Lunch Bags and Bottle Insulators

[timarelay]

i understand that microwaving food can be a desirable feature. i personally have stopped using a microwave for some years, and have tried to avoid the use of plastics wherever possible.

pyrex is one choice that allows you to put your container into the microwave. another option, while not microwavable, is stainless steel. stainless steel is about the safest material you can use to hold your food without concerns about any side effects.

hot food placed inside a stainless steel container which is then placed inside an insulated carrier should keep your food hot from morning until lunch time. granted, it won't be piping hot, but it won't have gone cold either.

How do you avoid using a microwave? Are you using an oven/toaster oven to reheat your food or are you never eating leftovers/food that has been stored in the freezer? Sorry, this just intrigues me. While I am wary of microwaves, I just am not that interested in food preparation to prepare all my meals fresh, so I usually make large batches and then freeze them in portions. If I had to make all my meals fresh, I'd eat less than I do and I already don't eat enough.

I know Stainless steel is safe and I have looked into it, but right now I don't have my schedule set up to prepare and heat my food before I leave for work. The way I do it, I can have my meals packaged and ready in my fridge/freezer and then I microwave them at work. I do like pyrex, but just haven't got around to investing in any for lunch ware.

I also really, really like my food to be hot (temperature wise. Spicy is good too though) and not lukewarm. But we'll see. Once I start medical school in the fall I might experiment with some sort of thermal system and see how I like it.

Edited to add: I am aware of the many various options and safety concerns for portable lunches, btw. My current inexpensive system is largely because I'm working in an infectious diseases lab for a year and tossing most of what's been coming to work with me at the end of my year (which is soon. Yay!).

[maverick]

hi,

warming up food at home or making it in the morning and taking it to work keeps it lukewarm for lunch, so this will not satisfy your criteria of having the food be hot when you eat it.

however, you can take your food from that lukewarm state to hot in a toaster oven rather than a microwave oven. you can find both pyrex and stainless steel containers that go safely into the oven. just be sure to grab them with an oven mit or cloth so that you don't burn your hands, and place them on a hot pad so that you don't damage your desk. the mit and the hot pad can be one and the same.

i do reheat items from the refrigerator, but i am not too keen on freezing meals. maybe it's what i do with it, but it just doesn't taste the same.

How do you avoid using a microwave? Are you using an oven/toaster oven to reheat your food or are you never eating leftovers/food that has been stored in the freezer? Sorry, this just intrigues me. While I am wary of microwaves, I just am not that interested in food preparation to prepare all my meals fresh, so I usually make large batches and then freeze them in portions. If I had to make all my meals fresh, I'd eat less than I do and I already don't eat enough.

I know Stainless steel is safe and I have looked into it, but right now I don't have my schedule set up to prepare and heat my food before I leave for work. The way I do it, I can have my meals packaged and ready in my fridge/freezer and then I microwave them at work. I do like pyrex, but just haven't got around to investing in any for lunch ware.

I also really, really like my food to be hot (temperature wise. Spicy is good too though) and not lukewarm. But we'll see. Once I start medical school in the fall I might experiment with some sort of thermal system and see how I like it.

Edited to add: I am aware of the many various options and safety concerns for portable lunches, btw. My current inexpensive system is largely because I'm working in an infectious diseases lab for a year and tossing most of what's been coming to work with me at the end of my year (which is soon. Yay!).

[maverick]

Do you know what is says in their website?

If you know someone who would be interested to develop a bag to carry it, (Asian Lunch Boxes (2-tier and 3-tier), 14 cm and 10 cm diameter), we would be happy to offer it for sale on our website.

Yup! Another bag design opportunity :)


Thanks for the link Maverick!

I saw a documentary that showed how, in India, lunch boxes just like this ones are picked up from places preparing meals then delivered to workers in the workplace using an extraordinary complex network of messengers and code.
One box was followed from the hot meal poured into the containers to the worker enjoying his meal.
Of course I lost track of the box the minute it changed hand the first time.

i would LOVE to see such a system in place here!

at my previous job, someone worked hard with a local indian restaurant to have vegetarian home style lunches prepared and delivered to our work place 3 times a week. by home style, i mean it wasn't restaurant style food - it was healthier, lighter. there were a couple of dozen people ordering lunch, so the restaurant worked with her to provide the service. they would deliver brown bag lunches and people who had ordered them would come down to the cafeteria and pick them up and eat them.

i tried it and stopped after the second time for a couple of reasons. first, the portions were too big in terms of the rice and flat breads that were provided. and they were not able to provide smaller portions for some of the people. secondly, and more importantly, i was disturbed to see the amount of materials that were wasted - the soup, the rice, and the vegetable dish each came in plastic containers that would get thrown away. even if wanted to take them home and wash and reuse them, how many of these could you juggle? the restaurant wasn't going to take them back and reuse them.

i suggested that why not have everyone who is interested in participating invest in a reusable lunch box that the restaurant would take and fill up. but the logistics were too cumbersome.

[peregrina]

I saw a documentary that showed how, in India, lunch boxes just like this ones are picked up from places preparing meals then delivered to workers in the workplace using an extraordinary complex network of messengers and code.

You can usually find those neat stainless steal lunch tins in east asian stores. I saw plenty of them in Little India here in Toronto... It's really neat.

[peregrina]

How do you avoid using a microwave? Are you using an oven/toaster oven to reheat your food or are you never eating leftovers/food that has been stored in the freezer?

I tend to avoid the microwave too and I lived for two months with friends who didnt have a microwave and ate lots of leftover foods and occasionally even froze food. We simply reheat it on the stove or oven. Of course this doesn't work for bringing stuff to work... I haven't found the perfect system for that yet and I too enjoy having a hot meal for lunch. But I have slowly started making more salads (substantial, mean-in-a-bowl kinds)

[maverick]

while you can't have a stove at (most) workplaces, you could keep a toaster oven for reheating foods, toasting a bagel or bread, and so forth, at work.

I tend to avoid the microwave too and I lived for two months with friends who didnt have a microwave and ate lots of leftover foods and occasionally even froze food. We simply reheat it on the stove or oven. Of course this doesn't work for bringing stuff to work... I haven't found the perfect system for that yet and I too enjoy having a hot meal for lunch. But I have slowly started making more salads (substantial, mean-in-a-bowl kinds)

[miguelmarc]

> How do you avoid using a microwave?

I microwave at work so I take advantage of it there but my wife and I have never bought a microwave for our home and never will buy one. No matter how much lack of time there is, if I'm racing in the kitchen I'm probably better off picking up some fruit and eating out or some other alternative. We always heated up our duaghter's milk on the stove top, I boil my tea water that way, too. I find microwaves really influence what you do and how you do it in the kitchen.

[maverick]

you may want to read this article

> How do you avoid using a microwave?

I microwave at work so I take advantage of it there but my wife and I have never bought a microwave for our home and never will buy one. No matter how much lack of time there is, if I'm racing in the kitchen I'm probably better off picking up some fruit and eating out or some other alternative. We always heated up our duaghter's milk on the stove top, I boil my tea water that way, too. I find microwaves really influence what you do and how you do it in the kitchen.

[Heidi Jill]

Our house came with a microwave, but I honestly wouldn't miss it if it wasn't there. The most use it gets is as a timer for the oven and stove! LOL! I'm only 46, but that's old enough to remember that people used to survive quite nicely without them!

[PM4HIRE]

Large food portions is an American habit.