Dill Garbanzo Bean Salad

Bright, colorful, tasty AND filling.  Who wouldn’t want lunch to live up to all those expectations?  This salad is easy to prepare in and keeps well in the fridge for a lunch that just needs to be scooped into your serving-size Tupperware (or Pyrex in my case) in the morning.  Now if only getting out of bed in the morning was that easy!

Dill garbanzo bean salad

2 c prepared , dried garbanzo beans (or 2 cans, drained)
1 ½ c corn
½ large green pepper, diced
¼ large onion, diced
1 large tomato, diced (or 1 can diced tomatoes, drained)
1 medium dill pickle, diced
2 tbsp dill pickle juice
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, season as needed to taste, and enjoy.

 

 

I’m teaming up with fellow food bloggers for a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch instead of eating out. Join us and share what you’re eating.

I’m adding this post to Family Fresh Cooking’s Project LunchBox. Head over to familyfreshcooking.com to see what others are packing for lunch.

What does your sandwich say about you?

It is a creative expression of taste and nutrition that makes your co-workers jealous, or are you stuck in a meat and cheese rut that makes you wish you had gone out for lunch?  Ok, maybe that’s taking things too far.  It’s just lunch, right?

Sandwiches tend to be the staple of my brown bag lunches at work.  It’s all to easy to throw some meat and cheese between two pieces of bread and call it lunch.  But after a while, I get quite bored, and I’ll do pretty crazy things to break up the monotony.  (A summer squash sandwich on homemade honey oat bread… why not!)

As a tribute to Food Network’s Brown Bag challenge and Family Fresh Cooking’s Project Lunch Box, I’ve put together some of my favorite ways to shake up my sandwich routine.

Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork

My family was in town this past week, which gave T and I the perfect opportunity to try a dish we’ve been talking about doing for a while – pulled pork. We wanted a recipe for the crock pot that let you make your own barbeque sauce, and came across a recipe from Maria and Josh over at Two Peas & Their Pod.

I was hoping to have a post about home-made hamburger buns to go along with the pork, but the buns over-rose and turned into a hockey puck failure. which required a run to the bakery for something worthy of the amazing smells coming from the crock pot.

The pork, however, turned out great. The BBQ sauce seems a bit spicy alone, but is perfectly sweet and tangy once cooked with the pork. It’s a great, easy recipe for a crowd. I love that you can just set it and let the slow cooker work it’s magic. This recipe is definitely one I can see myself making often.

Head on over to Two Peas & Their Pod to check out their Pulled Pork Sandwich recipe.

I’m posting this for the Brown Bag Challenge because the pork worked perfectly packed in a Tupperware to reheat at lunchtime at work. Just bring yourself a bun, and you’ve got a great hot meal, the smell of which will make your co-workers jealous.

I’m teaming up with fellow food bloggers for a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch instead of eating out. Join us and share what you’re eating.

Brown Bag Challenge – No complaining

This month the Food Network has challenged bloggers to a brown bag challenge. Not a challenge like the mystery baskets on Chopped, but a challenge to make September a month dedicated to bringing your own lunch to work.

For some this conjures up nightmarish images of pb&j’s or grade school lunches. For others, like myself, who regularly bring their lunch to work anyway, it’s a chance to try out some new ideas to spice up the regular lunch routine.

I like bringing my own lunch to work primarily because it saves money. Think about it, if you spend $5 a day on lunches eating out, that’s $25 a week, $100 a month, $1,200 a year. It adds up. Plus, bringing my lunch is a great way to use up things that are in my fridge. And often, it’s a healthier option than what I would be getting if I went out.

To start out, I’ve just got a few tricks to beat what I’ve heard as some common excuses why people don’t bring their lunch to work.

“I don’t have time to make lunches in the morning.” -

Simple, pack your lunch the night before.

Make dinner with the intention of having leftovers that you can pack in a separate container as soon as dinner is done.

Stock up on a couple cans of your favorite soups for those days that you really don’t have time to pack a lunch.

“I’ll go hungry. I never bring enough food.” –

Remember back to those gradeschool lunches: a sandwich, an apple, carrot sticks, bag of chips, pudding cup, all stuffed into a lunch bag. Don’t just pack a sandwich and expect it to tide you over the whole day. In the beginning, it may be better to pack a little more than you think you’ll need until you get the hang of gauging the amount of food to bring.

Pack filling foods that are nutritious and high in fiber such as veggies, a handful of nuts or trail mix, pretzels, etc rather than high salt, sugar or greasy foods like potato chips or sweets. These foods will help you stay full for longer and help you avoid a sugar crash a few hours after eating.

Make a salad hearty and more filling by adding either canned beans, or better yet, dried beans you have boiled and frozen. Beans ad texture and flavor, in addition to packing nutrients.

Make your own ‘serving size bag’ by buying larger bags of pretzels, etc. Either, keep the big bag at your desk for snacking, or keep the bag at home and fill yourself a sandwich bag to bring each day.

What do you do for lunch?

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.