Got 16-30 Minutes for Lunch? You Should
16-30 minutes is the most popular length of a lunch break.
60% of women have a salad topped with protein for lunch regularly.
35% of women surf the Internet, catch up on e-mail or read the paper while they have lunch.
37% of women bring their own lunch to work every day. Which is a very smart idea, especially if you are watching your weight.
Here are five more reasons to pack your own lunch for work, school or just a stroll in the park.
1. Control: Do you ever wait in the lunch line only to find when you get to the front that you don’t like what they’re serving? So you reach for pizza again. A healthy packed lunch lets you avoid the lunch line (and any temptations). Bringing your own lunch also lets you control exactly what goes into the food you eat.
2. Environment: Packing your lunch is also better for the environment. Toting a reusable lunch bag and bringing your lunch in washable plastic containers keeps restaurant food packing out of landfills.
3. Cost: Packing your lunch instead of buying it out somewhere will save you money. Especially if you buy things in bulk.
4. Time: Even if the closest restaurants are just a 5 minute drive from your office, you still waste time going and coming during your lunch break. Find some extra time in your day (to eat, rest, or balance your checkbook) by packing your lunch instead.
5. No waste: Bringing leftovers from last night’s dinner is tasty and prevents having to clean out the dreaded moldy plastic container from the back of the fridge 6 weeks later. (Source: Associated Content)
Looking for lunch bags? Check these out:
• ACME Bags™ - Recycled Cotton Lunch Bag ($6.95)
Made with eco-friendly recycled cotton
Saves 100’s of bags over the course of a year
Safe alternative to vinyl lunch bags
• ACME Bags™ - Recycled PET Medium Thermal Lunch Bag: ($9.95)
90% post-consumer recycled content
Made from recycled plastic bottles & containers
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Earthly Eating Daily Recipe
Spiced Turkey Empanada
Serves: 4
Calories 419 per serving
1/2 lb. white-meat ground turkey
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. sweet chili powder
1 tbs. olive oil
1 cup green, or black olives, chopped
2 tbs. chopped pickled jalapeños (optional)
Vegetable oil cooking spray or Olive oil cooking spray
1 lb. raw frozen pizza dough, defrosted in the microwave or overnight in the refrigerator.
Heat oven to 400°F. Sprinkle turkey with salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Cook turkey, breaking up with a spoon, until brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, olives and jalapeños. Cover; reduce heat to low. Simmer until turkey is cooked through and tomatoes are soft, 3 to 4 minutes.
Coat a large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Cut dough into 4 equal portions. Pull dough into 4 flat disks, each 8 inches in diameter. Top each round with 1/2 cup turkey filling. Fold dough in half and fold bottom edge over the top. Press closed. Transfer the cookie sheet and coat empanadas with cooking spray. Bake until dough is firm and golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve with 1/2 cup baby carrots. Store empanadas in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Happy Eating!
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