One of my favorite things to do is spend an evening cooking in my kitchen. I love thinking about recipes and trying new things. I even love grocery shopping (hi, Aldi!).

The (not so) downside of cooking

The only thing that I hate about cooking is when I let food go bad. I hate wasting things so much that I rarely buy greens because I know I’ll never get to the bottom of the bag before they spoil. Such is the dilemma of cooking for one. I don’t always cook for one, but most of my adult life I’ve prepared meals for one or two. If you’ve been in this boat, you know the frustration a whole gallon of milk can bring. And how is one person supposed to eat an entire bag of radishes before they go bad?

I’m becoming an expert in preservation techniques. I only buy vegetables with long shelf lives (thank you, spaghetti squash). I pawn off extra celery on my boyfriend. Sometimes, I just eat the same meal for like five days straight. And by day five, I have lost all desire to eat the amazing New York Times cooking blog recipe I was so excited about.

Co-worker food swap meet

So, when COMO magazine’s editor-in-chief, Emma, said she wanted to eat more vegetables, I got an idea. I knew Emma probably had similar meal frustrations, and I also knew that she brings her lunch to work most days, so I proposed a lunch swap. Maybe I could pawn off some of my extra meals on her! Okay, and maybe bond a little with my coworker ?.

She agreed, and with the not wanting to disappoint, I made an old standard of mine. Rice noodles and zoodles with steamed veggies topped with a peanut tahini sauce and sesame seeds. I made it for dinner the night before, brought in lunch for Emma, and ate it for dinner the next night. And then it was gone! Nothing went bad!

The only issue I hadn’t foreseen with this plan was that food brings out my competitive side. And Emma totally brought her A-game. OMG, some kind of delicious Asian turkey lettuce wrap (I immediately asked for the recipe). Plus, she gave me sides! Grapes, a mandarin orange, and chocolates. I’m feeling the pressure for our next swap. I’m over here fangirling and writing blog posts about it, and she still hasn’t asked for my recipe! We are swapping lunches again next week. I need to go read some food blogs…