Bento Snacks

This Week's Bento Lunch

Do you like to snack? We sure do! In an attempt to satisfy our snack cravings, we decided to pack some our favorites for lunch this week. We hope you’ll like what we’ve put together but feel free to change it up based on your own preferences. Happy snacking!

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Super Fast Bento Lunch

This Week's Bento Lunch

Looking for a quick and easy, yet healthy and tasty lunch idea? You’ve come to the right place! This week we kept our bentos extra simple and convenient without compromising health. In fact, our whole wheat pita pockets are filled with hummus, which is considered to be a super food… It’s super fast food!

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Taking a Break Challenge

We've checked another of our weekly challenges off our list and we think this one is going to stick!

Through this challenge we found that taking a couple minutes to check out during the day to enjoy a little extra activity as well as some fresh air really did pay off by giving us more energy and increased concentration throughout the afternoon. Our breaks kept us from getting too bogged down or burnt out and left us with a sense of accomplishment as we took the time to do something for ourselves. We live in a fast paced society which has us constantly juggling responsibilities and wearing different hats, so it's nice to take all hats off, leave the balls behind and take a break.

We hope you have and will continue to enjoy your breaks as well!

Whole Grain Goodness

This Week's Bento Lunch

Whole grains contain a number of vitamins and antioxidants that have been proven to have a positive impact on our overall health, so it’s important to get at least three servings a day. To help meet this recommended daily allowance, we decided to make a batch of whole grain pancakes for lunch. That’s right; as long as you use healthy ingredients even a treat like pancakes can be good for you!

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Taking a Break Challenge Check In

I'm feeling pretty good right now. I just got back from my afternoon break and it's a beautiful afternoon in Santa Cruz. I walked over to the weekly Farmer's Market and picked up a couple fresh lemons to use for dinner and now I'm back feeling refreshed and energized as I finish the day's work. It's amazing what a 10-15 minute break can do for a person!

While some of us choose to go on power walks; some prefer to just linger outside enjoying the fresh flowers and beautiful sunshine; or even staying inside to paint. No matter what the activity, the consensus is that making it a priority to take the time to check out and clear our heads has made a huge difference.

Mid-way through this month's weekly challenge, it is safe to say that we are all feeling more productive, focused and energized since making it a priority to take time for ourselves during the work day.

If you've joined us in this month's challenge, please let us know what you've been doing on your break and what effect that has had on the rest of your day!

Taking a Break

Have you read the research that's come out regarding sitting all day? If not, you can learn more here.

The bottom line is that sitting all day is very bad for our health, so this month we're challenging ourselves to take a 10 minute break every day. During our 10 minutes, we can go for a walk, stretch out, nap, meditate, or just about anything else we can think of other than sitting at our desks.

Although this may sound simple and breaks are always encouraged in the Laptop Lunches office, actually taking 10 minutes to get away on a daily basis can be difficult for just about anyone and doing so at all is a foreign concept to some of us, so this will be a challenge.

We're looking forward to getting started on Monday and hopefully feeling more energized and productive throughout the week! As always, we encourage you to join us and look forward to hearing what everyone is doing during their breaks.

The Ultimate Veggie Burger

This Week's Bento Lunch

Hamburgers are commonly hailed as the ultimate all-American food, but for a meal on the run, veggie burgers are a great substitute. Veggie burgers can be easily tailored to appeal to anyone’s tastes and will maintain that great taste throughout the day. We loaded our burgers with some of our favorite veggies, grains and herbs which made for quite the gratifying mid-day meal.

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