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Would you like to end the "brown-bag blues?" There are many benefits to bringing your own lunch to work. Lunches that are home-cooked and healthy, automatically offer better nutrition. A cold sandwich taken day after day can only provide limited nutrients. Having to buy a sandwhich from an automated machine can even be worse....it might be stale!

It is easier on the pocketbook when you bring a good lunch from home. Eating out costs a lot more and in these economically trying times, most of us are have to watch our pennies more closely.

Here is a solution that, in my opinion, never gets boring and provides a healthier lunch to boot. The solution is an easy one to institute, saves time and is very handy to do. It also eliminates waste. Again, needing to watch our food budget more closely, not wasting food becomes even more important.

Every night after we eat dinner there are always leftovers. I simply take the leftovers of the meal and store them in a microwaveable container. Then I label with the following: What the leftovers are and put on the date and simply put in the freezer. If you do this for one week, you will be well on your way to getting rid of the brown-bag blues. You will instantly start with a nice variety of home cooked meals to choose from.

When eating out in a restaurant the same thing can be done with your doggy bag. Take it home and put the contents in a microwavable container, label and date and freeze.

When you have accumulated enough to start taking a container to work, you will have a good choice of what you want every day and never run out of meals to take to work because you continue the process of saving your leftovers nightly!

Salads are another great choice to bring to work. On a Sunday night, you can prepare a large salad and divide it into 3 to 5 containers. Most places at work have a small kitchenette or refrigerator to store lunches. Choose three of your favorite salad dressings, label them with your name and date. Now you have a variety to complement your salad.

Another way to save on lunches is to always bring your own drinks to work. If you are a soda lover, buying from machines adds up quickly. Why not buy a case of assorted sodas at a time and simply grab one as you head out the door. All snacks (healthy ones), such as a variety of fruit or healthy nuts, is very easy and handy to put into your lunch bag if you keep them on the kitchen counter or table where it will not be easily overlooked.

Are you a coffee hound? Invest in a thermos. Its much cheaper to bring the morning leftover coffee with you, than to buy it or end up throwing your leftover coffee away. When coffee stays hot in a thermos, it keeps its flavor.

Prefer milk or juice? The thermos will serve you well again and save you money by not purchasing small containers of milk or juice on a daily basis.

To sum up, who does not prefer home-cooked food? Hot soups, left over potatoes, vegetables and meat and pasta dishes freeze very well too. Best of all, we are not letting leftover foods sit in the refrigerator until we realize it must be thrown out. Having to throw out leftover food can make us sadly aware that we are wasting money as well as the food.

Microwavable containers can be reused again and again and that saves buying throw away tin foil or clear wrap (which I always ended up having a nightly fight with)! One last benefit? You have the satisfaction of knowing you stretched your food budget to the best of your ability, found a convenient way to stop wasting leftover food and put an end to the brown-bag blues!

Learn more about this author, Victoria Rose Perkins.
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