Baggin’ It: Lunch Packing Tips

brownbagThe lunch tips from our Baggin’ It Challenge are in, and our winners have been declared!* In this post, we’re compiling some of the ideas we received so that our readers never again have to worry about the grim prospects lurking within that brown bag.

Some Assembly Required: Picnics are inherently fun, so take one to work with you. Tearing off hunks of baguette and putting together the perfect combo of pesto, cheese and tomato is the kind of thing that never fails to cheer me. And as an added bonus, packing your lunch piecemeal keeps the bread or crackers from getting soggy over the course of the morning. (One caveat: If you’re packing a lunch for people other than yourself, you might want to clue them in beforehand—my father once choked down a plain dry bagel before finding the container of peanut butter my mother had packed in the bottom of the bag.)

Changing Form: Just because you have leftovers, doesn’t mean you need to eat them in exactly the same way the next day. My office has a microwave, but I rarely use it. You’d be surprised how good (and different) take-out like Chinese or Indian food tastes cold. Put some cold General Tso’s Tofu atop a bed of lettuce and veggies, and you’ve got yourself an excellent salad for tomorrow’s lunch. Continue reading

Baggin’ It: A Lunch-Packing Challenge

brownbagWith fall in full effect, it’s the perfect time for some work/school resolutions like “I will never again eat from that taco truck that gives me indigestion,” or “I will rise above the vending machines in the school cafeteria.” But even true food enthusiasts might be confounded by how to pack a punch with a packed lunch.

My mom hated packing my lunch when I was a kid. It wasn’t that she disliked feeding us—quite the contrary, actually—but the sameness of the old sandwich/apple/cookie routine bored her. She once schemed that if she packed a thermos of boiling soup in my brother’s lunchbox that it would slowly cook a hot dog that she nestled next to it. Unfortunately, the thermos was too well insulated and my brother ended up with molten soup and a still-chill dog.

Though the experiment failed, I continue to admire the innovative spirit involved in that endeavor, and we’ve decided to celebrate it here with a little contest. We’re calling on our readers to reveal their best lunch-packing secrets. How do you build a killer sandwich? How do you liven up those leftovers? How do you tell your kid “I love you” with only a banana and a toothpick to work with?

The readers with the best brown bag tips will not only achieve instant fame by having their ideas appear here on the blog, but will also win a special PitchKnives prize! Yes! So send your stories to submissions@pitchknives.com by next Wednesday, October 3. As always, creativity and taste both matter, so go ahead…make our lunch.