I'm Biggie: avid cook, speedy lunch packer, mom in San Francisco, & former expat fluent in Japanese. 
Speedy sandwich lunches
Morning prep time: 5 minutes each (10 min. total). In a lunch very similar to this one, I packed Costco chicken salad sandwiches on whole wheat toast with cheese and lettuce in two collapsible sandwich cases (equipment review here). Bug’s lunch below is actually quite large as I made it to be shared with his little friend on our outing to the children’s museum. It adds non-messy sides of leftover roasted asparagus from dinner (tips cut off at Bug’s request), dried apricots, a stack of two wrapped cheeses, and cherry tomatoes as gap fillers to stabilize the lunch for transport. The sandwich case is one that I got for US$1 at a local dollar store (Ichiban Kan in San Francisco), held together with a cheap elastic lunch band (from Daiso). They folded up nice and flat after lunch because I didn’t use hard plastic food cups inside.
Mine is similar, with the sandwich cut into thirds instead of halves.
In other news:
- I’ve added resource links in the column to the left; have a look.
- The Daily Tiffin food and lifestyle blog would like you to show them your lunch: details here.
READ MORE:
- Need for speed: A mommy’s lunch manifesto
- Food safety for packed lunches
- How to pack a bento lunch and use “gap fillersâ€
- Choosing the right size bento box
- Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and equipment reviews
April 5th, 2007 | Categories: equipment, for kids, poultry, sandwich case, sandwich or wrap | 
Print This Post
| 
Email this post
Loading ...
April 5th, 2007 at 7:04 am
is this how they look when you are ready to jet or do you wrap them in something so they don’t dry out? here in dry arizona i can see my sandwiches drying into bricks just being transported between the house and the park in that setup.
April 5th, 2007 at 8:49 am
No, I pop them into closed-up kinchaku (lunch bag) first so that any crumbs are caught (but there’s no condensation on the toast that would be caused by wrapping a warm sandwich in plastic wrap). You could also wrap it in a cloth or bandanna, etc.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Love your blog and read it frequently.
Saw this today on one of my geek sites, and thought you might get a kick out of it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/piwonka/384203161
Not bento, but innovative!
April 5th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Using an empty CD canister as bagel sandwich holder is very inventive! I agree with some of the commenters that you’d want to carefully check if the plastic is food-safe (and wash it thoroughly first) before using it for food, though. But brilliant concept!!! I thoroughly approve.