Brown bag blues? Mason jar solution

I live in a different town than I work in, so running home for lunch — or dinner on weekdays I work both of my jobs — is usually out of the question. I try to take my lunch as much as possible to save money, but it seems like I fall on the same-old standbys for brown bagging it and get bored after awhile. Then that leads to eating out for lunch, which often leads to bad things for my bank account.

What to take lunch in can be a problem, too. I don't like using plastic containers. Being a cancer survivor, I've become pretty concerned about the kinds of things I put into my body. Plastics, especially when heated, can leach carcinogens like Bisphenol A into food. You can argue it's not enough to really do anything, but I'd rather not take the chance.

So I got rid of all my plastic containers with the idea of replacing them with glass. I have some Pyrex containers I got for Christmas that I use, but they are kind of expensive. Then I came across an idea while surfing for some recipes — using mason jars for soup and so forth. It makes sense. They're cheap, for one thing. I got a dozen 8-ounce jars at the grocery store for about $8. The Pyrex is great for storing larger amounts of leftovers or foods that don't freeze well, but the jars have been great for freezing single-serving sizes for lunches.



But I could see where I could get a little bored with the chicken tortilla soup, chili and sloppy joe mix I made big batches of for the jars (even though they're all much better than store-bought or fast food). Then Beau at Somethingedible.com shared this recipe recently, and I gotta say I'm pretty excited at trying some of the rest of her mason jar recipes.

I've got my shopping list made up and will be adding to my inventory of canning jars. I might try the sliders tonight, and will probably do a few others this weekend after Thanksgiving.