Quick and worthwhile office lunch

I didn't want to bring same-old leftovers for lunch today. Even though the leftovers we freeze (in individual-sized portions) are pretty great reheated, I just didn't want that.

In the last moments before I left the house, I pulled from the freezer a container of organic butternut squash soup, frozen cheese/spinach ravioli, and a container with a few pine nuts left in it. I decided to make myself a little fancier lunch than I usually have at work.

As lunch time approached, I went to the office kitchen to check out the pot and pan selection. Only . . . there weren't any. Hmmm. I thought about what to do and decided to check Tuesday Morning (a discount home-goods store) nearby to see if they had an inexpensive pot that would serve my needs. Sure enough, they did: I got what T-Fal called a wok, though it doesn't seem to be a wok to me. It has a broad, flat non-stick surface but also has the depth I need to boil things in it. For $15--about the cost of a decently nice meal out around here--I got a pan I can use over and over at work.

I toasted the pinenuts and put them on a plate. Next, I put water on to boil for the ravioli. In the meantime, I started defrosting the soup. When the soup had defrosted part-way, I put some of it in a bowl, microwaved that part, and put the rest back in the fridge.

I measured approximately one cup of ravioli using a small mug in the kitchen. I put the ravioli in the boiling water and turned the water down to barely simmering. (Cooking ravioli in rapidly boiling water tears it apart.)

The soup was hot about the same time the ravioli was cooked. I used a spatula to get the ravioli into my bowl of soup, then tossed the pine nuts on top. Ravioli cooked al dente is marvelous, and it's hard to go wrong with butternut squash soup. . . . The final touch of the crunchiness of an occasional pinenut made the meal an excellent one. I'm looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow to use up the pinenuts and the soup.