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BANG FOR THE BITE
If 10,000 Biters bring their lunch once a week for a year, we'll keep the weight of 193 motorbikes in trash outta landfills.
COCKTAIL FACT
In 1964, BBC censors banned the Shangri-Las's "Leader of the Pack" due to its themes of suicide and violence.
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home › tip library › Bringing Your Lunch
Would your parents disapprove of your workday lunch costs?
The Bite
Don't crash your motorcycle over it. Just try bringing your lunch in reusable containers a couple times a week to conserve cash and landfill space - no matter which side of the tracks you're from.The Benefits
- More cash for Motown records. You'll save $1,000 or more per year.
- Cleaner highways to cruise. A NJ study found that about 1/4 of all litter comes from takeout packaging - second only to cigarette butts.
- It's eco-harmonious. In the United States, takeout bags and containers create 1.8 million tons of garbage each year.
Personally Speaking
The Bozeman office has its own smoothie bar (well, a blender with a well-stocked freezer of frozen organic fruit); check out our blog for Jen's 5-minute smoothie-lunch recipe.Wanna Try?
- Cook meals (such as stir-frys) that last a few days - though beware of cooking so much of one thing that you get sick of it.
- Carry your eats in a reusable lunchbox.
- Pack-a-Lunch Calculator - find out how many calories are in common lunch items.
Oct 15,2008
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Lady Who Lunches Out
Over the past year, I've eaten out for lunch at least four of five days per week. And yes, that's completely ridiculous. It's not so much that I've actually spent tons more (a box of crackers, apple, and string cheese from Whole Foods pretty much = a panini and soup at the local café), it's other things.
- I am sooooo sick of the panini and soup combo at the local café. I can barely type the words.
- Nutrition? What? Cheese and pesto panini means getting (more than) my daily serving of salt and "bad" fats in one go - and I've got buttons about to pop off my waistband to prove it.
- I'm not spending those 5 minutes waiting in line reading Proust - there goes my life, staring at backs of heads and a menu I could recite line by line, blindfolded.
- Sure, I compost most of the packaging, but I'm still putting plastic coffee tops and the odd fork into the trash. Nuh-uh.
So, yeah, I've been making a lot of lasagna lately - you can freeze it if you need to, and it's easy to portion out. If you've got ideas for great to-go dishes, hand 'em over in the blog!
-Jenifer Morgan...off to reinforce a button or two...
5-minute Smoothie Recipe From the Other Jen
This one is short and sweet, just like my lunch:
Ingredients: bag of frozen fruit, organic orange juice, Spirutein, and a big container of Stonyfield vanilla yogurt.
- Fill the blender with a beer mug's worth of fruit.
- Pour in organic orange juice (I use Horizon) to right above the berries.
- Pour in some of the yogurt - about 2 blops. (As you can probably tell, I am not a fan of measuring and I am really not a fan of all the cleanup for the measuring cups.)
- Lastly, one scoop of Spirutein. Let 'er rip. Oh, don't run the blender for more than a minute. These things were only made for short bursts.
- Enjoy your very creamy, nutritious, protein packed lunch.
Biter Comments...
I am looking for Jen's smoothie recipe that is mentioned in the Ideal Bite email newsletter for October 14th and the link takes me to this post, but I don't see any smoothie recipe. Please advise where I can find this recipe. Thanks.
As a vegan, I almost always have to bring my lunch with me to work. Yet, that oh-so-fabulous salad bar calls my name from a mile away, and it's harder to stay on track with the delicious dressings (usually not fat-free) and pasta (usually white) tempting me. So I've been determined to make a fiesty-looking salad that I can't wait until noon to dig in to.
What helps me the most?
Adding whole wheat pasta to the salad -Make a box of whole wheat penne or spirals on Sunday night, and store it in the fridge during the week. Also on Sundays, buying a huge romaine lettuce stalk at the farmer's market, washing it, chopping it up, and storing in a tight container in the fridge. You already have a delicious base to your salad - half lettuce, half pasta. Add some beans, pre-chopped veggies and bring your dressing with you - Voila! You're eating a healthy, well-planned lunch that fills you up (thank you, whole grains).
Don't tease! Where is the smoothie recipe? :)
Whoops - our bad on forgetting to put the recipe in there. It's up now.
I have a smoothy recipe, too, similar to Jen's but I use a different protein powder: 2 scoops (come in the package,) of Kashi GO-Lean protein powder, a bunch of frozen fruit (pineapple/mango/blueberry was this morning's combo,) some soy milk (fill to just over the top of berries, as Jen advised,) some flax seeds (pre-ground if your blender won't grind them as you are blending the shake,) and if you want, add some ice and/or water to thin the mixture. Blend all together and wowie-zowie: Yum! Oh, and you could add wheat germ, too, for extra iron, vitamin E & folate. This is an excellent meal replacement for those in a hurry or trying to lose weight: lots of (soy) protein, fiber, and the flax seeds give you Omega-3's (you could also use "fortified w/ Omega-3" soy milk). Sometimes I add spinach or brussels sprouts, too - the fruit completely covers the flavor although the mixture does sometimes maintain a greenish hue.
i use vanilla flavored "whey and greens" protein powder and 1 cup of baby spinach with 1 cup of lactose free milk or soy milk (i like the lactose free milk because it has less calories - and you can even buy organic) and a handful of ice. it is SOOO delicious.
Just to add to this tip: I try to bring a reusable container with me to restaurants. That way I can take home my leftovers in my own container, generate no trash, and my lunch is already packed for the next day.
I'm not sure if you're vegan or not, but here are my top pics for re-heatable lunch foods. Most of them contain meat, but a lot of them have vegan alternatives.
I have recipes for most of them; if anyone wants my personal recipe, feel free to e-mail me at sailor_titan (at) moonsenshi.net (remove spaces and replace with "@" sign) and I'd be happy to pass them on. Lasagna is a top pic for me but since you already use it, I'll not bother mentioning it again here. :-)
1. Shepherd's pie. I make it new england style, which is mashed potatoes, corn, and ground beef, but there are a bajillion different ways to make this dish (including vegan options.)
2. Chicken Pot Pie. I make mine with a bag of frozen veggies and my dad's recipe for pie crust, but if you're feeling lazy there are biscuits or pre-made piecrusts to fall back on (or the bisquick recipe, perhaps substituting a favorite hippie pancake mix?) For Vegetarians, I found this recipe online; it has no chicken and includes milk. it looks pretty promising: http://www.recipesource.com/special-diets/vegetarian/00/rec0036.html
3. Curry with rice. I buy the curry mix from Japan, add the recommended amount of water & oil, and add onions, carrots, potatoes and chuck beef. This is a super-quick dinner (especially if you have a rice cooker), very filling and makes a lot of lunch. You can leave out the meat if you're vegetarian; some people add sweet potatoes to Japanese Curry as well.
4. Macaroni and Cheese, homemade either on the stovetop or baked in the oven. This is super easy--it can be made in a half an hour--and it makes tons of food. To round it out and make a whole meal out of it, add broccolli to the macaroni and cheese. This tastes *awesome* and makes it a bit healthier. Some people also like onions in theirs.
5. Goulash, by which I mean American goulash, not hungarian goulash -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_goulash. Very filling and tasty. My hubby likes his with onions and green peppers, but there's a lot of ways to make this one. You could probably just leave out the meat for a vegan alternative, or you could alternately replace beef with kidney beans (Something I've never heard of doing here in New England, but is apparently common in other parts of the U.S.) Alternately, you could make Spanish Rice--add salsa to rice along with onions, green peppers, black olives, and if you like, cooked chicken. Very easy dish for a lunchtime food.
6. Broccoli and cheese soup. Sinfully tasty and vegetarian right of the bat (maybe tofu replacement for a vegan? I've heard in dishes like these soy substitutes are practically indistinguishable from real cheese.) I like to add carrots to mine, too.
7. Chili! Really, can you ever go wrong with chili? Some like to add cheese or put it in a tortilla. Mmm.
8. Beef Stroganoff. Personally, I find it tastes just as good with fat-free sour cream, too.
9. Chicken Soup. how could you go wrong with chicken soup? If you're vegan/vegetarian, lentil soup is another good one. I've also seen a lot of vegetarian soup recipes that are similar to chicken soup without the chicken.
10. Chicken Broccoli Pie - http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1739,156181-231198,00.html Soooo good. The version I use is a little lower fat--it uses chicken broth, I think, instead of cream of broccoli soup.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Nadine | October 15, 2008 at 08:39 AM