@starkat I was just thinking pasta salad too — specifically couscous salad, which I know I had an excellent recipe for years ago but it must be in one of my cookbooks that are still in Australia!! You can use all sorts of ingredients to your taste and most sorts will keep for 5 days in the fridge — I remember I used to make a batch for the whole week and then take a portion to work with me each day. If you put the day's portion in a plastic container with a lid, you can pack it in with your ice packs to keep it cool, and take along a spoon or fork to eat it with. (I gather you don't have an office job!! )

Here are a couple of recipes I just found that are something like what I used to make, although I know mine definitely had chickpeas and a tomato-based sauce. Any of these recipes can be tweaked to suit what you like or what you have on hand, anyway — I'd try them as written and then see if they need more or less spice, tang, sweetening, etc....

Vegan Couscous Salad

High Protein Couscous Recipe

(Not suggesting you ought to go vegetarian or vegan here — I'm not either! — but plant-based foods generally last longer in the fridge, so they're a good idea when you want to make something that should keep for several days.)

@starkat We generally use whatever vegetables are in season (carrots, cucumbers, green beans, green pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, cherry tomatoes, etc.) or if the fresh veggies aren't very fresh/appetizing we will use frozen green beans, broccoli, whatever frozen vegetables our grocery store has in stock, or a mix of fresh and frozen. My mom and some of my brothers love olives in their pasta salad but they are too salty for me. Sometimes we make a homemade dressing but a store-bought one is often just as good and you can try a different dressing every time you need a new bottle to keep it interesting. For protein you can use ham, pepperoni, feta, fresh mozzarella, roast chicken, basically whatever you like and think will go best with your dressing of choice. Combine with a bag of cooked and drained pasta (elbow macaroni, penne, bowties all work very well for a pasta salad).

Thanks everyone! I'm taking notes and making something I can use in the kitchen. For simplicity, I'm going to go with sandwiches for this and the next show, but I will be making plans for the next five weeks of shows. 

@Courtenay , I am currently working horse shows as a ring side photographer for another photographer. It's the end of the year shows, so they are huge and crazy and busy. I don't get a lunch break because the rings keep running no matter what unless there is lightning or a trainer conflict with another ring. It's why things like salads with lettuce are tricky. But pasta salad is a ground I hadn't thought about. So I am very thankful for everyone's help. 

On Saturday I made a big batch of rolls. On Sunday we wanted to take lunch with us to eat after church, so I mixed up pizza sauce and made cheese pizza rolls for the first time. So Sunday lunch was pizza rolls (no meat this time), cherry tomatoes, and chips with apple cinnamon rolls for dessert, everyone was pleased with the meal and the cleanup was so easy.   I froze some of the leftover pizza rolls to see if I could make them farther head next time. For the last year or so, I have been freezing at least one pan of rolls every time I make them to have for Sundays to speed up after church meals, but normally just plain wheat rolls.

@snowangel That sounds delicious! Do you have a recipe?

@narnian-in-the-north, I just used a regular cinnamon roll recipe, switched the cinnamon and sugar for pizza sauce and shredded cheese. I did spread room temperature butter on the dough before I spread the pizza sauce. Overall it was super easy and the frozen rolls defrosted great.

Today I made my grandma's apple cake recipe and added apple cider glaze to the top. I reduced 4 cups of apple cider down to a half cup and drizzled it over the cake before serving, it was amazing.  

@SnowAngel, both the cake and the roll sound delicious!

I haven't been doing near as much baking of late as I would like, sadly, but I did make some mini-deep dish pizzas with some family recently. We were a bit lighter on tomato sauce than we normally would be, but I think they turned out delicious anyhow. I've also been looking forward to some holiday baking before too much longer. The usual are apple pies for Thanksgiving and pizzelles for Christmas, but I'd love to try to fit in some other treats if I have time.

I've actually learned a method of adding coffee to chocolate cake or cookies. It help brings out the chocolate flavor. For those of you who don't necessarily like coffee, don't worry! You won't even taste it!

@valiantarcher, mini pizzas sounds delicious, we haven't made those in forever. I'm going to put those on my to make list for the next couple weeks. Have you done any Christmas baking yet?

@jasmine_tarkheena, I love adding a hint of coffee to chocolate recipes too. My favorite way to do that is to use leftover coffee in my hot cocoa base.

As I mentioned in the Christmas thread, I have already made sugar cookies, Swedish butter cookies with peppermint flavoring, and gingersnaps for the Christmas season. I still want to make vanilla wafers and spritz cookies, and maybe peppernuts, oh and my grandma's chocolate waffle cookies.    

Has anyone tried making party mix (Chex mix), but using just nuts, no cereals or pretzels? I miss the smell of party mix baking this time of year, and of course I miss the flavor too. But the cereals have so many bad ingredients we don't buy them anymore plus my mom is gluten free and shouldn't have them anyway. I've been think we could just make it with lots of mixed nuts, but haven't done it yet.

@valiantarcher ; @snowangel, mmMmm mini pizzas. It is a tradition over the Christmas holidays (and other times during the colder months of the year) to make mini pizzas. We put them together on Naan flatbread. Goodness, are they tasty. Tomato sauce and all the toppings from which to choose: spinach, mushroom, fresh tomatoes, pineapple, ham, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, peppers, onions, green olives, authentic summer sausage. Deeeeelicious!

I just made three large batches of Nuts 'n Bolts with Shreddies, Crispix, Cheerios, peanuts (no salt), small curly pretzels covered in a scrumptious, tasty sauce of butter, garlic and minced onion powder, celery seed, paprika, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce. Actually, our youngest son's fiancée is vegan, so one batch I made with olive oil instead of butter.

The past few weeks I have been baking/cooking up a storm to get ready for the week our kids are all here. Loads of gingerbread cookies and trees, which we will decorate with royal icing when they're here; two kinds of muffins (banana chocolate chip and bran/raisin bran; two large batches of my delicious homemade chili; two kinds of soups (veggie-beef and split pea and ham, from our Thanksgiving ham); homemade chocolates (we give loads of these away); gingerbread cakes made in the shape of gingerbread men.

To make yet: caramel corn; large coffee cake; meringue cookies. Btw, I, too, love mocha (coffee and chocolate), even though I can't stand drinking coffee (but I really like the smell ).

I am picking up our farm-fresh turkey on December 23, and we will cook it (with stuffing) on the 24th. Our Christmas meal and gifts this year is on the 26th. But we will be having many delicious meals the days on either side of the 26th, including cheese fondue made with the best cheese in the world (imho ) —> Québec cheese (I forget the exact name). It is unbelievably good, with all the dippers: button mushrooms, broccoli, baguettes, summer sausage, pretzels).

To accompany everything we always have the best apple cider in the world  —Wellesley apple cider from Mennonite country, Ontario; as well as loads of clementines. We are a BIG clementine family.  

Reading this over, I definitely need to keep up my regular habit of swimming lengths and brisk, long walks.  

@SnowAngel, it got delayed, but I did end up doing some Christmas baking: pizzelles, peanut butter cookies, chocolate mint cookies, and strawberry cake mix cookies.
Yum, your baking sounds delicious! Did you end up trying the nuts-only party mix?

 The build-your-own flatbread pizzas sounds like a fun tradition, @Jo! And all your cooking and meal plans sound soooo tasty!

 Most of our Christmas cooking was pretty standard, but I did make some maple mashed sweet potatoes. It was simple (sweet potatoes, butter, and maple syrup) but pretty tasty (or at least so I thought - not sure everyone else agreed, so we probably won't make it any sort of new tradition ).

@valiantarcher, I did make party mix with just mixture of nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, and peanuts) and it was pretty good. My older brother even knew what it was suppose to be, so I think that means I was successful. It was so nice to be able to make it again even without the cereals, cheese crackers, and pretzels. Although I do have a cracker recipe that I might try adding to the mix next time which might make it more "normal" and I forgot to add cashews to the mix which I know my dad really enjoys. I might try making it again this weekend and adding crackers, cashews, and pumpkin seeds.

Yum, all of your baking sounds delicious. I don't think I have ever had pizzelles, but they look amazing. Are they hard to make?

One of my sisters made waffles last weekend and I took advantage of the waffle iron already being out and made my grandma's chocolate waffle cookies (we call them chocolate turtles). And since I was already making one double batch, I decided to make a second double batch to freeze for New Year's.  

And then yesterday I made lemon spritz cookies and vanilla wafers (another double batch just because I could ), and part of those cookies went in the freezer too. I had forgot how long it takes to pipe the wafers, but, oh, it's so worth it.