I can remember as a young girl I would always look forward to the day when I got to put together cool little lunches for my husband and children. Now, after taking care of a baby all day, cooking dinner, straightening up, and finally sitting down, it's like, "ARE YOU KIDDING, I STILL HAVE TO MAKE LUNCH????". I can't wait until I can just buy a bunch of awesome stuff for lunches like fresh mozzerella and proscuitto, but until that time arrives, I have figured out how to do it on the cheap, cheap, cheap!
I used to really worry about variety and all that other sheez, but since the Great Budget Crunch, as long as it's delicious and healthy, I don't mind sending him with the same thing 4/5 days in one week. People sometimes bring the same lunch to work for like, years, right? So a few days won't kill him (this is how I sleep at night). Before I read about the dangers of using the microwave, I used to send him with leftovers everyday. He was eating dinner-quality lunches while I ate oatmeal all day. ANYWAYS! Let me share my lunch-packing techniques with you.Main Dish
The goal here is to have mostly everything prepared every time you go to put together a lunch. I do a number of different things to make sure this is the case.
Whole Wheat Pasta Salad
about $1.50/day
(you can make 1 lb. of this on Sunday night, and be done with it for the rest of the week)
I like to make an Italian Dressing and mix it with half light mayonnaise, then add some grated Romano cheese. Toss in a jar of roasted red peppers ($1.99 from Trader Joe's), some green olives, some diced celery and onion, and some steamed frozen broccoli. That's going to cost you about $7.50 for the week. That's $1.50 a day.
Sandwiches on Whole Wheat Rolls
$.24-$1.95 each
I bake 15 Whole Wheat Rolls every 2 weeks. I then freeze them
wrapped in foil in a freezer bag. Every night, I take one out, and put it in the oven on 350 for 5 minutes to defrost it, make a sandwich and re wrap it in the foil I froze it in. Very inexpensive roll fillings include peanut butter and/or jelly, butter, salami and cheese, cream cheese and tomatoes, or just cheese. You could also make your own hummus from dried beans (organic - $1.75 about) and spread that with some field greens.Other (still cheap) options include tuna salad and cold cuts. These rolls cost me $.15 to make, which means from the bare minimum of butter to cold cuts and cheese these sandwiches run from $.24-$1.95 each. That's really, really cheap. If you're not into making your own bread, which you will be after I show you how to do it next week, just buy big bags of rolls or sandwich bread when it goes on sale and individually wrap and freeze them. You could freeze little packs of 2 slices each, and then thaw as needed. No more stale/moldy bread!
Salads
$2.00 - $2.50 each
Salads are a great cold option for lunch. A 16 oz. container of organic baby greens at Whole Foods costs $6.99 and will last you a week. Just make a salad dressing in the beginning of the week (like my Spring Spinach Salad dressing), and bring it in a little container alongside the greens. You could also buy a pound of chicken breasts and grill them on Sunday night, and throw them in, as well. Add walnuts and raisins in lieu of chicken, if you prefer, or a handful of cooked beans!
This salad will cost you between $2.00 and $2.50 a day depending on whether or not you add walnuts, raisins, chicken, or beans.
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Those are just a few of your options, but I think that salads, sandwiches, and pasta salads are a good way to start. You can rotate between the 3 every week, or change your sandwich every week, to keep it fresh! Stay tuned for my post next week where I'll discuss peripheral lunch items like cookies, muffins, fruit, and veggies!
If you're like most people who buy lunch, you probably spend between $5 and $10 dollars a day on lunch. That's $1,300 - $2,600 a year. My way costs between $500-$650 a year! That's a huge savings...what I'd do if I were you, is start bringing my own lunch and up my 401(k) contribution. Or you could just save it up and go on vacation or something. That's a $700-$2,000 savings every year! Damn...Imagine what you could save if you did it for 5 years! Wow.
Benefits of making your own lunch:
- You save a LOAD of money
- You know what's in your food
- It's way healthier
- You save a LOAD of money
Enjoy your lunch :).
P.S. My baby Dylan got his first tooth today/last night!!!
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