Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook Easy Lunch Boxes

by Kelly Lester, Marla Meridith (Photographer)

Pack lunches fast with Trader Joe's foods!

Meet Kelly Lester - mom of 3, avid Trader Joe's fan, and the creator of the ingenious EasyLunchbox System. Kelly and 32 of her friends (who just happen to be lunch-packing experts!) share their stories, favorite recipes, and time-saving tips to make lunch-packing madness a thing of the past.

Now it's EASY to:
* Ditch expensive, processed "convenience" foods
* Prepare yummy food even your pickiest eater will devour
* Pack lunches FAST

Gorgeous full-color photos for every recipe and nutritional info throughout. Includes gluten-free and vegetarian icons.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2012

About the author

Kelly Lester is a singer and actress with over three decades of stage, film, and TV credits (KellyLester.com). She is also a successful entrepreneur with no formal business training. In 2009 she founded her second company, EasyLunchboxes.com, which was born out of her innate ability to do things efficiently while on a shoestring budget, and her desire to send her daughters to school with waste-free, healthy lunches. With no money for advertising, Kelly turned to social media. Relying solely on word-of-mouth-marketing, she grew her sales via positive blog reviews and lots of "likes".

EasyLunchboxes have been the #1 best-selling lunch boxes on Amazon.com since 2011, and her "seller success story" was prominently featured on Amazon's home page. Her EasyLunchboxes Facebook fan page was named a Top Ten Small Business Facebook Page by SocialMediaExaminer.com. Consequently, she has added "Social Media Expert" to her resume. Kelly is in demand as a public speaker, inspiring and motivating other entrepreneurs and small business owners with her story and self-taught marketing skills. As a solo mompreneur with no employees, Kelly enjoys personally communicating daily with her fans and followers, and relishes the true friendships she's made and the enthusiastic support she receives from her online community. Postings from her network of nearly 25,000 Facebook fans are the foundation for Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook - Easy Lunch Boxes.

One of Kelly's book contributors, Cristi Messersmith, who pens the blog BentOnBetterLunches.com, explains Kelly's unique marketing skills:

"In my opinion, it's absolutely her personal touch, her "chatterboxness" that gives Kelly an edge and has helped make EasyLunchboxes so popular. Sure, they are fabulous containers, but it's her social networking savvy and her creativity that's helped them gain so much notice..."

Kelly and her husband, actor Loren Lester, live in Los Angeles. They have 3 daughters who all pack their own lunches.

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new favorite cookbook!

Easy Lunch Boxes is a Cooking with Trader Joe's Cookbook that features delicious, creative, fun and fast lunches made from Trader Joe's products. It's conveniently separated into the following sections:
Pack it (Really) Fast
Pack it Early
Pack it Kid-Friendly
Pack it Playful
Pack a Snack
Pack it Yummy
Pack it for Work
Pack it Veggie
Pack it Vegan
Pack it Gluten-Free

I'm a huge Trader Joe's fan but I find myself always making the same meals for myself and my toddler. This cookbook gave me a huge amount of ideas for not only myself, but also my toddler. Whether you need to make something fast or if you have time to spare and want to make something fun for your family - this cookbook covers it all! The pictures of the food are fabulous and make my mouth water!

Some other helpful things featured in the cookbook are nutrition snapshots, tips and Did You Know trivia. There is also a little background information on each of the contributors which I found to be very interesting. This is more than a cookbook! It's my new daily guide to eating healthy and doing it with ease while having fun!

*I received a copy of this cookbook for free through a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway*

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

just found out i won this thanks goodreads. i need new ideas for work lunches and i love trader joes so im looking forward to getting this book!

the photos were great and i loved the way they cut the food for the kids lunches

while it all looked good, i dont eat any of those things they had. im going to pass the book along to someone who will enjoy it more than me.

thanks for picking me as winner anyway!

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't usually review cookbooks, but I got this as part of a first reads through Goodreads so I wanted to make sure I put something about it on here. Thanks Goodreads!

There are a lot of recipes in here that I bookmarked to try. The only one I've actually tried so far was the supremely easy Greek chicken which was really good. Whether I'll take most of this in a lunch box to work, I don't know, but there are dinner and side ideas that I want to try.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are lots of cute recipes for kids! I was hoping for more lunch ideas for me, though.

[Liz De Coster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, I cannot imagine cutting my (imaginary WAY future) children's hot dogs into fingernail-sized star shapes. Yikes.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved all the bento style lunches. Huge variety. GF, vegetarian selections.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have and love this! Fantastic for ideas on kids' lunches that are pretty simple, adorable, healthy and the kid will WANT to eat!

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book ever!

#readathon 2016

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked that each recipe had a picture.