I told you I had a plan (involving Tupperware) and promised to let you know how it all worked out. Here we go:

I made a list during the previous week, plotting out fruit salads, green salads, pasta salads, chicken recipes, sandwiches, and healthy snacks that would travel well and keep for about the duration of four days. That sounds easy enough, well at least when you’re planning based on foods that you like. Now take into consideration that I was preparing these dishes for my better-half. He works road construction, out-of-town now, and giving him anything frou-frou or elaborate was totally out of the question. So the ingredients to make stuffed baby bell peppers filled with herbed cheese jumped the shopping list ship, as did hummus, pita bread…”Keep it simple, Babe.” That was his only request. My only request was that he discontinued the consumption of multiple microwave frozen meals from Wal-Mart.

And since I would be preparing all this food anyways, I decided to make a big Sunday dinner, for both his family and mine, while preparing and packing lil tubs of good things that travel well and don’t look frou-frou. After a very successful grocery trip, my afternoon was spent chopping, dicing, marinating, mixing, baking, preparing for company, and sending boyfriend out in search of one single egg. It was all totally worth it!

We enjoyed:

 a fresh fruit salad with large chunks of pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, and strawberries,

green salad with iceberg, romaine, spring salad mix, finely sliced red onions, grape tomatoes, and shredded carrots,

 pasta with diced celery, tomato chunks, red onion, and Italian dressing,

corn bread,

marinated and grilled BBQ chicken legs,

corn on the cob, and homemade pickles.

 And I had plenty of salads, chicken, and baby carrots and celery to pack up…

 So all this, and apples, and oranges, Nature Valley bars, whole wheat rolls and bread, fresh lunch meat, spicy mustard, spinach and feta burgers, yogurt, and even some cookies, water, and Gatorade were packed up and iced in big coolers.

Dear Boyfriend,

Eat all these good foodies!

Try to avoid the salt-laden and fried foods surrounding you

in that far away place

where I cannot cook for you (but wish I could).

Love,

Me