Bringing your lunch to work, school or wherever you spend your days is a healthier alternative to noshing at fast food joints and restaurants. But if knowing this is not incentive enough, consider this: Packing your own lunch can save you up to $2,000 a year. That's enough for a couple pairs of Manolos, a relaxing trip somewhere warm or a reliable older car.

Think about it: A sandwich, side salad and diet pop at a café or restaurant will probably total around $10-$12 (maybe more, depending on where you live). The cost to make that sandwich and side salad and buy the soda in bulk? This is just a rough guesstimate, but I'd say around $3.

The easiest way to make sure you have something nutritious and delicious in your lunch box the next day is by cooking a bit extra when you make dinner. Got other yummy lunch ideas? Please share.

Healthy brown bag lunch ideas(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Not keen on the brown bag? Try packing a lunch in something like this Lunch & Go Lunchbox.

Lunch & Go Pieces and Parts(click thumbnails to view gallery)

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This video holds the secret to getting you to commit to your workouts for good.

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That's right! The most powerful woman on television, Ms. Oprah Winfrey, will soon have even more power and presence on the tube. Teaming up with Discovery Communications who owns, Discovery, Animal Planet, TLC and more...OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. will launch in 2009.

A press release from Discovery Communications states, "The new multi-platform media venture will be designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives. OWN will debut in 2009 in more than 70 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel. The venture will also include the award-winning digital platform, Oprah.com."

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I was checking out some of the info on DIY Life recently and was very amused by this post by Heather Craven on making your own hand sanitizer. Like Heather, I can be overzealous when it comes to washing my hands. In her case it's essential to carry hand sanitizer when out at soccer games or the supermarket with her kids. I always have some handy (no pun intended) for music festivals (port-o-potties aren't always equipped) and while traveling (foreign subways are never equipped).

Turned off by the not-so-nice chemicals in store-bought hand sanitizers, Heather went on an Internet search for one she could make cheaply at home with easy-to-find products. The amusing part is that her favorite turned out to include vodka in the mix of ingredients.

If you'd like to give it a try, take a look at Heather's post to get the recipe. I love the idea of avoiding rubbing chemicals into your skin by making your own sanitizer, but I can't help but think that it's a waste of vodka! I'd definitely recommend skipping the Grey Goose and using the cheapest brand you can find instead.

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One of my favorite treats is bread and jam. Toast and jam works too, and both are especially good with a tablespoon of the tasty, homemade raspberry variety. When I was little, I used to love visiting the family farm and spending an afternoon picking berries (although admittedly, a lot of those berries didn't make it into the pail, but rather ended up heading straight into my mouth after being plucked from among its leafy green surroundings), knowing that my grandmother would turn it into one of my favorite sweet treats.

I never sat in on a jam-making session though, so have never had the chance to make it on my own and wouldn't even know where to start. But recently I came across this post at DIY Life by Heather Craven that gives details on how to make your own jam! She mentions that it's great to use fruit out of your own garden, but if you don't have that particular luxury it's the perfect time of year to find all sorts of appropriate fruits at a local farmer's market. Next time all you fellow jam-fans out there have some time on your hands, you'll know what to do.

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