We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Healthy Eats’ Brown-Bag Challenge has folks from around the country packing their lunches this month. Two popular brown bag items have been tuna salad sandwich and turkey sandwiches. These bad boys are going head-to-head for the title of healthiest sandwich.

Tuna Salad Sandwich

Pros:
Three ounces of canned tuna in water contains 108 calories and 20 grams of protein. It provides 5 percent of your daily iron needs, a multitude of energy boosting B-vitamins and 80% of your daily recommended amount of selenium. Tuna is also plentiful in omega-3 fat, which is important for heart health, growth and brain function. For the sandwich, using whole grain bread can up your daily dose of fiber as can piling up on the veggies.

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BGSK's ever packable Crunchy Hummus Wrap.

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine are the bloggers behind Big Girls, Small Kitchen (BGSK), a food website of accessible recipes and easy entertaining, and Small Kitchen College, a guide to cooking, eating, drinking, and living on- and off-campus. Their first cookbook, In the Small Kitchen: 100 Recipes from Our Year of Cooking in the Real World, features a foreword by Ina Garten, contains lots of recipes and twenty-something anecdotes, and is in bookstores now.

Back in July, they hosted a Brown-Bag Week of their own on Small Kitchen College to get readers—and themselves—eating homemade food on the go. We checked in with them for lunch-packing tips, since we’re right in the middle of our own such challenge.

HE: What made you decide to do brown-bag challenge?

BGSK: We are big believers in the benefits of bringing your lunch with you to work (we have a whole chapter about “packing the quarter-life lunchbox” in our book!). We wanted to try and get the college set in the habit early. So we decided to challenge post-grads starting first corporate jobs, undergrads doing summer internships, and office-bound “old hats” like our fellow twenty-somethings to share the contents of their lunchboxes with us. And we would do the same.

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We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Week 2 of the challenge was quite an eventful one, despite Monday being a holiday. Everyone involved has been consistent in sharing excellent lunch-packing advice, recipes, snack ideas and photos. We had a twitter chat last Thursday where dozens of brown-baggers chimed in with their lunch ideas. One question we asked, “Any ideas for tasty sandwich spreads besides mayo?” got quite a response. Here are a few of the mayonnaise alternatives offered by our twitter friends:

@lisalibrarian goat cheese, mustard, mashed avocado

@Health_Bean pesto!!!!

@LetsTalkandWalk hummus or mustard

@CarleneFutureRD what about roasted garlic! It gets creamy and spreadable not to mention flavorful.

@JennaReed1 olive tapinade is so tasty on sandwiches instead of mayo!

@zachcrock hot sauce if you like it, I use it in place of mayo.

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Try a homemade vinaigrette instead of creamy salad dressing for a 25% reduction in fat and calories.

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Packing up for our Brown Bag Challenge? Use these swaps to make your lunch healthy and delicious.

Instead of: Regular cold cuts
Choose: Lower sodium varieties
The Payoff: As much as a 50-percent reduction in salt. Check labels or company websites for info on your favorite brand

More tips for the deli counter

Instead of: Creamy salad dressing
Choose: Vinaigrette dressing
The Payoff: A 25-percent reduction in fat and calories

Make your own salad dressing

Instead of: Peanut Butter & Fluff
Choose: PB & B (banana)
The Payoff: A kid-friendly sandwich without corn syrup and added sugar

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Want one of these? Enter to win, below.

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

We’re doing this month-long pack-your-lunch-for-work challenge, and we mean for you to take your lunch along in style. So along with recipes and tips for how to complete a month of  packed lunches, we’re also giving you a change to win a cool lunch container, courtesy of  black+blum.

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We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

It’s day #5 of the Brown-Bag Challenge. When this all started, I was worried that I’d run out of lunch ideas and would spend the last half of the month eating PB&J at my desk. But that’s not the case at all — I’ll run out of days in September long before I run out of lunch ideas. Last week I made Curried Potatoes and Chickpeas and ate the leftovers for two days. I’m already planning ahead for next week; I’m going to make a Cornmeal-Crusted Roasted Ratatouille Tart this weekend to bring for lunch on Monday.

This week has been a busy one — Monday was a holiday and short weeks always seem a bit crazy. But I made a big batch of hummus on Monday night and cut up some vegetables I picked from my mom’s garden over the holiday weekend. I brought it all to work along with a few hard-boiled eggs and a box of Wasa crackers and made a vegetable platter for myself to eat at my desk each day. It was a little fancy-looking, a lot like a restaurant appetizer platter, but super easy because I did the prep once and ate for three days.

What’s the best brown-bag lunch you’ve eaten this month?

Eat lunch at work, but don't be a jerk.

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

So, you decided to join our Healthy Eats initiative and brown-bag it for the entire month of September. What’s next? Avoid interoffice lunch drama by following our do and don’t etiquette tips:

DON’T wolf down your food: Food was meant to be consciously and meaningfully enjoyed, not shoved down your throat while you’re doing five other things. “Take a deep breath,” says Amy Ogden, publicist and business etiquette expert. “You brought your lunch, and that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat it while you pound out an Excel report.” Even if it’s just 10 minutes, take a second to reset and not stare at your computer screen while you eat. “Not to mention, people can tell when you have food in your mouth, so don’t conduct business with your piehole stuffed,” Ogden adds.

DO give others space: If you see someone eating lunch don’t interrupt until they’re finished. “If you have an urgent question, respect the fact that they’re taking a moment to decompress,” Ogden says. Read more »

The Undercover Cook's Halloumi Cheese Salad on Flatbread. (image courtesy The Undercover Cook)

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

It’s been an interesting first week of the Brown-Bag Challenge. Week one had just two days, then we had a long, holiday weekend. Surely everyone’s back on track though. (Right?)

We started the week here at Healthy Eats with a chat on Food Network’s Facebook page. Fans asked great questions about healthy lunches. Some highlights:

Q from Elizabeth R.: Any good but cheap suggestions for a college student?

A from Healthy Eats: Elizabeth, yogurt, pasta, eggs and beans are all inexpensive ingredients to use in your lunch. Here are some more: 10 Healthy Foods Under $3

Q from Kate G.: Do you have any creative salad ideas to keep things exciting, yet healthy?

A from Healthy Eats: Kate try a whole grain salad, they’re more filling than just lettuce. Grain Salad 5 Ways

Q from Alison S: What is the best salad dressing option?

A from Healthy Eats: Alison, have you tried making your own salad dressing? (it’s really easy!)

Q from Keisha G: Looking for healthy breakfast ideas. Something to take to work. Tired of yogurt and toast. Any ideas…

A from Healthy Eats: Keisha here are our top-5 favorite quick breakfasts.

Join us for another chat on the Healthy Eats Facebook page on Thursday, September 15 at 2 p.m EST; dieticians Toby Amidor and Dana White will join us to answer all of your questions about eating well at lunch.

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You could win this!

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

It’s a brown-bag challenge in name only, we don’t actually expect everyone to tote their lunches in a paper sack each day. It’s fine if you do, but don’t you want to carry your healthy lunch fare in something cute, compact and washable? Of course you do. And now, you have a chance to win this adorable lunch pot from black+blum.

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I like to take my lunch out of the container I packed it in and eat it from a nicer bowl.

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Confession: I bought lunch yesterday just because I could. I walked over to Taim, my favorite falafel place in the whole city, and I bought a falafel for lunch. I have no idea how much fat or calories the sandwich contained, but the sandwich was large so was likely not very diet-friendly. I justified the splurge because I’d been to the gym that morning, and because it was the last day I could eat a restaurant lunch before the Brown-Bag Challenge. This splurge cost me $8.

Today’s lunch is smarter in so many ways. When I was searching for recipes, I was looking for something healthy to make with potatoes, because I have a whole bunch from my CSA that I wanted to use up. I found this recipe for Curried Potatoes and Chickpeas from Food Network Magazine; it’s from a story they did last year on using leftover crunchy onions — those things that go on top of green bean casserole. It looked quick and easy enough to make on a busy weeknight, and Toby, one of our resident dieticians, confirmed that it meets our Healthy Eats nutritional guidelines; it has 290 calories per serving and 15 grams of total fat (saturated fat = 7 grams).

I had potatoes, spices, limes and jalapenos at home, so I bought the following at the store:

Cilantro: $1.99

Chickpeas: $1.79 (I bought the 29-ounce can even though the recipe calls for 15 ounces. It was a better value, and I’ll use the leftovers to make hummus)

Fried onions: $2.89

Greek yogurt: $1.25

My grocery store total was $7.92. I spent nearly the same amount on all the ingredients for an entire recipe as I did on one lunch. And since the recipe makes 6 servings, that comes to $1.32 per serving. Less than two dollars per serving. Makes my $8 falafel seem pretty frivolous.

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