Naked Chef, Nude Food, Neat Idea

What??? Well, last year, I purchased this in the Lakeland Store in Norwich. It’s a Nude Food Tube. It measures 210mm high, and 70mm in diameter – and it is produced by an Australian company [website here]. Their mission is to reduce the amount of packaging we use in our packed lunches [i.e. move your food nude] They are so concerned about the landfill sites clogging up our planet that over there in Oz they have all sorts of programmes for schools and workplaces to help reduce packaging – and even have a Nude Food Day each October.

My set is three small interlocking tubes- they also produce a two-tube set, with same total dimensions, and you can mix and match the pieces. They have a whole range of cleverly designed stuff, to contain and separate the component parts of your lunch, reducing the need for clingfilm/foil/plastic bags/whatever

 

Not surprisingly, they managed to get the Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver to promote that idea. [I suspect he’d go anywhere for the publicity, to be honest. He is all over the show these days, isn’t he?]

pukka!

What I like about my container is that it is a good size and shape to tuck into my school bag [about 8” x 2¾” in ‘old money’] or even my handbag. I don’t eat a large midday meal at school – usually there isn’t time because of marking and preparing for the afternoon lessons. The dimensions of the tube force me to be creative – but as I am eating less bread these days, I don’t miss having sandwiches. I’m fortunate in that I have access to boiling water and a microwave in the staff kitchen – as well as bowls,plates, cutlery and mugs.

Here are two typical lunches which I would take.

Lunch #1 is a sachet of cup-a-soup [Approved Foods] some small crispbreads, 5cm square, a satsuma, and some mixed nuts.  Plus a piece of kitchen paper.

Lunch #2 is a pack of AF couscous [a double serving, so I’d decant just half of it into one of the tubes] small pear, a carrot [to be cut into batons] and a pack of chocolate buttons [another Christmas leftover treat]

I haven’t  got it quite right yet – I do like a napkin for spills, and need to make myself a small thin washable cotton one. But all this stuff fits neatly into the three interlocking tubes [the whole thing is about 10%smaller than a standard Pringles tube]

Liz has suggested filling one third with hummus, and another with assorted crudités for dipping. I could also fill one third with yogurt. By doing the decanting and loading up at home, I can put much of the packaging into my home recycling bin [it is not always possible at school or work to do that] And obviously the peel etc can be brought home again. The domed top of the tube means that a small piece of fruit [or taller carrot batons] will fit beautifully. The base of each third forms the lid of the one below it. All very clever!

The children seem to bring huge lunchboxes, many the size of a small bungalow, often only half full so their food rattles round inside.

I blame Harrison Ford, for giving Melanie Griffith that massive tin box at the end of the film Working Girl! My only disappointment is that Lakeland now appear to have stopped selling the Nude Food Movers.

What do you have in a packed lunch- and how do you transport it?