We all know that brown bagging lunch can save money. In high school, a cafeteria lunch would cost my daughters $3.75 per meal. For 180 school days, that would come to $675 per daughter or $1350 for 1 year, for the two of them to buy their lunches. Our homemade lunches (consisting of a sandwich, piece of fruit, homemade cookies, water or lemonade) cost about 40-55 cents per lunch, or $72-99 for 180 lunches, or $144-198 for a year's school lunches. Brown bagging school lunches saves us well over $1000 a year.
For sandwiches, we do the traditional pbj. But we also have a couple of other frugal favorites -- homemade sunflower seed butter and jelly, homemade yogurt cheese and dried cranberries, and a veggie sandwich, featuring garbanzo bean spread on whole wheat bread. All of these sandwiches can be made the afternoon before, kept in the fridge overnight, and can remain outside the refrigerator for a few hours, the day they're eaten, with no ill-effects.
Here's my recipe for garbanzo bean spread, if you'd like to give it a try.
Garbanzo Bean Spread (yields just over 2 cups of spread, at a cost of about $1.25-$1.40)
2 (30 mL) tablespoons oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 - 3/4 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup (120 mL) pasta/pizza sauce
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 mL) black pepper
dash red pepper flakes
2 1/2 cups (about 410 g) cooked garbanzo beans
1 tablespoon (15 mL) minced basil, fresh
1/2 - 1 (2.5 to 5 mL) teaspoon salt
Add oil to skillet, saute onion, garlic and green pepper, until translucent. Add pasta/pizza sauce, herbs and peppers, but not salt or basil. Simmer for 8-10 minutes. Puree garbanzo beans in a food processor. Add vegetable and tomato sauce mixture, puree. Add basil, and salt, according to taste, and pulse food processor to blend.
For sandwiches, we like to spread whole wheat bread with a bit of butter or margarine, then top with garbanzo spread, lettuce, thin sliced onions, tomatoes and/or pickles slices. This also makes a great filling for pocket bread.
Do you brown bag it to lunch? Does your family have a favorite sandwich filling?
For more on what to put into a frugal lunchbox, see The frugal lunchbox:alternative to potato chips and for a recipe for lunchbox cookies here's a freezer recipe that gives you 4 kinds from 1 dough.
If you'd like to sew a lunch tote, give this article a read
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 - 3/4 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup (120 mL) pasta/pizza sauce
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 mL) black pepper
dash red pepper flakes
2 1/2 cups (about 410 g) cooked garbanzo beans
1 tablespoon (15 mL) minced basil, fresh
1/2 - 1 (2.5 to 5 mL) teaspoon salt
Add oil to skillet, saute onion, garlic and green pepper, until translucent. Add pasta/pizza sauce, herbs and peppers, but not salt or basil. Simmer for 8-10 minutes. Puree garbanzo beans in a food processor. Add vegetable and tomato sauce mixture, puree. Add basil, and salt, according to taste, and pulse food processor to blend.
For sandwiches, we like to spread whole wheat bread with a bit of butter or margarine, then top with garbanzo spread, lettuce, thin sliced onions, tomatoes and/or pickles slices. This also makes a great filling for pocket bread.
Do you brown bag it to lunch? Does your family have a favorite sandwich filling?
For more on what to put into a frugal lunchbox, see The frugal lunchbox:alternative to potato chips and for a recipe for lunchbox cookies here's a freezer recipe that gives you 4 kinds from 1 dough.
If you'd like to sew a lunch tote, give this article a read
