How to Get Ahead for the Week

Every week we take a peek inside the lunches of the luckiest kids in Brooklyn. Read on, suppress your jealousy, and get a little brown bag inspiration.

In good weeks, I have meals planned ahead and a river of leftovers that can get scooped up and folded into lunches. As luck would have it, we had a friend drop by for an impromptu dinner on Sunday night, which meant we went into overdrive with the farmers market food we bought over the weekend. For dinner, we served fish and roasted potatoes with a corn and tomato salad. While I cooked the corn for the salad, I also poached some tuna for lunches.

A little hustle that night meant the next morning I could breeze into the kitchen, mix together the corn-and-tomato salad with some of the tuna, add a leftover lemon slice from dinner the night before, and pack a few plums. Just before closing their lunch boxes, though, I worried there wasn't enough to eat -- they just turned 7 after all! -- so I added a chocolate cupcake to each. And I bet I know what was eaten first.

What's in your lunch today? See some of the twins' past lunches.