Lunch Meal Ideas for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Those Looking to Eat Healthier

If you're at a loss for what to pack for lunch, check out http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/. It's a great resource for parents who need to pack lunches for their kids or someone who wants to pack a healthy lunch for him/herself or significant other. There are also resources for what to fix for healthy dinner.

The blog author is a stay at home mom and vegan activist who is truly dedicated. Not only does she prepare a creative lunch for her son each day but also takes a picture of each and posts a description and review. An example of her creativity is the October 30th Lunch Box of the DAMNED. She made a broccoli calzone in the shape of a mummy (includes prep picture) with a bucket of "blood" red pizza sauce dip, and baked apple "shrunken heads".

Not all of the lunches are this involved but all are healthy well-balanced meals. Sometimes store-bought items are used in combination with fresh items and those made from scratch. An example of this is October 2nd, 2006 when the lunch consisted of peas and carrots (frozen peas and lightly cooked fresh baby carrots), fresh grapes, cooked pasta shells stuffed with store-bought filling, and Annie's brand organic graham snacks.

She embeds links to either the product site or recipe making it easier to recreate the meal yourself. She also includes "Verdicts" that often incorporate suggestions on how she would change each meal. For example, the October 2nd verdict warns that the filling tends to "goosh out" the shell and the grapes weren't finished because they had seeds. You feel that the author is constantly learning through trial and error and wants you to learn from her mistakes and victories.

While all the meals are vegan, one could certainly alter recipes or pick and choose aspects of the meal that could be included in a non-vegan lunch box. The Archives will take you back to each lunch day starting in September 2005 through the current month, giving you an almost endless supply of meal ideas. Overall, the meals are fun, varied, minimally processed, mostly organic, and chock full of nutrients making them a healthy choice for most any child or adult.

Now it's not ALL lunch ideas. One link on the site that I have used several times is the "Make a Magical Loaf". It's a program that lets you create a customizable vegan dinner loaf. You just check off the ingredients you have or want to use from choices given in categories such as Protein, Carbohydrate, Vegetables, Herbs, and Binder. Then click Submit and just like magic you get a recipe for an easy, low cost, vegan meal. I've often used this after buying a grain (like millet or amaranth) that I don't know how to use or if I'm too tired to come up with a dinner idea.

Visit the Vegan Lunch Box site for the colorful pictures, the creative meals, and inspiration for healthier eating.