Fit lunch into your morning!

A Healthy lunch: just a few minutes in a morning routine.
A good time was had by all this weekend with a busy schedule of the Jewelry Parties, Race for the Cure, Tailgate Party courtesy of Bytes from Texas & even some quick Cheese Making,  on Sunday afternoon.  I guess with all that fun one might just skip the meal prep & go directly to the lunch counter!  Not so for me when I can manage it.  There almost  always is a way to snag a quick meal & take 5 to 10 mins out of a busy schedule to put together a lunch box.  I was lucky enough to have Bytes from Texas send home some Tail Gate goodies after her party (which is more than I can say our UT Longhorns left the game with on Saturday evening....) I paired up some of her delicious salad with a canned fruit juice, a few cashew nuts, 2 oz of Gold Fish & a few tablespoons of Pomegranate seeds. At one of my favorite delicatessens  I enjoy a similar salad although the portions are much larger.  Packing a lunch at home my Bento or Tiffin  helps make portion control quite easy.  If it doesn't fit into a Bento or Tiffin I generally don't take it.  Besides, I hate messy spills or smashed up sandwiches. 
  Since the Race for the Cure I have been reading more on what foods are recommended to help in our daily fight against cancers, not only Breast Cancer. Many diet plans of this type seek to maximize use of vegetables as well as a variety of whole grains such as brown rice, bulgur, and wheat-berries. I try & buy only whole grain bagels, breads, cereals, crackers & pasta. This maximizes my intake of fiber, which may help fight many cancers.

For that Salad recipe check here for Bytes from Texas recipe for the Delicious Salad. 


For more info on the Global Race for the Cure check Here.

Asian Bao: Tiffin for one, please!

Take a Bao & have a unique lunch. At our local Asian store we can find all sorts of delicious selections for a quick healthy bite at lunch. There are several choices of Char Siu Bao(Chinese steamed buns)available here in Austin Texas. I could get carried away on the selection of the steamed buns since they seem to have sweet, savory, veggie & even tiny miniature Bao buns. Choices, choices...just one of the delicious steamed buns & a salad make a great lunch. Most Asian stores even have a selection of lunch boxes, I found this Tiffin at the same store. The housewares aisle has some great items to both inspire & make lunch making more interesting. Not close to an Asian supermarket? Try checking this site which has a wonderful selection of Tiffins. Tiffins & Bentos are a great way to carry a meal and everything is secure inside. Tiffins actually clamp down at the top.
Tiffin Factoid:
Tiffins are actually a very old method for carrying lunch. Since 1890 each day in Mumbai, India’s largest city, around 200,000 office workers receive a home cooked lunch prepared by their spouse and later hand delivered in a traditional ‘Tiffin’ lunch box by a Dabbawallah. The Tiffins filled with a home cooked meal are identified by colors, design or symbols. Somehow with 200,000 delivered meals the correct Tiffin seems to get to the hungry Tiffin recipient. The Dabbawallah is a person whose highly specialized profession it is to take the fresh food from the home to the worker each day. The word Tiffin actually means light lunch.


In truth, Tiffins can feed far more than one but you get the idea. Change up the lunch routine & make your PB&J a wee bit more exciting. Out with the mediocre brown bag & in with something new. Lunch time doesn't have to be less than exciting.

Of course if you really want to have a Tiffin with some style try one of these Thai Monk Tiffin boxes at this site.








My personal favorite Tiffin can be found here at Ten Thousand Villages, a true nod to the 2010 Eat Pray Love movie starring Julia Roberts.









You never know who will be taking lunch in a Tiffin next!