Everyday Systems

I need some ideas for good brown bag suppers. I have to eat in the classroom, so can't take anything like tuna that has a strong odor. What's your favorite brown bag?

Hmmm, mostly leftovers. can you reheat? Or soup in a Thermos, or bean or grain salads -- those can be really hearty.

I used to take soup nearly every day. Other options were leftovers or grain /beans salads. Soup was the default thing to take. It was easy because I always have homemade soup on hand.

Salad, sandwich, piece of fruit. Sometimes, if I am feeling especially tapewormy, I throw in some chips, too. Soup sometimes in the winter.

I am about to start working part time so I have been giving this some thought.

I will have access to a fridge and microwave so that will be great - an entire kitchen in fact.

I will take light foods I suppose while it is still hot outside as I will probably lunch in a nearby park so I can take a little walk afterwards, maybe a yogurt, boiled egg, string cheese stick, some whole wheat crakers or something like that. Fruit is always good.

I don't want to get into the trap of eating out because most of the places to eat nearby don't really offer healthy options other than a salad - I usually have a salad with my evening meal.

Good ideas, soup - chili - leftovers, sound great in the cooler weather.

Berry

StrawberryRoan wrote:
Good ideas, soup - chili - leftovers, sound great in the cooler weather.

Berry

Hehe...I don't think there's a day when soup doesn't sound good! I eat soup nearly every day for lunch -- year round. And it gets pretty hot and humid in the summer where I am. This is the first year in several in which I've not made a cold soup sometime during the summer.

buttercreampillow wrote:I have to eat in the classroom, so can't take anything like tuna that has a strong odor. What's your favorite brown bag?

Who doesn't like the delicious scent of tuna?

Laura, you are so funny!!

I prefer leftovers, and try to plan for them (but I also have a fridge/microwave available).

If I can't do leftovers for some reason, I have some "Intelligent Dietary Defaults" (see sticky above) that work for me. Something I can grab if nothing else is available.

My usual "rule of thumb" is some kind of protein, some kind of (complex) carb, and at least two fruits/veggies. That can get mixed, of course - yesterday, I had a big salad with nuts and feta on top for protein, with whole-grain crackers on the side.

Thank you to everyone who replied! The basic idea seems to be to take the same things I would eat at home: leftovers, salads, fruit. This is all good--it pushes me out of the sandwich and chips mindset that I was in from packing all those children's lunches.

I have class tonight, so will be trying a brown bag. I'm thinking fruit, and maybe cheese and crackers?

Also, if anyone has a recipe for some kind of grain salad that they like, I would love to try one. It sounds intriguing, but I have never made anything like this.

Thanks, everyone!

Hi-

I'm a sucker for pb & honey sandwiches on multigrain bread. I buy hard apples to survive being toted around as I dislike brown spots. I have the worst luck with bananas. I don't like them ripe or mushy. I like oatmeal or Kashi hot cereal packets if I can get some hot water. A friend of mine always has blueberries to toss in her hot cereal. It is so merry to pluck them out! If you bring a bowl, you could probably get steamed milk or hot water from a coffee shop even to whip up hot cereal.

If you can heat, I also have come to like Amy's brand frozen meals. I love the brown rice and tofu, but everything I've tried is good. They are pricey though I find them tasteful and it varies my diet.

Enjoy your class!

buttercreampillow wrote:I need some ideas for good brown bag suppers. I have to eat in the classroom, so can't take anything like tuna that has a strong odor. What's your favorite brown bag?

My "brown bag" is a bento.

They're lots of fun and totally No-S compliant because they've built-in portion control.[/url]

buttercreampillow wrote:Thank you to everyone who replied! The basic idea seems to be to take the same things I would eat at home: leftovers, salads, fruit. This is all good--it pushes me out of the sandwich and chips mindset that I was in from packing all those children's lunches.

I have class tonight, so will be trying a brown bag. I'm thinking fruit, and maybe cheese and crackers?

Also, if anyone has a recipe for some kind of grain salad that they like, I would love to try one. It sounds intriguing, but I have never made anything like this.

Thanks, everyone!

I'm not fond of grains so I don't make grain salads. However, I do like pasta salads. Ina Garten has a recipe for Orzo with Roasted Vegetables that is very good (also a Roasted Shrimp with Orzo -- it's in my kitchen right now).

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina- ... index.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina- ... index.html


Oh, here's one for Brown Rice, Tomatoes and Basil
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina- ... index.html

And here's one for a wheatberry salad:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina- ... index.html

Obviously, I'm a big Barefoot Contessa fan! BTW, I cut all of her recipes in half.

NoelFigart wrote: My "brown bag" is a bento.

They're lots of fun and totally No-S compliant because they've built-in portion control.

Hah! I was just in the middle of writing something like this. Thanks, Noel.

My family loves bento lunches, and I am going to start working on them more seriously this school year in an effort to get my kids eating differently at lunchtime - in my daughter's case, more healthily, and in my son's case, he just needs to eat more and talk less, so I want him to have lunches that are interesting and easy to eat. He's on a gluten-free diet and last year I would have steam coming out of my ears every day after school when I'd see the expensive gluten-free bread sandwiches get thrown out with only a couple of bites taken out of them.

Anyway, I digress!

My suggestion for buttercreampillow is my current favourite brown bag lunch item, sesame chicken onigiri (onigiri being Japanese-style rice balls which often have a savoury filling -- pronounced oh-nee-gee-ree).

I take about 1.5 cups of cooked sushi rice, salted to taste, maybe add sesame seeds if I'm feeling ambitious. I put about a quarter cup of diced cooked chicken into a bowl to marinate with a bit of soysauce and sesame oil while the rice is cooking. Put a piece of plastic wrap into a small bowl or teacup and then add maybe a quarter cup of the rice, put some of the chicken into the middle, then put an equal amount of rice on top. Seal the plastic wrap and use your hands to shape the onigiri into a sphere or a triangle shape (or really, any shape you like.)

I think this is a fabulous sandwich alternative and it can survive overnight refrigeration fairly well.

If you feel even *more* ambitious you can buy all kinds of cute little molds to make your rice balls into different shapes (we have Hello Kitty, circles, triangles, etc), and various seasonings that you can sprinkle into the rice that have bits of dried fish, seaweed, seeds and such but honestly, even the basic plain salted rice onigiri are really delicious and satisfying.

If you're intrigued by the bento concept, there are a lot of great websites with photos and ideas for bentos - a good place to start is Just Bento

geekmom wrote: My suggestion for buttercreampillow is my current favourite brown bag lunch item, sesame chicken onigiri (onigiri being Japanese-style rice balls which often have a savoury filling -- pronounced oh-nee-gee-ree).

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If you're intrigued by the bento concept, there are a lot of great websites with photos and ideas for bentos - a good place to start is Just Bento

Just Bento is an awesome site.

And onigiri is the food of the Gods. I'm putting some in my bento for tomorrow.

Wow!! Those bento sound so interesting! I would love to make the onigiri. Tonight I just had time to wash an apple and stick some crackers and cheese in a ziploc, but I would really love to make something cute and tasty for dinner. I had already gone to the bento site and admired the cute boxes. I guess I would have to order one on-line--I don't think there are that many of them in Tennessee! Thanks Noel and geekmom!

Burn, I join you in an appreciation for good apples and a disinclination for bananas, which just get mushy. I usually eat some kind of cereal with blueberries for breakfast, but I do have a way to heat, so I could try taking a frozen dinner. I was looking at the Amy's at the grocery the other day, and they were pricey, but looked good. That is definitely something I could do. Thank you!

Wosnes, the salads look wonderful! I'll try one of them this week, maybe the orzo and roasted veggies, although the wheatberry one sounds really good, too. Actually, they all look good! Thanks for providing the links!

What a great board! Thanks everyone!

buttercreampillow wrote:I had already gone to the bento site and admired the cute boxes. I guess I would have to order one on-line--I don't think there are that many of them in Tennessee! Thanks Noel and geekmom!

There aren't many in East Nowhere, New Hampshire, either. I buy 'em online, but if you want to make them, you can do it in a rubbermaid sandwich container just as well.

Or if you don't wanna bother, heck, many frozen meals are definitely No-S friendly!

A recent favorite of mine is a yogurt poured on top of 1/2 to 3/4 cup of granola. Maybe a piece of fruit, usually not. (Lunch is usually my smallest meal.)

Do check out bentos! They are more work, but great fun! I love the careful selection and arrangement of healthy foods too.