Say good-bye to B-O-R-I-N-G. You can make brown-bag lunches great again! All you have to do is streamline the process. We’ll show you how.
We promise: you will shop less, stress less, and spend less time in the kitchen while you whip up food your child will happily eat, not trade.
Here’s how the plan works: Just read the following brown-bag suggestions. Then, each day, put together one of the lunches—in order, without changing any of the components, or tweak them as needed, based on what you have in the pantry or what your kid likes. Either way, the basic concept remains the same.
What follows is two weeks’ worth of brown-bag suggestions. Look closely. You’ll see that first we give you five different lunches to make for your child—one new lunch for every day of the week.
Then we provide a second week of totally different lunches—with one new lunch for every day of that week.
But that’s not all.
To get through an entire month of brown-bag lunches without much repetition, we direct you back to the week-one and week-two lunches, but we suggest “swaps” for you to try (you can also make a few of your own.) Our swaps are indicated in blue type on the week-one and week-two plans.
So relax. You now have a month of brown-bag lunches—all of them delicious. It’s that easy. Now, read on to learn how to become a brown-bag chef extraordinaire!
Week One
Monday
Turkey-and-Muenster-cheese sandwich with fresh spinach leaves on whole-wheat bread
Apple / Banana
SunChipsTM
Low-fat chocolate milk
Tuesday
Confetti pasta (wagon-wheel-shaped pasta with cooked frozen mixed vegetables and diced turkey) / Linguine with pesto (from a jar) and peas
Banana
Pretzels
Low-fat milk
Wednesday
PBJ sushi (flatten whole-grain bread, spread with peanut butter and jelly, roll up jelly-roll style, and cut into slices)
Grapes
Whole-grain GoldfishTM crackers / Whole-wheat pretzels
Water
Thursday
Container of hummus with whole-grain crackers / Hummus wrap with diced cucumber and tomato
Carrot and celery sticks
Low-fat cheese stick
Low-fat chocolate milk
Friday
Hard-boiled egg / Edamame
Whole-wheat mini bagel with low-fat cream cheese
Cheese stick
Grapes
Low-fat milk
Week Two
Monday
Ham-and-cheese pinwheels (spread whole-wheat tortillas with Dijon mustard, layer with provolone cheese and ham, roll up, and cut into slices with sharp knife)
Cherry tomatoes and cucumber wedges / Celery with peanut butter
Pretzels
Low-fat milk
Tuesday
Whole-wheat spaghetti with tomato sauce and turkey meatballs / Meatball hero (meatballs in sauce, and a roll packed separately)
Grapes
SkinnyPopTM popcorn
Water
Wednesday
Turkey-and-cream-cheese wrap (spread whole-wheat wrap with cream cheese, top with turkey slices and fresh spinach, roll up, and trim ends)
SunChipsTM / Pretzels with a peanut-butter dip
Banana
Low-fat chocolate milk
Thursday
Cubes of Cheddar cheese and whole-grain crackers / Cheddar cheese sandwich on whole-grain bread
Edamame (cook and chill if frozen)
Apple slices with peanut butter for dipping
Low-fat chocolate milk
Friday
Mexican wrap (whole-grain tortilla stuffed with canned, drained black beans, corn, shredded Cheddar cheese, and salsa) / Container of brown rice, canned black beans, corn, shredded Cheddar, and salsa
Cubed fresh mango
SunChipsTM
Low-fat milk
