Business Lunch Box 2. 0.

Business Lunch Box 2. 0.

With the recession being felt in full force now all across the country, people have started to take a closer scrutiny at their consuming habits and making steps to cut back costs in any way possible. One strategy people have started warming up to also is the brown bag lunch. Spending $10 - 15 every day of the week on buying lunch at work can add up fairly quickly and so we’ve put together a guide that will help reacquaint you with that old boyhood lunch box – upgraded for the working class man and woman.
Tricks of the Trade
Anybody can pitch together a cold egg - salad sandwich and some celery, but who wants to sit alone at a desk eating a miserable meal while your coworkers hit up the local Chinese restaurant? The trick to bringing a lunch to work is making a variety of tasty options that won’t assent you bored and resentful after your first week of brown - bagging it. Fortunately for you, there are a wealth of options that will not only make lunch a pleasure, but will also sufferance your coworkers emulous of your healthy and cost - saving meal.
The first step to take is investing in the right containers and implements. Replace that versatile bag with a Tupperware container and buy a thermos for soups. Also purchase resourceful equipment that you can either pack in your lunch or keep in desk drawer at work. In addition to keeping instruments at work, it’s a good idea to keep some of your favorite condiments at your office cognate as mustard, pungency and pepper, ketchup and hot sauce as none of these crave refrigeration.
If your office has a refrigerator, bring your own salad dressings, transcribe your name on the bottle and store it in the fridge. Also, most offices have a microwave available but if they don’t, just check your local corner stores or 7 - 11’s as most will have one free for use.
Once you’ve got your tools ready, you can fundamentally get to work on bringing your lunch to work!
Buying in Bulk
One of the biggest setbacks people face when attempting to make that step towards making your own lunches involve time - constraints. With family, work and excuse time all competing for your attention, not all of us can set aside 20 journal every morning to make a tasty lunch. That’s why buying and cooking in bulk has become a popular and highly effective strategy for saving time and money.
When making dinners, cook more than needed so that you will have leftovers to use for the next several days. You would be surprised by how many foods can be tweaked to be made lunchbox friendly – everything from investigate beef to grilled salmon make for great meals the next day.
Another option is to make mammoth stews or soups with the intention of freezing the leftovers to be microwaved back at work. A good way to do this is by placing the leftover soup into elastic bags and then freezing them in a cup so that they can stack easier. Then, when you’re at work and fondle the hunger, you just remove the ingenuous bag and part it in a bowl and microwave that sucker for a calescent hot fresh soup!
Additionally, soups and stews are some of the only foods that actually get better with age as the ingredients settle together for a more flavorful food.
The Sandwich Solution
The first option you have is to put a twist on the classic sandwich. When deciding on what bounteous of sandwich to make, avoid recipes that could termination in soggy bread or rotting ingredients. Using a more hearty bread akin as a baguette or a roll will keep your sandwich from falling apart and also add to the taste. And if your office lacks a refrigerator, avoid using condiments selfsame as mayonaisse or butter as these ingredients can go bad quickly and spoil a largely good sandwich – plus, most of these add nonessential calories and one of the biggest benefits to making your own lunch relates to health.
So what’s the perfect office sandwich? One great recipe is the classic grilled chicken sandwich. Grilled chicken is great as you can make it for dinner one after hours and use the leftovers the next day to put on some bread resulting in one very tasty sandwich. Additionally, you can add your own variations to the dish including mozzarella, pesto sauce, tomatoes or lettuce to customize the dish to your salacity.
Other first-rate sandwiches interpolate tuna fish ( light on the mayo ), the classic deli, mozzarella and miss, hummus and grilled portabella ecru.
However, don’t stroke pressured into relating to the current food - based sandwiches. Wraps and pitas are becoming more common alternatives for those looking to add variety to the current sandwich.
Tupperware Party
This is the part where the right tools come in to play. Certain foods won’t fit easy into a brown response or thermos and to avoid getting concerned in a soup and sandwich practice, get a hold of some Tupperware containers and chronometer the world of the business lunchbox open in splurge of your eyes!
Tupperware makes pastas, salads, rice dishes and other foods all fair merriment. Most leftovers will succulent fit into the containers but some foods hold up better the next day then others.
For adduce, salads that have immediate been involved with dressing will become soggy and unappetizing by the next day. Additionally, certain cheese - bulky dishes same macaroni - and - cheese or pizza won’t food so well overnight in a refrigerator.
However, pasta with a light olive oil sauce, feta cheese and fresh tomatoes is an excellent example of a pasta that would be delicious the next day heated up or cold. Other dishes that stand up cold allow for chicken and salmon, as mentioned earlier, and they can be combined with rice or bread to add variety to the meals.
There are also a lot of cheap options for eating out if you must – some of them even healthy! For instance, if you order right, Subway sandwiches can make a cheap healthy lunch. Make explicit you get one of the five dollar footlongs if they’re available in your area; choose whole wheat bread if you can intestines it ( I know, subway bread isn’t that great ); and don’t cover your sandwich in tons of sauces. Food carts can also be inexpensive, and healthy depending on what generous of food you’re getting, and if you’re trip to eat out, try to pick a self - service restaurant, approximative many buffets offer.
Bring In, Dine Out.
A less evident but very rewarding reason to bring your lunch in to work is the ability to take it with you anywhere. Just for you brought your own lunch doesn’t mean you can’t step out on a commendable day and enjoy it outside or drive to a nearby park with friends or coworkers. Even if you do decide to eat at your desk, use the time you saved by staying in the office to take a traipse around the station or run some personal errands. Remind, it’s not just money that you waste eating out but also hot property time waiting for servers and disjoining bills.
So take that final step and couple the brown - bag revolution!
Do you have any tips or recipes for good brown - bag lunches? If so, tolerance your suggestions in the comments section below! Thanks for recital!