Good lunch: Michael Angelo's frozen meals

Lunch at work is a chore: not enough time (or energy) to go out; boring to brown bag it. I've been trying to introduce more variety into lunch with some different frozen choices, and I've found a new favorite: Michael Angelo's Frozen Dinners. So far I've had the vegetable and regular lasagna, and both have been outstanding. And I really like the nice simple ingredients list, as well as the company's philosophy. Read more about them here. The only thing I don't know about the meals is how much they cost... but my SO, who I must thank for finding these, claims to only buy what is on sale. I'll attempt to remain blissfully ignorant. :-)

Quote of the Day

"Part of the debtor mentality is a constant, frantically suppressed undercurrent of terror. We have one of the highest debt-to-income ratios in the world, and apparently most of us are two paychecks from the street. Those in power - governments, employers - exploit this, to great effect. Frightened people are obedient - not just physically, but intellectually and emotionally. If your employer tells you to work overtime, and you know that refusing could jeopardize everything you have, then not only do you work the overtime, but you convince yourself that you're doing it voluntarily, out of loyalty to the company; because the alternative is to acknowledge that you are living in terror. Before you know it, you've persuaded yourself that you have a profound emotional attachment to some vast multinational corporation: you've indentured not just your working hours, but your entire thought process. The only people who are capable of either unfettered action or unfettered thought are those who - either because they're heroically brave, or because they're insane, or because they know themselves to be safe - are free from fear."

- Tana French, The Likeness, a novel set in Ireland.

Nice alarm clock!

"Every morning, Jeeves awakens Sir with a most smooth and comforting way, His dulcet voice soothes Sir into gentle wakefulness without the unpleasant slap in the face that is normal alarm-clock operation."

Open-plan offices are making workers sick, say Australian scientists

"In 90 per cent of the research, the outcome of working in an open-plan office was seen as negative, with open-plan offices causing high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure, and a high staff turnover. "

Down with cubicles!

The CrockPot Diet

Some great-sounding recipes.

The Cost of Fearing Strangers

"... most people are pretty terrible at risk assessment. They tend to overstate the risk of dramatic and unlikely events at the expense of more common and boring (if equally devastating) events."

"Food Matters," by Mark Bittman

"... both a cookbook and a manifesto that shows us how to eat better -- and save the planet."