Brown Bag Lunches

I've decided (for like the 7th time) that I want to be one of those people who actually uses their inbox for incoming email. Right now I have like 4000 messages in my inbox, some from July 2004. Most people haven't even had gmail since then. Anyway, I started by deleting Facebook alerts, and Geocaching.com alerts, and Williams-Sonoma emails, and that kind of stuff. I'm finding lots of treasures, and I'll probably post a few things on here.

Right now I'm going through newsletters that I got from eHealthCompete, which used to be our fitness website for the first year that I worked at Ancestry.


I thought this was kind of a fun email. I'm cutting out the good part to post here. It's a list of tips for brown-bagging awesomely.





Here are some tips for better brown bag:


Splurge: If you are brown-bagging to work, you are automatically saving money by not eating out. So by all means, make your food more enticing than the local fast-food chain's. Make prosciutto, tomato and basil sandwiches, or pick up a roasted chicken in the deli and pack a portion for lunch.


Grilled Thrills: Nothing adds more flavor than grilled foods. Add grilled veggies (onions, zucchini, and eggplant) to your lunch kits. You can bag them separately then add them to a normal sandwich to make it extraordinary. Especially good with goat cheese.


Lunch-Pooling: Form a lunch-pool at work with 4 other persons. On one day of the week, one person makes lunch for all. It's easier to make 5 of the same lunches at once than to make 5 different ones every morning. Plus, it adds variety (just make sure you all share the same tastes in food).


Zip Those Chips: Instead of costly pre-made single serving packs, use sealable plastic bags and even mix up your favorites. Some of them, like those tasty bean chips, vegetable chips and garlic bagel chips, don't come in single server packs.


Stop the Sog: If you are using moist vegetables or condiments, bag them separately then add them to a sandwich at lunch. No more yucky bread.


Fast Food Packets: Next time you eat fast-food (and we know you do), pick up extra packets of ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, salsa, etc. They are handy for adding flavor to your meal. Condiments can make a sandwich soggy, so adding them fresh from the packet will make your meal tastier.


Condiment Heaven: Explore new condiments on your sandwich. Sun-dried tomato spread, horseradish, Chinese mustard, spreadable goat cheese and Caesar salad dressing are unique alternatives.


If your only problem with taking a brown bag with you is that you forget your lunch then drop your car keys in the bag. You'll never get to work without them