Bread in a Tube

What an amazingly busy life I have lately. The first week of our new educational project is under our belts. We had a successful week, we just need to enroll some more students. My mentor told me they would come, but with so much at stake, it is hard to be patient!

Working full time, and needing to rely on taking my lunch everyday, I am adjusting my Diner schedule somewhat. Lunches are so important--especially when eating in a community room means staying away from the chips, cupcakes and such. I am tweaking my Diner system to accommodate meals for all of us to take to work all week. I think I have a pretty good plan in place, with a rotating weekly lunch menu. I am going to publish my ideas and recipes in this month's Diner News. It will be an issue you don't want to miss if you ever eat away from home. That will go out on September 1.

The bread in the photo is part of that plan. That is my Mr. Peanut Bread baked in a bread tube. I got this years ago from Pampered Chef. It worked beautifully. The bread did not stick at all. It came right out of the tube.I think these tubes have been discontinued, but you can still find them at thrift stores or on e-bay. These little slices are going to be great for finger sandwiches to pack in our lunch. I plan to freeze the bread a little while to make it slice thinly more easily. I couldn't resist cutting it while it was still hot. We are eating the first slices with a little sugarfree strawberry jam. Delish. I have some ideas for a Thai themed chicken salad that should be amazing too. I will let you know! ( I haven't made it yet) I plan to cut the bread into 16 slices. That will make 4 servings for John and I to enjoy. Today we are having strawberry jam, and I will add another cream cheese and jam sandwich later in the week.  Add to that a serving of the chicken salad and one with ham and honey mustard. That will give us some delicious finger food for lunches. Cute little star shaped sandwiches. Just be sure to store the bread in the fridge because it grows mold quickly.

I have lots of other fun little dishes to try out for lunches this week too. I am replacing the cooking I usually do for breakfast with some extras for lunch. I am experimenting with intermittent fasting 4 days a week. Jennifer Eloff, my wonderful editor from the Low Carbing Among Friends--introduced many of us to the idea. I am going with the plan of skipping breakfast and limiting the window of my meals.I have done that most of my life anyway, so this seemed natural to me. The hours between dinner and the next day's lunch equal my fast. I am not going into all the explanations, so if you want to read more, read Jennifer's posts or any number of articles out there.

In the mean time, we will have some great lunches for the work week. If you have any tricks to make brown bagging easier, but sure to send them to me for the newsletter. I love having ideas from my fellow Diners!