Sixteen Recipes for Brown-Baggers

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In last week’s blog, I talked about how brining your own food to work can help you manage what you eat and also save you money. I gave four ideas on how to make it easier to take your own food for lunch. I tend to pack the same thing most days, but my husband likes lots of variety, so he prefers that we make foods ahead and he can pack them in his lunch. For those of you who like variety, here’s a list of recipes for brown bagging. Enjoy, and let us know your favorite fix-ahead brown-bag recipes.

Sandwiches

Fajita Turkey Burger – Ingredients: tomatillo salsa, avocado, cilantro, red & green bell pepper, fajita seasoning, tomato paste, egg white, salt.

Blue Cheese and Beef Roll-ups. I don’t mind these cold, but if you’d like, keep the ingredients separate and heat the beef at lunch and make the rollups. The recipe has you make your own  beef strips to eliminate the salt of deli-roast beef.  Ingredients: fat-free mayonnaise, blue cheese, horseradish, black pepper, round tip steak strips, salt, romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, red onion, reduced fat tortillas.

Peanut Butter Plus Sandwiches. I’m happy with just natural peanut butter, but this recipe add adds honey, banana, raisins, sunflower seed kernels. It uses whole wheat bread, but I’ve switched to whole grain sandwich thins.

Pesto Chicken Salad – Ingredients: low-fat mayonnaise, fat-free yogurt, commercial pesto (or make it yourself!), lemon juice, salt, chicken breast, celery, walnuts, red bell peppers.

Sheryl Crow’s Tuna Salad – Ingredients:  tuna, green apple, diced celery, veganaise (or low-fat mayonnaise), parsley, lemon juice, black pepper.

Casseroles. These can be made ahead and frozen in one-portion sizes.

Sausage and Pepper Calzones –This recipe has you make your own dough, but read the comments for other suggestions. Ingredients: red bell pepper, onion, garlic, apple sausage (some people substituted turkey Italian sausage), mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, low-fat cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, oregano, salt, pepper.

Mousakka – this is the light version. Ingredients: olive oil, garlic, ground lean lamb, tomato paste, red wine, bulgur or cracked wheat, oregano, salt, pepper, cinnamon, low-fat milk, cornstarch, nutmeg, egg substitute, Parmesan cheese.

Chicken-Ham Lasagna – Ingredients: low-sodium chicken broth, chicken breast, low-fat milk, flour, Parmesan cheese, parsley, lasagna noodles, ham, parsley.

Black Beans and Rice with Cheese – This is high in sodium, most likely from the black beans – so I use low-sodium black beans. Ingredients: Olive oil, red bell pepper, garlic, onions, chili powder, cumin, oregano, ground coriander, red pepper, black beans, reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese.

Chicken Tamale Casserole – Ingredients: Mexican blend cheese, skim milk, egg substitute, red pepper, cream-style corn, muffin mix, green chiles, red enchilada sauce, chicken breast, fat-free sour cream

Shredded Beef and Mushroom Ragu -  Ingredients: porcini mushrooms,  short ribs, salt, pepper, flour, olive oil, cremini mushrooms, onion, tomato paste, thyme, garlic, red wine, less-sodium beef broth

Snacks

Cheddar-Parmesan Biscotti – Ingredients: flour, reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, sun-dried tomato pieces, corn meal, pine nuts, baking powder, salt,  dried basil, fat-free milk, olive oil, eggs,

Homemade Granola Bar – Much healthier than the store-bought kind. Ingredients: rolled oats, almonds, cashews, coconut, dark brown sugar, maple syrup, vegetable oil, raisins

Breakfast Fig and Nut Cookies – Ingredients: brown sugar, butter, eggs, dried figs, dried cranberries, vanilla extract, all-purpose and wheat flour, bran, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, almonds, sugar.

Roasted Rosemary Almonds – Ingredients: rosemary, olive oil, chili powder, salt, ground red pepper, almonds

Spicy Chickpea Nuts – Ingredients: chick peas, olive oil, cumin, marjoram, allspice, salt

Easy Brown Bagging for Healthier (and Cheaper) Lunches

For years, I’ve brought my lunch to work. I do it to keep from being tempted by the cafeteria smells of less healthy food (fried chicken and pizza) or the sights of my fellow diners eating cheeseburgers and fries. I don’t do it to save money, but I estimate I save about $10-$15 a day. My take-to-work bag includes my morning coffee, mid-morning snack, lunch with home-brewed green tea and afternoon snack.  The snacks (fruit, black bean brownies or home-made granola bar) keep me from visiting the vending machines when I get hungry between meals. This week, I’ll cover tips to make it easier to pack your food. Next week, I’ll have a round-up of great recipes for lunch packers.

Grill ahead.  Buy super value packs of chicken breasts and grill them on the weekend. You can use different seasonings for variety (e.g., Greek with olive oil and oregano, a Cajun rub, a barbecue rub, oriental with soy sauce and ginger).  A friend grills peppered-chicken and cuts it in strips to top the salad greens he brings for lunch. You’re not limited to chicken. You can also grill other lean meats such as flank steak or pork tenderloin.

After the meat has cooled, wrap or pack it individually and freeze it or keep it in the refrigerator if you will use it in the next couple of days. To reheat the meat, I thaw frozen meat in the refrigerator. If I have time, I like to take it out of the refrigerator to reach room temperature before heating it in the microwave. I heat it at 60% or 70% power for a slightly longer time so it doesn’t get tough.

You can even grill vegetables for great, healthy sides. Brush them with Italian dressing or balsamic vinegar and oil or Google grilled vegetables.

Bake ahead. Instead of that giant, high-calorie, high-fat muffin in the morning, bake your own muffins  using cake mix and applesauce or canned pumpkin in place of the eggs and oil.  My favorites are spice cake or chocolate cake. They are amazingly moist and have fewer than 200 calories, whereas many store-bought muffins weigh in at 400-600 calories.  Other suggestions include snacks such as Rocco Dispirito’s black bean brownies or home-made granola bars. I put serving sizes of these baked goodies in l containers and freeze them or keep them in the refrigerator.

Cook ahead.  Make two or three servings of your dinner and store the leftovers in containers.  Pastas, soups, stews and casseroles are perfect for preparing in bulk and splitting for lunches or week-night meals.

Pack ahead.  I pack my lunch bag in the evening and put it in the refrigerator.  If I am packing a frozen item, I’ll put a sticky-note on the bag to remind myself to get the item out of the freezer before I leave for work.  I make a gallon of sun tea on the weekend and pour it into saved 20 ounce bottles, store them in the refrigerator and toss one into my lunch bag when I’m packing it.

Sites with suggestions for Brown Bagging

• BlueHeathAdvantage.com, Packing a Healthy Lunch
• Lifehacker.com, Make Your Brown Bag Lunch More Appealing
• Rubbermaid.com, Packing a Lunch, Food Safety Advice
• WebMd.Com Brown-Bag Lunches that Make the Grade

Damage Control When Eating Out

. In many restaurants, most appetizers are fat-laden and have no nutritional value.  Desserts are usually both fat and sugar-laden.  I’m usually very hungry when we arrive at a restaurant, so I use the Dr. Oz trick of drinking a glass of water and eating an apple or 6 walnuts before I leave the house so I won’t be as hungry when I arrived at the restaurant. A chocolate square kept in your purse or glove box could substituted for desert, or order a low-calorie option such as a scoop of ice cream  or sorbet and split it with your dining partner.

Look at the menu and decide before you go.  Many restaurants have their menu on line. If so, look at the menu before you go to the restaurant and pick a healthier, lower-fat  entrée. This works because you won’t be tempted by the sights and smells of fattening foods being carried to other tables.  Also, I’m the type that gets swayed by what other people order. If I’ve decided what I want before I go to the restaurant, I’m much less likely to order the chicken-fried steak or pizza.  When I was invited to a pizza restaurant for a birthday party, went online and picked a nice salad before I went. The guests were willing to share a small piece of pizza with me so I didn’t feel deprived.

Substitute for appetizers and desserts or skip them altogether

Eat a lower-calorie, healthy salad before your meal. Eating a healthy salad before  the entrée can fill you so you don’t eat as much of the entrée. Just make sure the salad isn’t loaded with fattening things such as cheese, bacon, croutons, nuts (especially the candied nuts that are popular today). An order a healthy dressing on the side.

Pick the healthier food preparation. When you are given the option on meat preparation between fried, broiled or sautéed, choose the broiled option of ask that the meat be sautéed in olive oil instead of butter. If there isn’t

Avoid creamed sauces. Alfredo or creamed sauces can add hundreds of calories and saturated fat to your meal.  Avoid them altogether or ask if the chef can prepare the entrée with a more healthy option such as marinara.

Don’t eat everything on your plate.  We all know this one.  I’ve seen a tip to immediately ask for a take-home carton and cut your entrée in half before you even start eating. Another tip – if your order includes a fattening side such as French fries, ask the waiter to leave them off your plate or for a better substitute, such as a vegetable.

What's your tip for damage control when eating out?

Four Thoughts for Resisting Unhealthy Behaviors

We say a lot of things to ourselves that get in our way of being healthy.  “It’s hard!”, “It won’t matter,” “I’m tired, maybe tomorrow.”  Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D. and behavioral researcher, calls this “the negative wall of self talk.”

When I find myself guilty of listening to this negative wall of self-talk, I’ve learned to change it using some of the inspirational sayings or thought-changing tricks in today’s blog.  These have worked well for me to keep me exercising and avoiding a slip back into frequent unhealthy eating. I hope some of them work for you.  If you have any great sayings that work for you, please share them with us.

1. It  all comes down to the moment that alarm goes off in the morning. Every single day you can wake up and it’s what you decide to do that’s going to define who you are.” (Chris Powell,  Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition ). One of my most challenging times is weekday mornings when the alarm clock rings. I’m not one of those people who wakes up with energy.  When the alarm clock rings, and I’d rather roll over and go back to sleep, I repeat this phrase and it helps me get out of bed.    
   
2. The urge to XXX will go away whether you XXX or not.  You can substitute just about any unhealthy behavior for the XXX.  It’s really true. The urge does go away. This was one of the most powerful aids from Smoke Enders that helped me quit smoking. They gave us a card to carry with us. When I had the urge to smoke, I’d look at the card, repeat the saying, take a few deep breaths and start to think about something else. This phrase still works for me now on other things; the urge for that cake will go away whether I eat the cake or not.   
   
3. Saying “My Choice is XXX.”  Saying this makes you aware that you are making a conscious choice.  This only makes me more mindful of making possibly unhealthy choices, but also helps me modify my choices. For example, at the beauty salon yesterday I got a cup of coffee and next to the coffee was a platter of chocolate chip cookies. I was going to reach for two, but I said to myself,” no, I’m choosing to have only one chocolate chip cookie” and walked away.  In Choices: Discover Your 100 Most Important Life Choices,”  Shad Helmstetter outlines the four steps of Choices.
   

   1.       Ask “is this a choice?”

   2.       If yes, say immediately “This Choice is Mine.”

   3.       After thinking about the choice, say “My choice is…”

   4.       Be aware at a conscious level you made the choice. “The reason I made this choice is….”
4. I might not feel like exercising now, but I’ll feel energized when I’m done and for the rest of the day.”  Newton was right. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. Sometimes my body just doesn’t want to get moving. To break that inertia, I frequently have to coax myself into moving by remembering how good I’ll feel after I exercise and reminding myself that when I exercise, not only does that great exercise buzz stay with me all day, but it also puts me in a much better mood.

Just remember to  keep some health-inspiring thought in your back pocket to counter the excuses your brain comes up with for not choosing a healthy path.  James Allen, As a Man Thinketh,” says “They themselves are the makers of themselves, by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage, the mind is the master weaver.”  

What thoughts can make you weave a healthier life?