I Love Thermos!

My husband works in an office on a large floor of a six-story building. On each floor there is a break-room with tables, a refrigerator, etc for the employees to eat their lunches. There is, however, only ONE microwave per floor. This causes quite a bottleneck at the noon hour, and standing around waiting for others to heat up their lunches takes away from his ability to get stuff done, especially when they bring microwave dinners that take 7-10 minutes (yes, someone does do that). He mentioned this to me one day, and I went to Target and bought this:

This is an awesome thermos. It is made by "Thermos" and it keeps food hot for 10 hours! It keeps stuff cold too. It holds about 2 cups of food, which is about perfect for the main dish. To increase the heat-holding ability, you heat up some hot water and pour it into the thermos and let it "preheat" for about 5 minutes. During that time, I heat up leftovers and get the rest of his lunch ready. Then dump out the water (or use it to make hot chocolate in another thermos) and fill with the food. I send him with a lunch box with other items in that can stay in the fridge, like applesauce or fruit salad, or maybe just a banana, along with some breadsticks or something.

I know that not everyone needs something like this, because they might have access to a better break-room situation. However, some people work construction or are on the road during their day and could easily have a hot lunch ready to go in the car, without access to a microwave. The thermos was $19.99 and I got it in November 2008. I know that's kind of expensive, but in about 4 lunches of being frustrated that he couldn't use the microwave so he went for fast-food, it paid for itself. It does come in various sizes, so you could get a larger or smaller one, depending on what you need.

I have the smaller versions for kids and my kids use them to take hot lunch to school (like spaghettios or macaroni and cheese). If you do this, make sure you use plastic silverware so you don't scratch the finish on the inside of the thermos. The kids' versions were about $12, but I think they have been worth it. If you were heading up to the slopes for a day of skiing or even wanted something *cold* during the summer months, this thermos would work.

They have versions for babies too, but I haven't purchased those. Might be really nice to have the food jar to keep stuff hot/cold on the go.

And, as long as I am doing my own little commercial for Thermos, we also have the beverage bottles, and we have one leak proof travel mug, which keep hot chocolate nice and hot for a long time, or keep drinks cold as well. Definitely an item where the name brand is worth its weight. I have also seen these products at Wal-mart and Shopko, but Target had the widest selection, at least in-store. Click the links to see what they have available.