Lunch in the Office

I hate the idea of spending a perfectly good lunch hour to eat (unless I'm meeting with friends, of course, but even then, I'd prefer to make it a happy hour). If I'm going to waste the gas to leave the office, it's going to be to go to the mall or take care of errands (true story: I have done grocery shopping while at lunch; sometimes you just have to use whatever time you have). Anyway, the point is, I usually eat at my desk.

The problem with this is that I am not a particularly healthy eater, and I've discovered that one of my biggest pet peeves in the entire world is when people comment on my food. Here's just a snippet of the multitude of reactions I've heard while chowing down at my desk:

"How can you eat that?!" [leftover pasta for breakfast]

"Was that a solid clump when you heated it up? Well, it's going to turn back into that while it's in your stomach too." [that same pasta breakfast, by a superior]

"That looks disgusting! I would never eat that!" [nigiri sushi]

"Someone's a little piggy today!" [leftover casserole for lunch, this time by a female *boss, who was also in HR* who I ever only saw consume EITHER one grapefruit OR one can of chicken noodle soup per 10 hour workday.]  

I digress.

Anyway, now if I am going to eat something really zany (like, say, McDonalds *scandalous*), I will go out and sit down and eat because it's not worth it, but I've also made it quite clear to my coworkers that I really don't appreciate their unsolicited opinions about my food, unless they want to tell me how jealous they are of my meal (which occasionally happens too, like my infamous pizza breakfasts). I have caught a few stares > open mouth > think > close mouth moments though. It makes me proud. 

Then something crazy has been happening. I've been....craving...vegetables. Don't get me wrong, this has happened before, but it's usually just during that one week of the month and then it goes away (it's like my body is slowly dying and screaming out, "IRON!!! GIVE ME IRON! And a few nutrients for god's sake!"). But this has been going on for a few weeks now -- and don't think it's some new year's resolution or anything -- it's not like I'm eating healthy, low cal salads here, but it's salads nonetheless.

My problem with eating salads has mostly been this: (1) they're usually not that much healthier than other things that somehow seem more satisfying, and (2) not every place offers spinach. I hate iceberg lettuce. Romaine/Spring mix is okay, but what's with all the hard chunks (we call them "lettuce bones" in our fam) left in the salad?! My mom always cut those out (of course, the salads we had growing up were for the beginning of the meal; never, ever did I ever see anyone eat a salad as a meal)! Oddly enough, I have actually met women that like the lettuce bones. 

Today I was eating my salad thinking about what lunatics these women must be ( ;) ), when BAM! WTF is this?! 

I'm pretty sure my mom had me picking these things out of her flower bed when I was a child. 

Anyway, I'm still trying to get used to this new craving I'm having. Who knows, maybe one day I'll buy me some fixin's and make my own.

(Juuust kidding, that will never happen.)