Brown Bag Challenge: Week 3

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.

Monday: Steak and corn chili with nectarines, fage yogurt and carrots with hummus.

Tuesday: Yellow curry with carrots, green peppers, string beans, and chicken along with the usual snack suspects. Whenever I order Thai food, I almost always order a curry as I love the combination of sweet and spicy. A good way to get rid of some veggies is to take any leftover sauce (we always have a ton) and add whatever veggies you have on hand to it. Also, I like to add some extra coconut milk, salt, Thai chil, and basil to enhance the curry's flavor.

Wednesday: Pita filled with honey turkey, pesto, muenster cheese, red onion, and red leaf lettuce (from my CSA). With it I had some sour cream and onion cracker chips with some homemade peach corn salsa. Great idea by Toby Amidor to eat the chips with salsa!

Thursday: VYu style "jamabalaya". This was a easy lunch I put together while I ate my dinner. First, render some andouille sausage (cut into little chunks) with half a diced onion in 1 T of olive oil. Then add 1 cup of brown rice. After the rice is a little toasty and coated, add 2 cups of liquid (the liquid from one small can of clams and the difference in water) and 1 medium tomato chopped. Stir and bring to a boil. When at a boil, add the clams from the can and a medium roasted green or red pepper (cut into strips). Place a lid on top and drop the heat to a simmer and leave covered for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, check to see if the liquid has been absorbed. If so, turn off the heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Let the mixture cool almost completely before you pack it for lunch!

Friday: Another delicious pesto turkey sandwich with an apple and yogurt.

Another wonderful week of brown bag lunches!