“WHAT?” you say!
“GRILLING?” you say! “AT LUNCH? There is no time!”
Okay. Okay. I hear the consternation. Let’s talk this over.
This topic arose on Twitter in a conversation, and I wanted to give the concept the serious attention it deserves.
Here at the Interstellar Headquarters of Home Office Lunch, we take the space/time continuum very seriously – almost as seriously as we take lunch.
Grilling is both delicious and efficient. Let’s break this down – and this breakdown assumes you have a charcoal grill, not a gas grill.
Cleaning out the grill takes anywhere from no time to 5 minutes. This can also be done outside working hours.
Once the grill is clean, you need to get your coals in place: 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
Then, once the coals are in place, you need to light things up. The grill will take anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes to come to temperature, depending on the heat you are cooking at and how quickly your grill burns.
But, when your grill is coming up to temperature, you don’t need to be there. You can be doing other things (like making a salad, checking email, running over the afternoon todo list, or making a salad while checking email and running over the afternoon todo list.
And if you are one of the people who are impure of heart and mind and use a gas grill (no judgement), your prep time is even easier: walk outside and turn it on.
But to summarize: using a grill to cook your lunch takes, at most, 10 minutes of active time to prepare, and then the cooking time required for the food. If we’re doing something like searing Ahi, cook time is under two minutes.
In some offices, walking to the fridge and then waiting for the microwave takes longer than prepping and cooking on the grill. And, if you run into the dude who absolutely must tell you his completely awesome story, then grilling is exponentially more efficient and emotionally rewarding.
So, yes: grilling is on the menu.
I’m feeling hungry. You?