As to the generic question about quick easy food. Alot of what I cook at home are stews, soups, etc. Slow cooker braising stuff that plays well with being frozen and nuked. I always make more than I can eat the first day, and the next with leftovers. I usually can tupperware one or two servings. I try to eat them within a month or two.

In the summer, it is BBQ time. I will do 2 to 4 chickens at a time. The first is gone that day. The second one goes into a monster two headed original Cobb salad. Hey, bacon, blue cheese, tomato and hard boiled eggs with smoked chicken breast never gets boring. Two types of lettuce with a little bitter endive is a happy thing too. Make the original cobb salad dressing. This takes care of 5 days out of the month.

with (any, but not all, duh) hard boiled eggs, spinach, bacon, olives, green beans, vinagrette, ginger dressing, mayo, horseradish, tomato sauce and pasta, capers, bagels, pitas, crackers, grapes or apples.

or, if you are really tired of folks dropping by your office to chat, anchovies with same. and cream cheese.

or some of that caponeta you were talking about this winter, cold. with a nice fresh cheese.

put all in a backpack, ski for the morning so the ham/cheese get a little frozen and the water is alittle bit icicled.

yum Just put some of the chips on the sandwich and pretend you ARE in 3rd grade

(best if eaten outdoors, preferrably on the side of the mountain sittinng in the snow)

Also a nice substitute for the sandwich is a baguette sliced lengthwise with ham and brie on it… or just brie if you are against the meat-eating.

Oh… now I get it.

Anyway: casseroles (lasagne comes to mind), quiches, risotto, and soups all keep well in the fridge, heat up nicely in the microwave, and scale nicely so that you can easily make a week’s supply at one time. Requires sacrificing part of Sunday for the task, but overall it’s quicker than making lunch every day.

Salads are as trivial to assemble as bologna sandwiches. But they leave me equally excited (well, slightly more excited).

And what’s wrong with last night’s leftovers?

[and i don't mean, paint it with white and black greasepaint, either.]

Crackers. Cheese. Carrots/celery/broccoli/stringbeans/snap peas/etc, with dressing and dip. Keep some dip and/or dressing in a fridge at work, if you can.

Barring that, nice goyisha casseroles. Pasta & cheese isn’t “quick” to make (well, if you make it good but it can last for days. Hell, even a nice big pot of Kasha Varnishkas will last for a few days and is nice and healthy for you.

Also, hi. long time no. Etc. etc. etc.

I discovered this one recently with the help of a couple friends. It takes a bit of stove time, but not you time.

Cook about a cup of lentils for about 1.5 hours in enough water (depends on your pot since water boils off approximately proportional to surface area, I go for about 1/2 inch of water above the lentils). There should be a tiny bit of water left.

Add a fair bit of thyme and marjoram, toss in a little soy sauce, fair bit of vinegar (any kind really), and some black or white pepper. Oh, that sweet red oriental salsa that is supposedly good for chicken works too.

In another pan sautee some onions, garlic, and cabbage until the onions are getting translucent (so not too hot, don’t brown them). Add a couple eggs and scramble. Pour the lentils over the other stuff. I find it takes me about 5 minutes of prep time to do this.

Perogies are tasty, and freeze/reheat well. They don’t take much more than an hour to make from scratch.

Tonight I cooked a pound of bacon cut into 1/2″ slices. Grade A bacon bits for a week. (anything is better with bacon.)

I think it’s easier in the winter. Chilis, beans, soups are all nearly as good reheated as fresh.