Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 08:13 AM
I love my Built NY Lunch Bag! Isn’t it just so colorful and happy? Long-time readers of A Better Bag of Groceries might remember when I bought it last year and then the nice people at Built NY sent me one to give away to all of you. They also sent me a bright pink laptop sleeve that I use every day.
I really stuff my lunch bag and it can handle the pressure (and heft) of my daily haul. What’s in my lunch bag today?
I know – I eat a lot of food!
Let me break it down for you.
First, there’s my morning snack. I do eat a rushed breakfast in the morning, but between my early workout, the rush of getting kids and self ready for school and work and then the long commute, I am hungry again about an hour into my workday.
Banana: NuVal score of 91
Almonds: NuVal score of 81
In the winter, I like a warm lunch. Today, it was some leftovers:
Leftover Parmesan Pesto Salmon from Dream Dinners. (Salmon scores an 87 on the NuVal scale, but there is some cheese and pesto that needs to be accounted for!)
Parboiled Rice: NuVal score of 82
Corn: NuVal score of 91 for Steamfresh frozen corn (with no additives)
Tomatoes: NuVal score of 96
Clementines: NuVal score of 94
After lunch I have a little dessert:
A few dark chocolate chips to satisfy my chocolate craving.
Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Dark Chocolate Chips: NuVal score of 8
Late in the afternoon (usually around 4), I eat another snack. If I don’t, I find myself in a dangerous situation: starving and cooking dinner which leads to ravenous snacking on anything edible. So, to keep hunger at bay, I choose crackers and hummus or fruit and yogurt. Today, it was fruit and yogurt!
Cantaloupe: NuVal score of 93
Blueberries: NuVal score of 100
Pineapple (you can’t see it, but it’s under the cantaloupe!): NuVal score of 99
Chobani Plain Non-Fat Greek Yogurt: NuVal score of 94
So what about beverages? Well, I love both coffee and tea. Sometimes I’m looking for a little caffeine boost and other times I’m just looking for warmth sans caffeine, so I put both in my lunch bag:
The Starbucks Italian Roast gives me quite the energy burst! It’s like rocket fuel. My husband got me hooked on the Starbucks instant coffees when he put them in my Christmas stocking. Love them! I bet you’re wondering how these score. They actually don’t. We are not scoring coffee and tea at NuVal because they have no nutrients in them.
And of course, I bring the ultimate beverage to work: H2o
Water is another beverage that we are not scoring at NuVal (again, no nutrients). This is one that we debate about at NuVal – should water get a 0 or a 100? I mean, it really is the perfect beverage.
So, yes, I stuff a lot of food into my lunch bag, but I’m pretty proud of the high NuVal scores that go in that bag. By the way, one of the best things about that bag – when something spills in there (and it inevitably does), you can just throw the lunch bag in the washing machine. How cool is that?
Question of the Day
What is in your lunch bag today?
Yesterday’s Giveaway Winner
Congratulations to Commenter #28, Waheeda! You’ve won the Not-Boring, High-Scoring Rice Giveaway! Hooray for you! Please send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address so that I can mail your prize out to you. Thanks to everyone who entered!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Lunch
Tags: Lunch, Lunch Bag
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 07:12 AM
Welcome to Cooking With Catherine Katz, a regular feature here on A Better Bag of Groceries. Catherine is married to Dr. David Katz, founder of the ONQI algorithm which fuels NuVal scores. Catherine, a native of France, is an incredible cook and I love the recipes that she and David have created together in their book The Flavor-Full Diet. I am amazed every time I try one. Everything is healthy and delicious.
Catherine is a mother of 5! Whew! Catherine sent me this picture after their recent trip to the Caribbean.
What a gorgeous family!
While I had tried some breakfast and dinner recipes, I had not yet tried any of the wonderful lunch recipes that Catherine and David offer in the book. So one recent Sunday morning, with the kids watching Star Trek Revenge of the Sith (or something like that), my husband and I made Almond, Green Bean, and Quinoa Salad.
This recipe only serves 1. We didn’t realize that, but after we made it – and loved it – we quickly made another quadruple batch!
1 1/2 cups frozen French-cut green beans
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1 teaspoon crumbled feta cheese
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons chopped almonds
First we had to cook the quinoa – and this was our first time doing that. We chose Ancient Harvest Traditional Quinoa, which scores a 91 on the NuVal scale:
Beautiful grains!
It cooked up quickly and easily.
With the quinoa cooked, and the onions sliced…
we could focus on the rest of the recipe steps:
- Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in medium saucepan. Add the green beans and cook for 2 minutes (do not overcook). Drain and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the mustard, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper.
- Add the green beans and toss to coat.
- Add the quinoa, cheese, onion, and almonds and toss to combine.
While David and Catherine intended this recipe to be an everyday lunch sort of thing, I must say that you could bring this to a party. And people would definitely ask you for the recipe!
I am hooked on quinoa!
Thank you Catherine for another wonderful recipe!
Coffee Giveaway
Congratulations to Commenter #93, Mollie! You’ve won last week’s coffee giveaway. Please send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address so that I can get your prize out to you. Thank you to everyone who entered!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz, Lunch
Tags: quinoa
Monday, July 12, 2010 at 06:59 AM
First let me just say that this is not a Cart Confession. I have never purchased a Lunchable in my life nor do I intend to. My children know not to ask for them when we are grocery shopping. We whisk right past that section of refrigerated casing when in the supermarket.
But last week at NuVal, while I was reviewing a list of scores for one of my clients (Price Chopper in Schenectady, NY), I came across the score for a Lunchables product. Scoring Lunchables takes a lot of effort because they are complex – there is more than one product in the packaging. So we are just beginning to score them at NuVal. This was the first Lunchables product I had seen scored. Like a bad car accident on the side of the highway, I just had to look.
Lunchables Lunch Combinations – Ham & American – NuVal score of 5. Ouch! Included in the package are Cracker Stackers, Lean Ham, Kraft American Cheese, Ritz Crackers, Butterfinger Bar, and Capri Sun Roarin Waters Wild Cherry.
The amazing thing is that when I was googling this product to try and find an image to include for this blog post (since I obviously do not have these in my refrigerator), I came across a Mommy Blogger who was raving about how happy she was that there was now a healthier Lunchable. I do not want to embarass that Mommy Blogger so I won’t include a link here to her silly post.
If you are the kind of person who enjoys horror flicks and gore, you probably want to see more. So here you go…
Lunch Combinations – Bologna & American – NuVal score of 6! Wow, the Bologna version actually scores better than the “Lean Ham” version. Included in this package are Cracker Stackers, Bologna made with chicken & pork, Kraft American cheese, Ritz crackers, and Nabisco Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies.
In doing more research on the Lunchables phenomenon, I found a great blogpost from the Washington Post about the new “more wholesome” Lunchables.
Back in the days B.C. (Before Children), when I worked for Big Supermarket Company, I once spent a day “riding stores” with one of the company’s most experienced marketing managers. We were in a very wealthy area of Connecticut when he told me about Lunchables. You see, the store we were in was #1 in the entire supermarket chain for Lunchables sales. Lunchables are not cheap and in this particular high-rent town, the Lunchables just flew off the shelves. They were the Designer Lunch for privileged children.
Fast forward to today and I don’t hear my kids asking for Lunchables too much. I don’t think they have a huge presence in our elementary school or summer camp. However, we do see some children eating Uncrustables.
Guess what? They score just as low. They get a 5.
I know that most of my loyal A Better Bag of Groceries readers are not the Lunchables- or Uncrustables-buying type. But it’s kind of fun to look a the scores – in a sick sort of way – isn’t it?
Now get off your laptop and go make your kids (or yourself) a nice healthy lunch with whole grain bread, lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables!
Question of the Day
Have you ever purchased a Lunchable or an Uncrustable?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Lunch
Tags: Lunchables, Uncrustables
Monday, June 28, 2010 at 07:10 AM
For my 40th birthday, my husband took me on a mini-getaway to Cape Cod. We enjoyed some of the things that we used to do before we became a family of four – like bike-riding at a pace faster than a slow snail. The Cape Cod Rail Trail runs for 22 miles through the towns of Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham and Wellfleet. After a morning of biking, we stopped at The Local Flavor Lunch and Bagel Shop after noticing the sign announcing that it was voted Best Sandwich Shop on the Cape by Cape Cod Life Magazine. It was well worth the stop!
I ordered a sandwich called “The Hippie”: hummus, Swiss cheese, avocado, baby spinach, roasted red peppers,
tomato & onion on your choice of bread, all for $6.39. No onions for me, thanks and put it on a wrap. Delicious!
Since coming home, I have been recreating The Hippie in my own kitchen.
I use a Wrap-Itz tortilla, which scores a 32 on the NuVal scale.
I add roasted Cedar’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, Nuval score of 61, the highest of all hummuses we’ve scored.
Then I add:
- A slice or two of Boar’s Head sliced cheddar (we haven’t scored the items in the Service Deli department yet, but we will!)
- Roasted Red Peppers (NuVal score of 7 for Pastene)
- Sliced Avocado (NuVal score of 89)
Then, I top it off with whatever is in my salad bowl in the refrigerator – usually the following:
- Romaine lettuce (NuVal score of 100)
- Red leaf lettuce (NuVal score of 100)
- Cucumbers (NuVal score of 93)
- Tomato (NuVal score of 96)
Now all I need is a Tie Dyed T-shirt and some bell bottoms and I will really be a Hippie. Peace, Man!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Lunch
Tags: avocado, avocados, Hippie Sandwich, hummus
Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 07:08 AM
There’s nothing like a healthy lunch to make me feel good. That is something I’m trying hard to pass along to my kids as well.
Here’s a sneak peak inside two lunches that went out the door at our house today.
First, my son’s lunch for school.
In his Transformers lunch box, you will find:
- Ham and Cheese sandwich on Freihofer’s 100% Hearty Whole Wheat bread (NuVal score of 33 for Freihofers)
- Chobani Champions Strawberry Banana Greek yogurt (not yet scored – I am eagerly awaiting the score on this new Chobani product for kids)
- Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans with No Salt Added (NuVal Score: 100)
- Horizon Organic Reduced Fat Milk (NuVal Score: 55)
- One Lunch Box Note reminding my son to pay it forward
More about those Lunch Box Notes later in this post!
He also took some Chocolate Teddy Grahams (NuVal Score of 25) and a Minute Maid Fruit Falls (NuVal Score of 41) for his afternoon snack. It’s always a challenge to pack something that will sit in his warm backpack until the 2 pm snack time!
I took some extra time to pack a nice healthy lunch for myself as well.
This is actually my morning snack and lunch. I eat a lot of food!
Morning Snack
- Strawberries (NuVal Score: 100)
- Chobani Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt (NuVal Score: 94)
Lunch
- Romaine Lettuce (NuVal Score: 100)
- Red Leaf Lettuce (NuVal Score: 100)
- Cucumber (NuVal Score: 93)
- Cocktail Tomatoes (NuVal Score: 96)
- Goya Cannellini Beans (NuVal Score: 57)
- Dressing of Olive Oil (11), Balsamic Vinaigrette, Kosher Salt and Black Pepper)
- Cedar’s Red Pepper Hummus (NuVal Score: 61)
- Central Market Toasted Whole Grain Wheat and Flax Crackers (NuVal Score: 36)
- Orange (NuVal Score: 100)
- Ghiardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (NuVal Score: 8)
I was a little disappointed by the score on the Cannellini beans. I thought they would be higher. I’ve been spoiled by the Beans That Scored 100!
Those Central Market Toasted Whole Grain Wheat and Flax Crackers were a great find!
The average score for crackers is a 16. So a cracker that scores a 36 is great. And they taste great too! I found them on my last visit to Price Chopper.
Packing a healthy lunch is no easy task! And in my case, it takes a lot of containers. My lunch bag was bulging!
Today’s Bonus Giveaway
As you know, I usually reserve giveaways for Trade Up Tuesday, but the nice people at www.sayplease.com were kind enough to send me some Lunch Box Notes to give away after I wrote about them in Two of My Favorite Things. They sent me Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Lunch Box Love for Kids:
I love these notes! There are even some blank ones inside so that you can personalize your message. And if you are not a Mom, you could win these and give them away to a Mom that you love for Mother’s Day. Also check out their site for:
- Lunch Box Love for Girlfriends
- Lunch Box Love for People You Work With
- Lunch Box Love for Those You Appreciate
To enter, leave a comment below telling me what’s in your lunch bag today. You can enter twice by leaving a second comment with the NuVal score for something in your lunch bag. Check out the NuVal site for some sample scores. I’ll pick one winner at random by 7 am EDT Friday. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: bread, Chobani, Crackers, Lunch, Salad, tomatoes
Tags: bread, Chobani, Crackers, Lunch Box Love, Salad, tomatoes
