Lunch Hour

I've been doing a pretty good job with these vintage lunch menus lately... I can only say "pretty good," because even this week I broke down and took one of my pre-mission frozen lunches to work on Wednesday. (I'd eaten the same lunch for the last two days in a row and couldn't face it one more time!) I've finally reached the bottom of that carton of soup, so I'm planning a new menu for tomorrow. First, though, let's take a closer look at the last one. How much of an improvement was this vintage menu over a typical pre-mission lunch? Here's the 1945 menu, with a few adaptations in the interest of my waistline:

Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Open-faced Cheese Sandwich on Whole-grain Bread with Mustard and Lettuce
Celery
Olives
Fresh Pear

Now let's compare it to one of my normal pre-mission lunches - a frozen Enchilada Pie by Cedarlane.

Typical pre-mission lunch
Calories: 430
Fat: 14g
Sodium: 1,190mg
Carbohydrates: 52g
Protein: 26g

Vintage lunch, adapted
Calories: 350
Fat: 16g
Sodium: 1,530mg
Carbohydrates: 37g
Protein: 16g

Kind of a mixed bag this time. I certainly take a sodium hit whenever soup is on the menu. All in all, though, I'd say these vintage menus are doing well by me. Here's the original menu for tomorrow, straight from The American Woman's Cook Book (1945):

Oven Baked Beans
Catchup
Boston Brown Bread Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Filling
Cole Slaw
Applesauce
Milk

...with a few edits:

Vegetarian Baked Beans
Catchup
Open-faced Raisin Brown Bread Sandwich with Light Cream Cheese
Pennsylvania Cabbage Salad
Applesauce

Lunchtime at work is still a bit rushed. I zoom out the door at noon - as soon as I've slathered on some sunblock and thrown a cap on. I've been wearing heels most of the time these days, so I bought a cute little pair of slide-on canvas shoes with a good sole that make that noon walk so much more comfortable! My iPod in my pocket and away I go... You know, I remember vividly when this routine was new and it seemed like a massive rush to walk for 30 minutes and try to cram down a meal. These days, it doesn't really seem so bad. I'm usually back in the office by 12:35. My lunch takes less time to prepare - maybe two minutes in the microwave for my soup (versus five minutes for one of the frozen meals). That gives me a good 15 minutes to eat, a quick trip to the ladies' room to powder my nose and reapply lipstick, then I'm back to work. Admittedly, I don't always have time for fruit after eating my lunch, so I'm sure to fit it in as a mid-afternoon snack when that happens.

Once a week, I treat myself to a chance to wear a dress with those heels. I have one weekday off from my mid-day walk. One chance to dress up and wear the kind of clothes that I can't really do any power walking in. What surprises me is that I find myself a little antsy on my days off. That uninterrupted hour seems to go on forever! What a turn-around.