning (not ideal) and that alone takes 10 minutes.  I even used already-cut pineapple this morning rather than having to cut a mango.

4 minutes for a salad - yeah I get the pre-made mix, but do you cut anything else?  Even pecans need chopping.  I'm reminded of my brother, an engineer, who bragged about his easy no-chop salads - he'd take leaf spinach, baby carrots and cherry tomatoes.  I thought it sounded awful.  I know I have a habit of being literal, but who says 4 minutes if it really takes 20?

I feel you on being literal. I'll admit that I was estimating at 4 minutes, but I felt pretty confident that it took less than 5. I didn't want to reply until I actually did it and timed it. It's really not that impressive when I do it, and given your other comment, I am pretty sure a decent part of our differences are related to your size preferences. I timed it this morning, and with nothing set up except the container (I counted the time taking everything out of the refrigerator), I made the salad in 3 minutes 14 seconds. The salad consisted of salad mix, baby carrots, a green pepper, some cauliflower, and two boiled eggs. My time included bringing them out and peeling the eggs, pulling the cauliflower off the bunch, and disassembling the green pepper, and adding some salad dressing. My salad dressing emptied out, so I stopped the time while I used a knife to get more out of the bottle. I also did clean up of putting things back in the refrigerator separately, which upped it to 3 minutes 45 seconds. All that being said, I did not break up the cauliflower into small pieces. I used whole baby carrots. I broke the green pepper apart by hand just tearing it into pieces. I don't know if I would enjoy it more if the carrots were grated, for example, or not, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make enough difference to merit the greater time it would take. If it did, I would probably just buy pre-grated carrots if it wasn't too expensive. As it is, baby carrots are $.99 a pound, I'm pretty sure. I might save a few pennies getting whole carrots and chopping them, but it's worth it to me to get them smaller.

[wageslave23]

As long as you have a refrigerator, I don't see the big deal of making lunch for yourself. I even make it in the morning. I have it down to a science. It's a salad mostly of pre-made salad mix, add some combination of carrots, cauliflower, green pepper, tomato, onion with pecans, boiled egg, or chicken for protein. It takes me about 4 minutes in the morning and costs me around $2.00-$3.00. I throw in an apple and banana for a snack later. I just don't understand the issue. It tastes fine to me, and I have gotten compliments on it at work.

I need a youtube video of this.  I take 3 containers to work most days - 1, fruit - strawberry and mango say 2. veg - tomato, cuc, pepper say 3. lunch - ravioli with spaghetti sauce say and often 4. a banana.  Ideally I will pre-pack the lunch portion, sometimes making a batch on the weekend to last through the week.  I've been doing the fruit and veg in the morning (not ideal) and that alone takes 10 minutes.  I even used already-cut pineapple this morning rather than having to cut a mango.

4 minutes for a salad - yeah I get the pre-made mix, but do you cut anything else?  Even pecans need chopping.  I'm reminded of my brother, an engineer, who bragged about his easy no-chop salads - he'd take leaf spinach, baby carrots and cherry tomatoes.  I thought it sounded awful.  I know I have a habit of being literal, but who says 4 minutes if it really takes 20?

I feel you on being literal. I'll admit that I was estimating at 4 minutes, but I felt pretty confident that it took less than 5. I didn't want to reply until I actually did it and timed it. It's really not that impressive when I do it, and given your other comment, I am pretty sure a decent part of our differences are related to your size preferences. I timed it this morning, and with nothing set up except the container (I counted the time taking everything out of the refrigerator), I made the salad in 3 minutes 14 seconds. The salad consisted of salad mix, baby carrots, a green pepper, some cauliflower, and two boiled eggs. My time included bringing them out and peeling the eggs, pulling the cauliflower off the bunch, and disassembling the green pepper, and adding some salad dressing. My salad dressing emptied out, so I stopped the time while I used a knife to get more out of the bottle. I also did clean up of putting things back in the refrigerator separately, which upped it to 3 minutes 45 seconds. All that being said, I did not break up the cauliflower into small pieces. I used whole baby carrots. I broke the green pepper apart by hand just tearing it into pieces. I don't know if I would enjoy it more if the carrots were grated, for example, or not, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make enough difference to merit the greater time it would take. If it did, I would probably just buy pre-grated carrots if it wasn't too expensive. As it is, baby carrots are $.99 a pound, I'm pretty sure. I might save a few pennies getting whole carrots and chopping them, but it's worth it to me to get them smaller.

I think the issue is variability in speed between people. I can make the same recipe in 10 minutes that it will take my wife 25 minutes to do.  To the point where we will decide who is making dinner depending on how much time we have.  I think chopping/cutting is where I save the most time. My pieces are usually a bit bigger and slightly less uniform, plus I just move more quickly.

[Zikoris]

I think the issue is variability in speed between people. I can make the same recipe in 10 minutes that it will take my wife 25 minutes to do.  To the point where we will decide who is making dinner depending on how much time we have.  I think chopping/cutting is where I save the most time. My pieces are usually a bit bigger and slightly less uniform, plus I just move more quickly.

I think one of the things that makes the biggest difference in time-saving is being fast enough that you can prep and cook at the same time. A lot of people need to chop/measure everything first, and then start cooking, which makes it take twice as long as someone like me who just churns it all out at once.

[GreenSheep]

I think the issue is variability in speed between people. I can make the same recipe in 10 minutes that it will take my wife 25 minutes to do.  To the point where we will decide who is making dinner depending on how much time we have.  I think chopping/cutting is where I save the most time. My pieces are usually a bit bigger and slightly less uniform, plus I just move more quickly.

I think one of the things that makes the biggest difference in time-saving is being fast enough that you can prep and cook at the same time. A lot of people need to chop/measure everything first, and then start cooking, which makes it take twice as long as someone like me who just churns it all out at once.

I think you're both right. Seems like the common denominator is practice, time spent in the kitchen, experience, etc. (Also, maybe being willing to let some perfectionism go.) I think when people say they "can't cook," they mean that they're not efficient at it. If you can read a recipe and know some basic terms, you can cook. It's just a question of experience after that, and since most households (I've read) make the same 7-10 recipes over and over, it seems like anyone could get pretty good at cooking those 7-10 things after a few weeks of practice.

[mm1970]

As long as you have a refrigerator, I don't see the big deal of making lunch for yourself. I even make it in the morning. I have it down to a science. It's a salad mostly of pre-made salad mix, add some combination of carrots, cauliflower, green pepper, tomato, onion with pecans, boiled egg, or chicken for protein. It takes me about 4 minutes in the morning and costs me around $2.00-$3.00. I throw in an apple and banana for a snack later. I just don't understand the issue. It tastes fine to me, and I have gotten compliments on it at work.

I need a youtube video of this.  I take 3 containers to work most days - 1, fruit - strawberry and mango say 2. veg - tomato, cuc, pepper say 3. lunch - ravioli with spaghetti sauce say and often 4. a banana.  Ideally I will pre-pack the lunch portion, sometimes making a batch on the weekend to last through the week.  I've been doing the fruit and veg in the morning (not ideal) and that alone takes 10 minutes.  I even used already-cut pineapple this morning rather than having to cut a mango.

4 minutes for a salad - yeah I get the pre-made mix, but do you cut anything else?  Even pecans need chopping.  I'm reminded of my brother, an engineer, who bragged about his easy no-chop salads - he'd take leaf spinach, baby carrots and cherry tomatoes.  I thought it sounded awful.  I know I have a habit of being literal, but who says 4 minutes if it really takes 20?

You don't want to ask my husband how many containers I have at work.  Sometimes, it's 7 or 8, depending on the day.

Like: 1. overnight oats for breakfast, 2. morning pills, 3. lunch chicken/rice, 4. snap peas, 5. carrot salad, 6. sliced turkey or yogurt.  Plus 2 fruits, so sometimes one of them is berries, so also in a container.

I can't eat prepackaged salad mixes, so I have to wash the damn lettuces, and again with my kids...a whole medium head of lettuce is one meal (for dinner), and if I wash it for lunch it's 2-2.5 salads. 

Most of my meal prep things these days (and this is why the kids are getting sick of lentil soup and chickpea/sweet potato/greens curry stew) are single pot meals.  So, chop an onion, start the instant pot, and keep chopping as you go.

Last week's chicken was a new recipe, and it was pretty successful in that it was crockpot, and it made a TON, and I packaged up 1/2 cup rice and 3/4 cup of chicken into 7 meal containers for the freezer (in addition to eating it for dinner 2 nights).  Now for this weekend I need to come up with a few more recipes like that.

I think you're both right. Seems like the common denominator is practice, time spent in the kitchen, experience, etc. (Also, maybe being willing to let some perfectionism go.) I think when people say they "can't cook," they mean that they're not efficient at it. If you can read a recipe and know some basic terms, you can cook. It's just a question of experience after that, and since most households (I've read) make the same 7-10 recipes over and over, it seems like anyone could get pretty good at cooking those 7-10 things after a few weeks of practice.

Just talking to a coworker about this last night.  He's doing Hello Fresh, because he can't cook and was eating out too much.  However, he complained that because he can't cook, the recipes that say 20 minutes are really 40-45, etc.  He needs more practice.

[slackmax]

The price of an iceberg lettuce head has been $2.99 for the last few weeks at the 'discount' food store. I remember it bouncing between $0.99 to $1.49 a head about a year ago, no?