Toss the boring brown bag: Pack a lunch that's delicious and lean

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January 15, 2007

By Julie Kirkwood , Staff Writer

One of the most dramatic changes Jill Mandia of Beverly made when she decided to lose weight was to break her habit of buying subs, pizza, or Chinese food with her co-workers every day and instead bring a homemade lunch.

"It makes you look somewhat unsocial because this is what you've always done, this is the group you've always eaten with," Mandia said. "But I had to put my health first. My desire (to lose weight) was stronger than sitting down with my buddies and eating a roast beef sub."

Mandia lost 50 pounds and has kept it off for eight years. (At 5-foot-10 she went from 190 pounds to 140). She now works as a weight loss instructor for Weight Watchers, the program she followed to lose the weight.

Nutritionists agree, one of the best ways to eat healthier is to pack your own lunch rather than buying it.

"Studies show we consume 30 percent more calories when we eat out," said Janet Little, a nutritionist for Wild Oats Markets in Andover and around the United States.

Restaurant portions can be enormous and, unless you order a main dish salad, you're not likely to get a lot of fruits and vegetables, said Karen Collins, a registered dietitian and adviser to the nonprofit American Institute for Cancer Research.

"Say they put tomato in a sandwich," Collins said. "That's one slice of tomato. That's not a serving of vegetables."

Not all homemade lunches are created equal, though, she said.

"Sometimes people assume that anything they pack is healthier than eating out," Collins said. "If you've packed a bologna sandwich with white bread and bring along potato chips and cookies, it might not be. ... It's just that when you prepare things from home you have so many more options."

If packing a nutritious lunch sounds daunting, difficult or unappealing, see if these nutrition experts can convince you otherwise. And if you already pack a lunch, try these fresh ideas to give your lunches new life for the New Year.

SANDWICHES

For traditionalists, the focal point of lunch is a sandwich. A sandwich can be good for you, especially if you use whole-grain bread and fill it with lean protein and veggies, Collins said. Here are some tips for making sandwiches more interesting.

Problem: Whole wheat bread is boring.

Try: Bread made from other whole grains, such as whole-grain rye; whole-grain rolls, whole-grain pita, and whole-grain tortilla.

Tip: Watch out for the labels "wheat" and "multi-grain." Refined white flour is technically "wheat" and you can have "multi" refined grains with no health benefits. Look for the word "whole" before the grain, high up in the list of ingredients.

Problem: Cold cuts are salty, sometimes fatty and boring.

Try: Next time you bake chicken, pork chops or a pork roast for dinner, cook extra and freeze it to use in sandwiches, Collins said. Or try bean spread or reduced-fat cheese as the protein.

If you're packing a lunch, you're saving money, said Peggy Connors, director of food and nutrition services at Parkland Medical Center in Derry, N.H. Try putting some of that savings back into your lunch. Instead of plain turkey sandwiches every day, splurge on prosciutto and basil. Buy the little extras, like dried cranberries, grapes or nuts to put in your chicken salad. Put boursin on your turkey. Buy a baguette and fill it with goat cheese and roasted peppers.

Problem: I'm sick of lettuce and tomato.

Try: Sliced fruit on sandwiches. Apple or pear slices go well with turkey or chicken, Collins said. Banana slices go well with peanut butter.

Tip: Bring the fruit to work whole and slice it right before you eat so it doesn't get brown and mushy.

SALAD

Salads clearly are good for you. One fist-sized pile of lettuce counts as a serving of vegetables, Collins said. Eat a full-size salad and you're well on your way to meeting your daily requirements. But how do you find the time to pack one and the will power to eat it?

Problem: After three days of salad for lunch, you never want to see lettuce again.

Try: Variety. If you're buying ingredients for five days of salad, buy a different vegetable for each day, Collins said. Try something you've never tried before, like a different color bell pepper or jicama (a crunchy root vegetable). Try fruit. Orange slices, pear slices, grapefruit sections or grape halves.

Problem: You eat the salad, but around 3 p.m. your stomach is rumbling and you're salivating in front of the vending machine.

Try: Putting more stuff on your salad. If it's your main dish, you need protein. Use that frozen leftover chicken, or some canned tuna, nuts or canned kidney or garbanzo beans. You need a good half cup of beans or 1/3 cup of seeds or nuts to meet your protein requirements, Collins said.

Or try: Packing a whole-grain food on the side. It can be as simple as a whole-grain pita or as interesting as a batch of whole-grain muffins you bake at the beginning of the week to pack one each day.

Problem: Who has time to wash and chop vegetables in the morning before work?

Try: A prepackaged salad mix topped with chicken pulled or sliced from a precooked whole roasted chicken from the deli department, suggests Ginny Kopacz, marketing team leader at Whole Foods in Swampscott. Vegetarian? Top it with packaged, pre-cubed superfirm tofu. Soak it in teriyaki sauce the night before for flavor.

Or try: Roast more vegetables than you need for dinner, Collins said. Onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, eggplant and mushrooms all roast well. Save the extras and use them to top your lunch salad. Also, you can roast nuts ahead of time and store them for quick salad fixings.

HOME COOKING

The options for lunch are much broader when you're able to cook food in your own kitchen, but when you have to pack food to go it can be hard to find time to do the extra cooking in advance.

Problem: It's hard enough to find time to cook dinner, let alone the next day's lunch.

Try: Combine the two. Deliberately make more dinner than you'll eat and put it in the refrigerator for lunch, Collins said. The bonus is you won't be tempted to eat more dinner than you need because that delicious food won't be sitting on the table.

Problem: Home-cooked food is never as good reheated as it is fresh.

Try: Soup. Jill Mandia of Beverly, who lost 50 pounds on Weight Watchers, said soup is a healthy, filling lunch, especially in the fall and winter. Plus it packs well and is easy to divide into portions, she said. In the summer, switch to yogurt, fruit in season and sandwiches.

Make sure, no matter what you bring, you keep it cold until lunchtime, said Connors, Parkland Medical Center dietitian. Ice packs are good, but a refrigerator is better. Try keeping bread in the freezer and making your sandwich on frozen bread. By lunch, it will be edible and your fillings will stay cold. Also, don't forget to wash out your lunch bag regularly to keep food tasting fresh, she said.

Problem: It's not just bagged lunches. I don't have any good ideas for things to cook at home, either.

Try: Casseroles and baked dishes based on whole grains and legumes. Try chili or vegetable lasagna or a bean casserole, Collins said. Or bake chicken or a salmon steak and save the extra for salad toppers.

ON THE SIDE

Potato chips or tortillas on the side, right? And maybe a pack of cookies? Not if you're going for a balanced meal, Collins said.

Problem: What else do you pack, if chips and cookies are out?

Try: Fruits and vegetables. Bring fruit, fruit salad or raw vegetables, Collins said. Or try some toasted nuts.

An appetizing way to incorporate vegetables into your meal is to make stuffed tomatoes, said Connors at Parkland. Hollow out a fresh tomato and fill it with tuna salad, egg salad or whatever you like.

Problem: Healthy snacks are so boring.

Try: Making healthy food an event. How about having a "mocktail" hour at work with your coworkers, suggests Wild Oats nutritionist Janet Little. Try making organic apple "mojitos" (see recipe) with fresh lemon, orange, apples and lime.

Homemade beverages can be fun and cheaper than buying soda or fruit juice out of a vending machine, Connors said. Try mixing orange juice and tomato juice (honestly, she said, it's good). Or combine any kind of fruit juice or blend of fruit juices with club soda.

You could also pack a smoothie in a Thermos, Connors said. Simply mix yogurt and fruit, or try Eating Well's smoothie with tofu and fruit.

Problem: I don't feel satisfied unless I have something crunchy with my sandwich.

Try: Pretzels or popcorn. Pretzels are naturally low in fat, Connors said. Get salt-free pretzels if you're watching your sodium. Popcorn should be air-popped and home, not in the microwave, she said. Microwave popcorn tends to have a lot of fat and oil, she said.

GETTING IT THERE

Even with great recipes and new ideas, it can be hard to get on a lunch-packing routine.

Problem: This is too much to think about. I don't have time to find recipes, make the food and then figure out if I've packed a balanced, healthy meal.

Try: Use three containers, one large one (1 to 2 cups) and two small ones (1/2 cup), said Joyce Hendley, nutrition editor of Eating Well magazine and co-author of the upcoming book "The EatingWell Diet." Fill the large one with vegetables, one small one with a whole-grain carbohydrate and one small one with a lean protein. Now you've controlled your portions, plus your lunch will be fresher when you mix the parts at work.

Problem: I open my lunch bag and I just don't want to eat what I brought.

Try: Colorful plates. A fun plate or silverware can make your meal so much more appealing than eating directly out of a brown paper bag or a plastic container, said Little, the Wild Oats nutritionist. Make sure there's a variety of colors in your food, too.

"You start adding color and not only does the food look more appealing, just psychologically we will be more satisfied after eating a colored meal because we are appealing to all of our senses," Little said.

Another approach is to make sure the food you pack is not just nutritious, but made of at least a few ingredients you love, said Mandia, the Weight Watchers instructor. A favorite vegetable or fruit can make you look forward to eating that lunch.

Problem: My coworkers are going out to lunch and I want to go with them.

Try: Get to know the nutritious options at a few restaurants near work, Hendley said. If you end up at a place that doesn't have any, ask. Most restaurants will bake your chicken or broil your fish. At fast food restaurants, order grilled chicken sandwiches without mayonnaise or mayo-based sauce, Hendley said, or order the kid-size plain hamburger.