Friday

Discovery of the day: BAS on the fly

Usually I bring a BAS for lunch, but there are days when a) I'm out of lettuce, b) I "forgot" to prep the lettuce I do have, or c) I simply walk off without my BAS.

The fancy-pants grocery store (not their real name) has a salad bar, but that shit's expensive! Last time I made myself a close-to-standard BAS, it was over $10. And none of their containers are even large enough to hold a full 8 oz of lettuce. I'll suck it up when I meet my pal there for lunch, but otherwise, um, no.

One day it occurred to me that I could buy a 10 oz bag of pre-cut romaine (usually ~$2.50-$2.75), a can of three-bean salad (~$1.50), a can of other beans (< $1.00) and an avocado (depends, maybe $2.50-$3.00) and put together a BAS plus have beans and avocado left for the next two days. And if I remember to grab beans and avocado from home, so much the better.

The first day I decided to try it I realized that I didn't have a BAS-capable bowl with me so I bought a 3-pack of good-sized (4c? 6c?) reusable/disposable plastic food storage containers. I took two home but kept one at the office for future emergencies.

I've used the On-the-fly BAS option maybe once a week since then. I have been pretty good about either having a bowl at work or remembering to grab one along with my fixins on my way out in the morning. I even brought in a few smaller containers to have on hand to hold the rest of the beans, etc. Yes, I had it nailed. Everything was going along smooth as soymilk... until yesterday.

I was out of lettuce yesterday morning, so I grabbed an avocado and decided I'd buy a can of 3-bean salad (the marinated beans kind of take the place of salad dressing) and bag o'lettuce at the store. Completely forgot about the whole bowl thing until I got back to my office. Crap!

Nowhere in the kitchenette was there a container anywhere near capable of holding more than a cup. Paper plate? I eat at my desk (read: over my keyboard) and it didn't seem prudent. It certainly wouldn't hold more than a cup or two anyway.

I've got my lettuce, my beans, my avocado, and I'm starving! I went into the kitchenette to rinse off the lettuce (yeah, they say it's pre-washed. Hmph.) and it occurred to me that I could just use the bag.

Took me awhile to get the hang of it, but it worked! I ended up cradling it in my left hand while forking it from the right. I had to keep cutting the bag down as I ate my way toward the bottom, although I suppose I could have just folded it over. I also learned that I pretty much had to keep my fork and my mouth right over top of the bag, but I usually eat that way anyway.

BAS on the fly! If it keeps me from hitting the Burger King drive-thru just down the hill, it's gotta be a good thing.