Customer Reviews

Brown Bag Success: Making Healthy Lunches Your Kids Won't Trade

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is part cookbook, part menu guide, part nutritionist, and completely a fabulous find. The book is a great resource for parents who don't think they can make one more peanut butter sandwich. There are great ideas that would please any taste buds, and there are definitely picky ones at my house! There are time saving tips included, as well as a list of items to have on hand to make packing those lunches a little easier. Two of my childrens favorite items are: Flour tortillas with melted cheddar cheese in between, cooled and cut into triangle wedges; and a "sandwich" with cheese and ham rolled and cut into pinwheels! I cannot write enough positive things about this book. It is FAB!

"Healthy" is a somewhat relative term. The homemade recipes inside this book are certainly healthier than processed junk food, but I don't consider ingredients like chow mein noodles, american cheese or mini marshmallows to be "healthy". The usual topics found in healthy cooking books like the importance of whole grains, the pitfalls of trans fats or the importance of using organic produce, are pretty much absent from "Brown Bag Success". However, in terms of making lunches kids will like, eat and not trade, the book is filled with ideas. If you have a child who really will not eat their homemade lunch, you are bound to find some ideas in here that will help.

As another reviewer already noted, the recipes are heavy on peanut butter. I would say about one third of the recipes are peanut butter based. So if you have a child who loves PBJ, and you just can't make another one, then this book might just be for you. My daughter really doesn't like PBJ anymore, so they aren't much help to me.

On the other hand, some of the non peanut butter recipes look good enough to eat myself. The "Apple-Cinnamon Sandwich" puts a cream cheese-apple-walnut-celery spread between slices of raisin bread. The "Mini Drumsticks" are chicken wings soaked in an asian marinade and then baked. The chicken tabouleh salad and sweet coleslaw look good as well (But I'm not sure my daughter would so much as touch them. She dislikes most salad.) The baked goods all look good as well.

All in all I just don't feel most of these recipes are healthy enough for my family. My daughter has a bit of a weight problem, so I have to be really careful with what she eats. On the other hand the ideas for making a packed lunch more appealing to children are helpful and some of the recipes look tasty.

I reviewed 6 different books looking for suggestions on lunch preparation for my 3 year old daughter. The presentation tips, menu planning and recipes I found here helped me to be better equipped to provide nutritious and fun lunches for my daughter. Many times I buy lots of books and take bits from each, this is an instance where one book has all of the information you need to get started.

I bought this book because I was looking for some alternatives to PB&J. Both of my children are now attending peanut-free/tree-nut free schools. This book has lots of ideas, but too many of them are variations of the peanut butter sandwich.

I hope to spare some other mothers who are looking for healthy lunchbox ideas from buying this book! The recipes are not what I would describe as nutritious ("Chilly Cherry Fruit Soup" uses a 16 oz. can of cherry pie filling as the base for the soup), nor are they original. Some of the tips include such big ideas as "pack the night before" and "use a frozen juice box as a freezer pack". One word for that...duh! This book actually recommends making snack chips out of pie crust and cinnamon sugar. If you want to turn your child into a diabetic, by all means buy this book. If not, buy any cookbook by Annabel Karmel, she's much healthier and more creative.

Although this book has a few useful tips
I was disappointed with the recipes
Such as Pickle Roll.
Piece of cheese and a dill pickle.
Roll cheese around pickle is the recipe.
Tell child how to wrap pickle around cheese and eat.
Or "prepare ahead of time"
I was disappointed I paid money for a book to tell me to wrap a piece of cheese around a dill pickle and called it a recipe.
Also I noticed repeat recipes.
Even one side by side on two pages. (pg. 40)
Peanut Butter sandwich with some orange juice.
Next page, exact same, but add some raisins.
Seemed to be nothing more than a page filler.

I have been brown bagging lunches for years and thought I had heard it all but I am always open to new idea and this book had them. My kids and I all went through it together and tried each kid's picks. It was fun and it has some really good ideas.

Inside-Out cheese sandwich??? Two slices of cheese, mayonnaise and a piece of bread??? Cheese slice wrapped around a pickle??? These are hardly ingenious, mouth-watering recipes! Peanut buttered popcorn?? And by the way, have these two registered dieticians heard that about 75% of all schools across the country don't allow peanut butter because of all the kids that are allergic to nuts?? I feel like a really dummy for buying this book - don't do the same!

I got better ideas from parenting magazines. These were not very novel, creative, or healthy. It was also very thin. It was just a bunch of different kinds of sandwiches and soups. I was looking for something to break out of the rut, and this was not it. If the ONLY thing you can think of is PB&J, then you might get something out of it, but for those of us who can think of at least a little more variety, don't waste your money. I think the people who rated this multiple stars must be trying to boost the product's rating so they can sell theirs back, lol. :)

This cookbook is geared more for kids. However, I was stuck in a lunch rut, and turned to this cookbook for help. It is wonderful. All of the recipes are easy with a small amount of ingredients. It really has added a lot of spice to my lunch repertoire.

Try the Peanut butter chocolate chip muffins. They are to die for.