who'da thunk it?

I'm finding it very odd, but my new lunchbox is inspiring me to eat more healthfully. (Can it be done? Yes!) Let me explain.

See, as I detailed, oh, last week or so, I have been packing my lunch at suppertime most nights now, preparing two servings of everything and plonking half into the lunchbox. What's so interesting is, there are these four nice compartments in my lunchbox: two large, that each hold about a cup, and two small, that each hold about 3/4 cup. Because I have those four holes to fill in my lunchbox each night, I am inspired each time to include one fruit and at least one veggie in both my lunch and my dinner. Let me explain with an example.

Dinner tonight began with, "hm . . . the mango's ripe . . . ." I rummaged around and found some lentil soup I had taken out of the freezer a few days ago and thought, "yes! Soup, crackers, and fruit. Yum." So, I warmed up the soup, cut up the mango, opened the crackers, and dinner and lunch were ready . . . but wait! I had an empty container in my lunchbox. The lentil soup is full of tarragon and thyme, so I went searching for a veggie that would compliment. Ta-da: frozen asparagus! Green vegetables to the rescue!

Had it not been for the lunchbox, I probably wouldn't have had a green vegetable with supper tonight. There were veggies in the soup, but one can never eat too many veggies.

Strange.

In unrelated news, I continue to work on the cookbook, and spent quite a while on it this weekend. I have now rewritten the introduction several times, and have cut it down from its original 7 pages to a more manageable 3 pages. I'm also done with the following sections: "Plan of Attack," "Daily Breads," "The MOST IMPORTANT Meal of Your Day," "Sack It," and "Snack Attack." I've written the intro for, "Mom, what's for dinner?" and have started inputing recipes. I have "A treat a day keeps the therapist away?", and "Fancy food for fancy days" yet to write. And I'm still testing like crazy. And I'm starting to get really excited about this.

I don't want to jinx myself, but I really am starting to feel like I might have something exciting here. I truly believe healthy cooking for one is a nearly untapped market. (I have found one cookbook about cooking vegan food for one person, and I don't want to smear it too much, but I just didn't care for the author's tone. And it was completely in black and white, with crummy hand drawings of recipes -- not the most friendly volume.) I hope I'm right!

Well, I had a real, stinky Monday today, so I'm off to fold laundry and go to bed. (Lame.) Does anyone else feel stuck in a rut right now? Maybe it's the weather -- I think winter's really starting to get to me, in a bad way.