Beating the Lunch Box Blues: Fresh Ideas for Lunches on the Go! (Rachael Ray Books)

Great ideas to make easy-peasy variety for kids lunchboxes

I love this book. The photos are bright and attractive and there are tons of ideas in here, many involving leftovers or foods that are easy to put together (ie, mini bell peppers stuffed with tabbouleh or rice salad). The cookbook is divided into sections by main ingredient. The book includes recipes for a main dish that will feed four plus leftovers (to be tweaked for lunch the next day) which is a highly efficient approach.The author stresses that his meals were developed to feed a somewhat picky child in elementary school, but many of the suggestions might be more appropriate for adults in my opinion (not that there's anything wrong with that; an interesting packed lunch at work will prevent an impulsive takeout order!) If you are looking for new lunch ideas, give this book a try for sure.

The author, J.M.Hirsch, is a father who packs his son's lunch everyday. He recognized fairly quickly how repetitive lunches can be. No real imagination. Often prepared foods stuck in, not really nutritious. As a busy father, he also realizes there us precious little time in the morning, when most lunches are made and packed. It takes time to be imaginative and to provide nutritious meals. So, J.M.Hirsch, decided to start packing nutritious lunches, and then he started blogging the daily lunches.This book is imaginative, itself, full of the best photographed found I have seen. Every page is packed full of photographs so test at times, I was so entranced with the photographs it was difficult to find the recipes. The author starts out with an introduction about how he came to write this book. After blogging his daily lunches. He realized the publicity he was receiving deserved a bigger audience.He has 160 lunch box recipes and 30 main meal recipes. He suggests that you cook more if your main meal so that you have leftovers for an easier packing of a lunchbox. Extra pasta, bigger chicken, and so on. He also gives advice about what kind of lunchbox to choose for your child or yourself. The recipes all look delicious. I was particularly taken by such an easy suggestion; cut and core an app,even half, spread peanut butter or sun utter on the open half of the apple, then place the buttered side in granola that has a few mini chocolate chips. What child could resist this apple? He uses a lot of wheat wraps with chicken and other fillings. He suggest cream cheese or a butter of some kind to close gee wrap, then cut into smaller pieces. Page after page of delicious Lin he's and meals for quite a reasonable price. This is one if the first books in Rachel Ray's new book publishing business.The real recipients of this book will be your children and your family. Finding nutritious lunches without reverting to prepared foods is a real struggle. And, once in awhile prepared foods are okay. I gave this book to my daughter who is very conscious about preparing nutritious foods for my granddaughter.Highly Recommended. prisrob 08-30-15

This book is fantastic for ideas & recipes for Adult lunches. I purchased a Zojishuri Bento Lunch Jar so I could send hot lunches out with my hubs (looking for an adult-sized hot lunch keeper, see my review).I knew I wanted to send leftovers and what not with him, but I also need some ideas on HOW to send them in an appetizing & creative way. Left overs get boring when they are eaten more than once or twice. This book does exactly that. It gives ideas for quick and easy meals, how to snazzy up leftovers, and creative lunch box options. Not everything is hot food, which is nice. There is a ton of variety in the meals and many options that can be mixed and matched. The author gives great ideas for making healthy, flavor packed meals in a pinch and what to keep on hand for those times.This book is for the well-rounded eater. Different ethnic options are presented and the spice & flavor concepts are a nice change from standard, bland "lunch fare".It is an easy read as well. Not presented in the typical recipe-book fashion, it is eye catching and easy to get into, like a magazine layout. Pictures for EVERY item, make you want to dive in immediately.Included are tips on containers and lunch boxes, but if you end up with the bento box I have, you don't need anything else.This is a great book, I highly recommend it for adult lunches, non-picky kid lunches, hot lunches, cold lunches, office snack ideas and anything in between.

This was a fun book to look at and gave great ideas on fresh new ways to pack lunches that are not just the same old thing. This primarily focuses on lunches for kids at school but can be used for adults to a degree as well. There are a number of good ideas inside and the pictures are great. I wish that I had been able to find out more about what the actual content was before ordering it because I thought that this was going to be much more of a recipe book than it was. If that is what you are looking for then this is not for you, look at the variety of bento box recipe books instead. Haven't decided if I will keep this for the few good ideas or donate it.

I rated this book 5 stars for multiple reasons. Ease of use. Recipes are quick and most use common ingredients. It's beautiful. The photographer should be proud of himself. The creative photos show you how to make the lunch and also give your mind the path to create version upon versions of lunches. The author wrote this book simply, inventive and with humor. Children and adults were kept in mind for the meals/packed lunches. I absouletly love the authors note at the end (the inspiration) and the last paragraph on his son in the acknowledments--places I usually never read in most books/cookbooks, as they tend to go on and on and on... I had my own 14 yr old son in mind as I read it.I highly recommend this book to anyone with children (or not) who want to provide healthy, inventive meals for their children while they are away from home, and also any adult who packs a lunch to bring to work. The left over element is priceless in our busy world while we try to save money.Thanks so much to J.M. Hirsch!!

This is just about my favourite cookbook. I found it whilst searching for bento ideas and it's an absolute gem.It's filled with big colour photos showing lovely lunch ideas and recipes with ideas for how to pack that food attractively into a lunch box, tips for lifting it out of the ordinary; ideas to ring the changes, how to season it, how to make it more fun for the diner...just really, really good. It's also good for non-cooks as well as it shows how you can use ready-prepped food from the supermarket to get the same effect.Whether you're prepping lunch for yourself, your partner or your kids, this book shows how to really step it up and great lunches you can't wait to open.

Maybe I skimmed the description a little too much, but it's not want I expected. I thought it would have recipes and clever ideas bagged/boxed lunches, which it is...but the recipes are for dinners, and then the clever ideas are how to used those leftovers for your lunch. It's fine, but not what I was hoping for.

El libro está repleto de tips, ideas y trucos para que el Lunch, de niños o adultos, se mantenga variado, saludable y equilibrado.No son ideas para preparar bentos al estilo asiático, sino comida real para disfrutar sin complicarse la existencia. Hermosas fotos y excelente calidad del papel.

Hirsch recipes are often in our local newspaper and they are always a hit when I try them. These recipes look good. I hope my Grandkids find them tasty when their Mom's start using it after Christmas presents are opened and school returns. :-)

... Unendlich viele genial-einfache Lunchbox-Ideen, schnell nachgemacht oder abgewandelt.Wir nehmen meistens unser eigenes Essen für mittags mit ins Büro; man hat selbst im Griff, welche Zutaten man verwendet, was und wieviel man ist und kostengünstiger und zugleich leckerer als viele Kantinen oder "Fressgassen" in Einkaufszentren ist es auf jeden Fall.In diesem Buch kann man sich viele Anregungen holen, damit etwas mehr Abwechslung in den Lunchboxplan. Manche Ideen sind so einfach, dass man sich fragt, wieso man eigentlich bisher nicht selbst drauf gekommen ist.