what are the eco alternatives to zip lock bags?

DrNutritio

I still need to use this type of bag looking for an alternative that is earth friendly? Anyone know?

Answer
Tupperware. Or for packing sandwiches for lunch, just wrap them in waxed paper.

For the freezer, use freezer paper for anything that doesn't contain liquid, and Tupperware for things that do.

You can also use glass canning jars for most things.

There are some lunch meat brands that are packing their product in resealable containers. I use these all the time for things like leftovers. And I run them through the dishwasher to wash.

You can wash out the ziplock bags and use them more than once. It is a pain though.

Just a thought.

How can you keep a sack lunch cold?

Q. I usually bring lunch boxes to school but this year I am going to bring my lunch in a brown paper bag. How can I keep my lunch cold? Is freezing my water bottle bad?

Answer
No, that would work or one of those freezer blocks wrapped in a plastic bag(to stop the bag getting soggy.
Remember , if you go the water bottle route DON'T fill the bottle full as Water expands when frozen and may split the bottle

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teenager: good ideas for packed lunches?

anonymous

our cantine is being redone and they supplied us with the GROSSEST lunches ever (all packaged and processed)
we're not allowed to go out at lunch and i need good ideas for packed lunches because im sick of sandwiches already......


can i bring yogurt? (will it go bad?)
will sushi go bad????

looking for things that are easy to make in the mornings.....

Answer
Get a cooler lunch bag, that will keep things cold until lunchtime - especially if you put a little freezer pack in it.

Cut up apple slices and toss in lemon juice so they don't brown.
Yogurt will be fine in cooler bag, bring blueberries to stir in.
I would only bring sushi if you put it on top of the freezer pack in the cooler bag to make sure it stays cold enough.
Salad

how to make brown bag lunches?

Thomas

I work in a construction type trade.
I can't take frozen food, although I can keep it cold enough to stay fresh till noon, I have no way to cook it. Hot food, will typically stay warm enough to be safe but who wants to eat soup when your working in 100* temps all day. Sandwiches are good, but I can only do that so much before the thought of another sandwich makes me cringe.... any ideas? also keep in mind I typically do not have running water to clean up, so something that requires "hands on" food prep is out of the question.
oh, and if it is not cheap... I may as well go out.....

Answer
Put your tea (with lemon & sugar if you want it) in one of those quart-size plastic jugs with a lid and freeze it. Use it in an insulated lunch bag to keep other things cold. If the quart of frozen tea isn't sufficient, use the reusable gel-packs you buy and keep in the freezer specifically for this purpose.

In the pocket of the lunch bag, pack folded paper towels and a travel pack of Wet Wipes. Pack knife-fork-spoon, either an "extra set" or plasticware. Pack travel size salt and pepper.

Things I have safely packed for lunches and toted in the insulated lunch bag with a cold pack, packed in either a plastic bag or a small plastic container:

Baby carrots and celery sticks
Crackers of various types
Cheese chunks/slices
Boiled eggs (if stuffed/deviled, put the eggs back face-to-face to minimize smears)
Salad greens, either the ready-to-eat pack from the produce case or home-packed, with separate container of salad dressing
Fried chicken pieces (if you like it cold as some people do)
Cold ham (or other meat slices) to eat alone, on crackers, or on salad
Tuna salad (with or without bread)
Chicken salad (with or without bread)
Chinese chicken salad (the kind with ramen noodles in it)
Pasta salad
Potato salad
Tomato-and-fresh-mozzarella salad
Cole slaw
Apple slices
Pineapple chunks
Grapes
Strawberries/blueberries
Graham crackers spread with cream cheese (or peanut butter)
and so on and so on and so on.

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How can I pack my lunch and supper so it stays cold and safe during the day?

lunch bags for freezer image

PocketAce

Without using ugly lunch coolers etc... I run 6km to school everyday, then after school I eat and then run home, or I go to work... I also workout 3 days a week after school. So I pack things like peanuts, cottage cheese, subs, salads, vegetables etc... Mostly cold food things that don't need a lot of preperation. I thought about using an icepack and putting it in beside my containers (Im going to be packing this stuff in tupperware containers). Would that work? Also would I have to worry about my containers coming open in my backpack while I run?

Solutions please :)

Answer
Freeze a couple bottles of water. I would open them first, remove a couple of ounces or you could have a problem when you open them. You'll have your cold beverages as they thaw. I've seen lunch containers available that part of the container is a freezer pack itself. Check brylane kitchen or tupperware. They also have containers with plastic straps that would prevent the lids from coming off. Good luck. They have some cool looking lunch bags available now, too.

How long is cooked frozen chicken good for?

randomness

if I pre cooked chicken and put it in a ziplock bag in the freezer how long will it stay fresh for? I'm asking for my sons lunch so please give me a serious answer.

Answer
Randomne, I'm not one of these people that suffer from paranoia, but I do not leave them in the freezer any more than three months.

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What's a tasty vegetarian lunch that I could bring to school?

lunch bags for freezer image

Hey!
I need some good ideas for a school lunch with no meat in it. I can't eat nuts or peanut butter. It needs to be able to be left in my locker for awhile without getting soggy or gross. All ideas are appreciated! Thank you!

Answer
First you'll need a few things; A cool looking lunch bag that's a decent size, a mini freezer pack to keep your lunch cool, perhaps a thermos, and various tupperware containers of different sizes.

I always just bring a variety of snacks for lunch. Like crackers and cheese, pickles, fruit salad, yogurt tubes, pumpkin seeds, cereal and milk, cheese strings, sandwiches (they stay good with the freezer pack), pumpernickel bread and spinach dip, cold pasta salad, warm soups or pastas in the thermos, pretzels, banana, salad with a little container of dressing, goldfish crackers, veggies and dip, pita wrap, raisins, muffins, leftover pizza, leftover vegetarian dinners (if possible)... Any thing you can think of really, you can bring! Not sure how steamed carrots would go though... Cold, wet, soggy things.. Ew... Hehehe.

What are some healthy meals\snacks for breakfast, lunch and dinner that I can make at home?

Witty rema

What are some healthy, easy meals\snacks for breakfast, lunch and dinner that I can make at home?
10 points for the most ideas for all the meals\snacks!

Answer
Breakfast:

- Egg whites (better for you than the whole egg) with a little salt and pepper, maybe some cheese to add flavor, on wheat toast.
- Grapefruit (it's sooo healthy for you, it can be a snack too)
- Cottage Cheese Pancakes: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/351
- Oatmeal
- All fruit smoothie. Have non frozen fruit and add ice or use frozen fruit and add a little 100% fruit juice. You can make it a *healthy* milk shake by using low fat milk instead of juice and adding a little sugar (sugar isn't unhealthy in small amounts, but fake sugar like sweet and low and equal are bad for you)

Lunch/Dinner:

- Chicken breast with lemon pepper or other seasonings
- A spinach tortilla with chicken cooked in some bbq sauce. Add lots of lettuce and a little bit of light ranch (like a teaspoon, if even that).
- Salad- there are thousands of possible salads you can make but what I love doing is a bunch of lettuce, some spinach if you like that, salt, pepper, garlic (powder and only a small amount) and vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, or even carrots and peppers
- Taco Salad: brown some lean beef, drain any fat, add seasonings (McCormick has a taco seasoning packet for 50 cents). Make a bowl full of lettuce, tomatoes if you want, some beef, some cheese if you want, and tortilla chips if you want (less healthy version).
- Chicken in a bag- McCormick's has these awesome chicken bag seasonings where you throw chicken in the bag (they provide) with some carrots, potatoes, whatever you want, add the seasoning and bake for about an hour. One of my husbands favorites!
- Costco sells individual salmon fillets. Take one out of the fridge/freezer, season to your liking, throw on a pan, the grill, or in the oven and cook.
- a sandwich- between whole wheat bread slices, pita style, or wrapped up (spinach wraps are really delicious, or whole wheat wraps which I'm not a huge fan of).
- Make some quinoa or brown rice in a rice cooker or in a pot if you don't have one. Add some black beans, salt and pepper, and some mozzarella if it's still to bland. I like to add some sriracha (chili hot sauce) into the rice as it cooks and some garlic seasoning. It adds some kick and makes it taste really good without adding the sodium from cheese.

Snacks:
- peppers
- celery. If you hate it alone add some organic peanut butter (no preservatives) you can even go to many stores and grind your own peanuts into peanut butter.
- peas, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, other vegetables but not potatoes or corn.
- apples, pears, bananas, berries, grapefruit, and other fruits.
- some nuts or a homemade trail mix (raisins, peanuts, almonds, some dark chocolate chips, whatever else you want)


Dessert
- a small amount of dark chocolate is actually really good for you. The higher the cocoa content the better :) But only a small amount.


Those are my favorites but check out this site: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/over-100-quick-and-easy-healthy-foods.html

for more options. There are an unlimited amount of healthy foods out there you just have to find what you like and stick with it :)

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What are some healthy meals\snacks for breakfast, lunch and dinner that I can make at home?

lunch bags for freezer image

Witty rema

What are some healthy, easy meals\snacks for breakfast, lunch and dinner that I can make at home?
10 points for the most ideas for all the meals\snacks!

Answer
Breakfast:

- Egg whites (better for you than the whole egg) with a little salt and pepper, maybe some cheese to add flavor, on wheat toast.
- Grapefruit (it's sooo healthy for you, it can be a snack too)
- Cottage Cheese Pancakes: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/351
- Oatmeal
- All fruit smoothie. Have non frozen fruit and add ice or use frozen fruit and add a little 100% fruit juice. You can make it a *healthy* milk shake by using low fat milk instead of juice and adding a little sugar (sugar isn't unhealthy in small amounts, but fake sugar like sweet and low and equal are bad for you)

Lunch/Dinner:

- Chicken breast with lemon pepper or other seasonings
- A spinach tortilla with chicken cooked in some bbq sauce. Add lots of lettuce and a little bit of light ranch (like a teaspoon, if even that).
- Salad- there are thousands of possible salads you can make but what I love doing is a bunch of lettuce, some spinach if you like that, salt, pepper, garlic (powder and only a small amount) and vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, or even carrots and peppers
- Taco Salad: brown some lean beef, drain any fat, add seasonings (McCormick has a taco seasoning packet for 50 cents). Make a bowl full of lettuce, tomatoes if you want, some beef, some cheese if you want, and tortilla chips if you want (less healthy version).
- Chicken in a bag- McCormick's has these awesome chicken bag seasonings where you throw chicken in the bag (they provide) with some carrots, potatoes, whatever you want, add the seasoning and bake for about an hour. One of my husbands favorites!
- Costco sells individual salmon fillets. Take one out of the fridge/freezer, season to your liking, throw on a pan, the grill, or in the oven and cook.
- a sandwich- between whole wheat bread slices, pita style, or wrapped up (spinach wraps are really delicious, or whole wheat wraps which I'm not a huge fan of).
- Make some quinoa or brown rice in a rice cooker or in a pot if you don't have one. Add some black beans, salt and pepper, and some mozzarella if it's still to bland. I like to add some sriracha (chili hot sauce) into the rice as it cooks and some garlic seasoning. It adds some kick and makes it taste really good without adding the sodium from cheese.

Snacks:
- peppers
- celery. If you hate it alone add some organic peanut butter (no preservatives) you can even go to many stores and grind your own peanuts into peanut butter.
- peas, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, other vegetables but not potatoes or corn.
- apples, pears, bananas, berries, grapefruit, and other fruits.
- some nuts or a homemade trail mix (raisins, peanuts, almonds, some dark chocolate chips, whatever else you want)


Dessert
- a small amount of dark chocolate is actually really good for you. The higher the cocoa content the better :) But only a small amount.


Those are my favorites but check out this site: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/over-100-quick-and-easy-healthy-foods.html

for more options. There are an unlimited amount of healthy foods out there you just have to find what you like and stick with it :)

How long is cooked frozen chicken good for?

randomness

if I pre cooked chicken and put it in a ziplock bag in the freezer how long will it stay fresh for? I'm asking for my sons lunch so please give me a serious answer.

Answer
Randomne, I'm not one of these people that suffer from paranoia, but I do not leave them in the freezer any more than three months.

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