Pleasurable Portable Lunches

If you frequently "brown bag it" to work or take meals along when you travel, you're probably tired of turkey sandwiches.

So the folks at Food & Wine magazine have come up with some tasty items that you can prepare at home and pack for a lunch on the go.

Dana Cowin, the magazine's editor-in-chief, visits the The Saturday Early Show to offer some suggestions for the conclusion of the "Simple Pleasures" series.

When packing a lunch, the goal is to prepare foods that don't get worse with time. You don't want anything that becomes limp or soggy, anything that falls apart or congeals. You want your food to not only look good, but also taste good when it comes time to eat. After all, lunch should be something you look forward to, not dread.

Soup
Cowin says the ultimate portable food is soup, hot or cold. Soup is filling and healthy. And sometimes it's even better if not eaten right away.

Of course, the problem with soup is that you don't always have a refrigerator or microwave around, so you need a quality thermos. Bodum has a new lipstick thermos that looks pretty cool and costs $29.95. Not available until mid-May. (www.bodumusa.com)

Salad
Bean And Grain Salads are another great lunch choice. You can douse beans in dressing and not worry about them changing form. Lentil salad, chickpea salad, black bean and corn salad -- the options are nearly limitless, which keeps this from being a boring choice.

Another bonus is that bean and grain salads tend to be healthy, and if you make them in large portions, you can eat them for lunch a few times if you wish.

One warning with salads like this: Don't add too much onion or garlic. The longer these items sit at room temperature, the more pungent (and eventually unpleasant) they become.

Also, most of the time, you want to keep dressings and other "drippy" ingredients separate until time to eat. This does not mean you should avoid "drippy" ingredients at lunch. If you do so, you'll limit your options.

A delicious lunch-to-go option is salad nicoise, Cowin says. Simply pack all of the ingredients up separately and assemble when it's time to eat.

Again, having the proper container comes in handy here. Tupperware's Meals Solutions To Go pack (www.tupperware.com / $29.50) is one option. An insulated carrier houses three containers, one with a drink/pour spout that's perfect for carrying salad dressing. The carrier itself keeps food warmer or cooler up to three times longer than the typical insulated bag.

The exception to this rule of keeping wet/drippy/messy ingredients separated from the rest of your lunch is the muffaletta.

New Orleans is the home of this sandwich, which consists of crusty Italian bread piled with provolone cheese, salami and ham, topped with an olive salad. The olive oil, red-wine vinegar and other salad ingredients infuse the entire messy sandwich with amazing flavor; it's one time you may not mind a soggy roll!

Finally, Cowin suggests elevating the common school lunch of ham and cheese by packing your own grown-up version, complete with a little more flavor and a little more punch.

She loves packing slices of prosciutto or salami and chunks of mancheggo or parmesan cheese. You don't have to be at a tapas restaurant to eat small plates of snacky foods. Try wrapping the prosciutto around stalks of steamed asparagus or another vegetable; search the aisles of your supermarket for jars of roasted peppers, marinated olives and other antipasto options. This will look quite elegant and fancy when your office mate is eating take-out Chinese, but it's actually quite easy to assemble. "This one is all about purchase power," Cowin says.

The following are a few more products to help you preserve and serve your portable lunches. They combine everything you could possibly need, including the placemat:

• Vessel's Workplace Dish Set, $39: The placemat wraps around your containers and is fastened together by a knife and fork. (www.vessel.com)
• Built NY Byo Lunchbag, $19.99: This is the same concept at about half the price. These are made of neoprene rubber - the same material as wetsuits - and has two separate compartments, one for food and one for drink. (www.builtny.com)
• Mary Jane Bags, $28 - $35: They are very simple but colorful lunchbags. Her oilcloth bags with zippered tops come in a variety of sizes. (www.maryjanebags.com)

  Windsor Backpack For Two, $94 from Picnic at Ascot Inc.: On the fancier, more elegant side, this simulated leather and suede backpack has a place for everything, includes a wine opener and wine glasses. (www.picnicatascot.com)