How To Pack A Lunch

Packing a lunch is not just something that is for grade school kids; grown-ups can brown bag it too! Bringing your lunch to work is one of the easiest ways to stay under budget, but eat what you want. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched my coworkers spend $10 everyday on lunch. They shrug it off, but at the end of a full month of work, they have racked up a $220 bill on lunch alone! I don’t know about you, but as a single woman, that is twice my monthly food budget!

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Beyond the saving money, most meals packed at home are healthier than prepared food at restaurants. When we eat out, we’re often faced with bigger portions and fattening extras–like the french fries or chips that have to come with your burger or turkey club. But when you pack lunch at home, you can control your portions and choose healthier side dishes.

If you are the lunch take out queen, but are trying to become a lunch-packing princess, then try this easy tips to save money, shrink your wasteline and improve your kitchen skills.

1. Have A Side Salad As A Sidekick

You can have the best of both worlds by coupling your usual take out lunch with a healthy side salad. I prep a different side salad every Sunday night in order ensure I get my veggies in throughout the week. That way when I am tempted to grab a rice bowl at Chipotle or a slice of New York City pizza, I have a delicious and nutritious side to pair it with. Need help making a side salad? Check these out!

2.  Start A Lunch Swap Club

All the ladies in the office will love you once you start advertising this healthy option. I mean lets be real, we are all struggling to try and keep things right and tight. So why not join forces and try new healthy foods all in the name of “snatched waists” for once. Here’s the deal–gather four or more of your favorite girls, then each person is assigned a day where they are responsible for bringing everyone in the group lunch. Everyday is someone new and therefore every lunch hour is something new. You can even go the extra mile and start an email chain or Facebook page where you post the recipes of the day and the groups thoughts. Pow–accountability at it’s tastiest! Go team “You CAN Sit With Us!”

3. Cook For The Week

This does not have to be a daunting task! There are so many things you can cook to last you all week that are versatile enough to switch up how you serve it up. For instance, you can make a corn salad with avocado, tomato, cilantro and lime and have that as one of your sides and you can even dice up some chicken and wrap it up for a delicious wrap! Speaking of chicken–you can cook a few pieces of chicken, fish, beef or your protein of choice and portion them for your lunch, along with your side salad, cheese and crackers, or whatever you choose! Cooking for the week requires planning. You have to shop right and make a special note of all the ingredients that can be used in more than one dish.

4. Use Your Leftovers

Choose foods that make great-tasting leftovers. Making an entire pot of soup–no matter the contents–helps you stretch your meal through the week. Roasting an entire chicken gives you so many options. The chicken can serve as the anchor of your meal and be served with delicious sides. You can also chop the chicken to put in salads, in a taco/burrito or even use it with your favorite pasta. Catch my drift now beauties? There’s so many creative ways to make certain staple ingredients stretch.

5. Get Yourself Some Tupperware

One of the biggest pieces to puzzle of brown bagging it is not having the proper storage for your food. You will need containers to keep your week’s worth of food as well as smaller portion sized tupperware to fill and bring to work. One of my coworkers admittedly doesn’t bring her lunch because she doesn’t have anything to put it in. You don’t want to find yourself spending $220 a month because you refuse to spend $20 on tupperware.

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