I get stuck eating at my desk more often than not. Some might say it’s because I’m a slob, but I prefer to think it’s because if I work through lunch, I can leave a little earlier and get home at a reasonable hour. Having an 1 1/4 drive home will do that for you.
I’ve discovered that much of what is peddled as lunchtime cuisine for office workers, focuses on speed of preparation and speed of consumption. Speed of preparation is most likely because it’s less time you have to wait before you can eat. Speed of consumption is so you don’t have to think about what you are actually eating.
There are roughly three classes of office cuisine, the frozen entree, the instant entree, and delivery. If none of those available, you might try the vended entree, which usually consists of a candy bar and a bag of cheetos.
Frozen entrees are probably the best of the bunch but are the most likely to leave you feeling hungry in an hour or so. I am fond of most of them, but they all start to taste the same after while. Ooh yummy, 4 cheese lasagna today. Tomorrow it will be penne aribiata which is the same thing as the 4 cheese lasagna only a different shape of pasta.
I do love noodles though. I even bought one of those little plastic ramen cookers that let you cook the noodles in the microwave. I try not to eat ramen too often, mostly because every package of seasoning contains a lifetime’s requirement of sodium.
If I’m in a hurry, I am prone to resorting to the venerable cup noodle, or as I call it, a styrofoam container of disappointment and regret. No matter how many times I eat cup noodle, it’s never as good as I hope, and often worse than I remember.
I did learn from the New York Times, no less, that the best way to make instant ramen more enjoyable is to beat an egg and throw it in the hot broth. This has become my go to technique. The article I read also suggested putting a slice of American Cheese in as well, but that was a bridge too far. I settled on some shredded mozzarella or cheddar, which actually turned out really well.
I better let you get back to work. I hear the beeper from the microwave, which means soup’s on.