In case you haven’t heard, FN Dish is participating in Healthy Eats’ Brown-Bag Challenge. The challenge: Bring your lunch to work each weekday for the month of September. We know this isn’t an easy feat, so we’ve asked some of our favorite food bloggers to share their experience and favorite recipes to help keep everyone motivated.

This week, Gaby Dalkin from What’s Gaby Cooking is getting us through the work-week with her easy Quinoa Cowboy Caviar.

I’ve always been a brown-bag luncher. It wasn’t always by choice, but I’m glad I started this habit early in life.

My mom always sent my sister and me to school with a lunchbox. To be honest, I was totally embarrassed because all my friends got to order the hot lunch at school, and I was stuck with something from home. But my mom wasn’t into us eating pizza every day for lunch so there was just no way around it. In high school I had a little more freedom, and I bought lunch a few days a week. After the initial excitement of eating whatever was in the cafeteria that day, I decided I preferred bringing my lunch from home and begged my mom to continue to pack my lunch. In college I strategically scheduled my classes so I had time to run home and whip up a quick salad or something semi-healthy to get me through the day. And now, in the real world, I’m still all about packing lunches and planning ahead.

Get her recipe for Quinoa Cowboy Caviar »