Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club Lightens up Lunch in Style

With the kids headed back to school and summer vacation over for another year it is time to think seriously about creating healthy and delicious lunches that we pack either for work or for our kids to take to school. Unless one of your parents was a caterer or a culinary"ista", the memories we have of taking lunch to school as a child are less than favourable. SORRY MOM!!!!Who doesn't remember having ham and cheese sandwiches day in and day out!! Our parents weren't trying to bore our tastebuds and turn us off of bag lunches forever, they were likely just being pragmatic.


My own daughter had hot lunches at school every day while in school which is typical in British Columbia (in those days I even volunteered as a hot lunch mom and made over 150 hot lunches every day) so we had to watch the menu so as not to duplicate the lasagna or scalloped potatoes the kidlets had at lunch for supper. For years my own lunch has consisted of leftovers from supper the night before and now for the moment I have 3 hours lunches so am able to head home and get creative in the kitchen. But when the ladies asked for our help in creating some delicious lunch options for their kids as well as themselves I was right there to help out with tons of delicious recipe choices found on the pages of Cooking Light magazine. The Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club is here to bring your lunch out of the 80's and into a whole new way of thinking about lunch!!

Bringing a lunch to work is a great idea for lots of reasons... it saves calories, it saves money, and it even saves time, allowing you to relax at lunch instead of fighting the crowds at your local fast-food restaurants. Why settle for the same boring sandwich everyday when you can have a fabulous bag lunch lightened up by the pages of Cooking Light magazine!!!

Convenience might be the reason most people give for going out to a restaurant to grab a quick bite. But what makes restaurant eating more exciting? We love novelty people and trying something different!!! Variety is "the spice of life" and never rang so true as it does here. We love to try new things, new flavors, and new experiences. Even if we end up eating at the same couple of restaurants 99% of the time, the very act of going out to get your lunch dangles the potential for something new and different in front of us.

Use lunch as a chance to introduce new flavors and foods into your diet. One of the things that keeps people going back to a good deli, for example, is the variety of sandwiches and the interesting combinations of ingredients. This is all well and good but you can create this same appeal from your own kitchen!!!!

At our Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club we all share a love for Cooking Light magazine which has an emphasis on healthy eating and living. Each issue covers light cuisine and includes more than 70 delicious and flavourful recipes. It also explores food and nutrition news as well as fitness, health and beauty.

We would love to share these ideas with you each month by putting together a delicious meal for each other through our Virtual Supper Club. The idea is simple because we all share a common interest in cooking and all things "foodie". This is a team effort where we will be getting together virtually once a month and combining what Cooking Light readers like best...good food with great company!!! Ultimately this is what has brought myself Val of More Than Burnt Toast, Helene of La Cuisine d'Helene, Shelby of The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch, Jamie of Mom's Cooking Club and Aggie of Aggie's Kitchen together to share their love of food, blogging and their commitment to a health conscious lifestyle to create the very 1st ever Virtual Supper Club sponsored by Cooking Light magazine!!!

Check out this months menu where we share our ideas for a lunch that will have you looking forward to peaking into the bag. We will also be featured on the Cooking Light web site as well as sharing their fantastic recipes with you all!!!!!! Although distance prevents us from gathering as a group in each others homes we have enjoyed getting to know one another and have developed a menu from Cooking Light magazine that is sure to bring smiles when your family opens their lunch bags or boxes. See us on their blog Test Kitchen Secrets HERE !!!

We start with Cooking Light's Lemony Hummus with Spicy Whole-Wheat Pita Chips in this post. This dish makes a wholesome accompaniment to the rest of our Vurtial Supper Club menu. Shelby offers some delicious Vegetarian Minestrone here to accompany Helene's Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich here. What a delicious combination. To round off the plate we have a delicious Lemony Orzo Salad here brought from the pages of Cooking Light by Aggie. And what would even lunch be without dessert in the form of Jamie's Chocolate Fudge Snack Cake here We hope you will visit each of these pages and get some delicious ideas for your own lunch for your family. ENJOY!!!