Lunch Box Recipe Ebook

With back to school in full swing, this is the year to start adding more recipes to your lunch routine! Workman Publishing, an independent publisher producing award-winning calendars, cookbooks, parenting guides, and children's titles released a new ebook called Bring Your Lunch by Califia Suntree.

More than a cookbook, Bring Your Lunch ends the cycle of boring lunches and guilt with recipes that focuses on innovative, doable strategies for packing healthy, delicious and economical lunches all week long.

We're thrilled that our Stöh lunch tote is included in Califia's list of recommended products!

Here's one of the recipes from Bring Your Lunch that you can make and bring to work!

Recipe:
Mac & Cheese with Herbed Walnut Topping
Serves 6 to 9

Replacing white-flour pasta with whole wheat and the traditional bread crumb topping with toasted, herbed walnuts makes this a lunch that you can feel good about. It still delivers on the gooey, melty creaminess front—which is, after all, why we all need a plate of mac ’n’ cheese every so often. Call it casserole therapy. Cut into squares or baked in a jumbo six-cup muffin tin and frozen, this one is there for you when you need it.

This is an excellent way to use up those nubbins of cheese that tend to pile up in the fridge—try any combination of meltable cheeses, such as Cheddar, mozzarella, fontina, Gruyère, Swiss, and Jack.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for the pan
1 box (13 ounces) whole wheat short pasta (such as rotini, penne, or elbow macaroni)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3½ cups milk (not skim)
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 cups grated cheese (about 12 ounces; see headnote)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup finely chopped walnuts (about 6 ounces)
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (see Note, page 86)

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan or six-cup (jumbo) muffin tin (see pg. 112, and Note).
2. Cook the pasta per package instructions just to al dente. Drain and set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan or in the pasta pot (to reduce dishes) over low heat. Whisk in the flour 1 tablespoon at a time to form a smooth paste. Increase the heat to medium-low, add the milk and garlic and cook, whisking, until thickened, about 10 minutes (don’t let it boil). To test if it’s ready, coat the back of a wooden spoon with the sauce. Draw a line with your finger across the spoon. If the sauce doesn’t immediately fill in the line, it’s thick enough.
4. Remove the sauce from the heat and whisk in the cheese until melted and smooth. Stir in the pasta and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour into the prepared pan or muffin cups.
5. Toss together the walnuts, herb mix, and ½ teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over the mac ’n’ cheese.
6. Bake until golden and bubbly, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting into 6 to 8 squares or unmolding from the muffin tin.

Note • This recipe will fill nine jumbo muffin cups; you will need to bake in batches if you have only one tin. It will not work in a regular-size muffin tin unless you use paper cupcake liners.

STORAGE & SERVING: Wrap each square or “muffin” tightly in aluminum foil. Store them in a large zip-top bag in the freezer. Thaw overnight in the fridge. When you’re ready to eat, remove the foil and microwave about 2 minutes until hot, or leave in the foil and reheat in a 375°F oven about 15 minutes.

Bring Your Lunch by Califia Suntree
On sale at:
amazon.com
itunes.apple.com
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