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4 Tips For Packing A Healthy

School Lunch That’s Also Cheap

It won’t be long before kids will be heading back to school and for the parents to begin packing their lunches again.  Organic food is expensive and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches only work for so long.

But Chef Zipora Einav (www.chefzipora.com), a chef to the celebrities and author of Recipe for a Delicious Life, says it is easy to stick to a budget on school lunches if you plan and prepare the meals at home in advance. 

“Planning a menu and shopping with a list each week helps to manage your budget because you only buy what is needed rather than going to the store each day,” she says.  “And if the kids are old enough, let them help you prepare their lunches.  That is an excellent time to have discussions with your children about nutrition.”

Chef Zipora offers these suggestions for preparing a nutritious brown bag lunch for children throughout the school year:

• For a healthier snack, offer baked vegetable chips or sweet potato fries (rather than buying the packaged chips)
   
• Make home-baked chicken fingers or bake chicken to create a sandwich on whole wheat bread. Add lettuce.
   
• Include seasonal fruit such as apples, pears and strawberries.
   
• Does your child have a favorite vegetable like carrot sticks or celery? You can include a hummus dip (which is offered plain or comes in several flavors). You can also add whole wheat crackers such as Wheat Thins or Breton.

“Eating healthy does not need to be expensive,” Chef Zipora says, “and preparing the foods can be easier than most people think if they just prepare in advance and shop for healthy groceries.”

About Chef Zipora Einav

Chef Zipora Einav (www.chefzipora.com) is an accomplished private chef who has cooked for some of Hollywood’s most notable celebrities – Bob Hope, Jack Nicholson, Mariah Carey, Pierce Brosnan, Scarlett Johansson – and for professional athletes, including former National Football League star Donovan McNabb. She is the author of Recipe for a Delicious Life, which includes recipes, a classical music CD titled Music for a Delicious Life, and her anecdotes and adventures while travelling the world as a private chef. She founded her company, Chef Zipora Enterprise – Comfort Food in Harmony with Your Health™ – to improve people’s lives by empowering them to eat well and embrace a healthy lifestyle. The company achieves this through its food, music products, books and edutainment programs.

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With moving season reaching its peak and the median rental price rising 2.8% in the past year, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s Best & Worst Places to Rent in America.

To help prospective renters get the most bang for their buck, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities based on 22 key indicators of rental attractiveness and quality of life. The data set ranges from historical rental-price changes to cost of living to job market.
 

Best Cities for Renters

Worst Cities for Renters

1

Scottsdale, AZ

173

Jackson, MS

2

Peoria, AZ

174

Hialeah, FL

3

Chandler, AZ

175

Providence, RI

4

Gilbert, AZ

176

Baltimore, MD

5

Fargo, ND

177

Bridgeport, CT

6

Bismarck, ND

178

Huntington, WV

7

Overland Park, KS

179

New Haven, CT

8

Lincoln, NE

180

Cleveland, OH

9

Mesa, AZ

181

Memphis, TN

10

Tempe, AZ

182

Detroit, MI

 
Best vs. Worst

• Cedar Rapids, Iowa has the highest rental affordability, with the lowest median annual gross rent divided by median annual household income at 15.41 percent, which is 2.7 times lower than in Hialeah, Florida, with 41.65 percent.
   
• Little Rock, Arkansas, has the highest rental vacancy rate, 16.3 percent, which is 11.6 times higher than in Burlington, Vermont, the city with the lowest at 1.4 percent.
   
• Newark, New Jersey, has the highest share of renter-occupied housing units, 78.2 percent, which is 3.3 times higher than in Port St. Lucie, Florida, the city with the lowest at 23.7 percent.
   
• Laredo, Texas, has the lowest cost-of-living index, 77, which is 2.5 times lower than in San Francisco, the city with the highest at 193.
   
• Irvine, California, has the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 0.57, which is 35.9 times fewer than in Detroit, the city with the most at 20.47.

To view the full report and your city’s rank, please visit: 
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-for-renters/23010/

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How Two Rice Bowls and

 Four Chopsticks Turned Into a

Billion-Dollar Business

When the United States left Vietnam in 1975, it left behind a nation wracked with inflation, corruption and an identity crisis.  The country staggered through the 1980s as a socialist-capitalist country – it tried socialism first, then modified it with capitalism.

For the families that lived through the early post-American years in Vietnam, it was one crisis after another.  Yet one family not only survived and thrived, it built one of the largest businesses in Southeast Asia from scratch. 

“My father started out with nothing more than two rice bowls and four chopsticks,” says Phuong Uyen Tran in her new book Competing with Giants, published by Forbes.

The company grew so large that Coca Cola wanted to buy it for more than $2 billion.

“He persevered because he had tenacity and placed his trust in his core values and people - his business associates, employees and customers.” 

Her father, Tran Qui Thanh, is chairman and CEO of the beverage company Tan Hiep Phat (THP).  He turned down the offer from Coca Cola.  Thanh’s company now supplies beverages, including herbal and green teas, sports and energy drinks, soya milk and purified water across Vietnam plus 16 other countries, including China and Australia.  It is Vietnam’s largest family-owned manufacturer in the “Fast Moving Consumer Goods” category, employing more than 5,000 staff members nationwide.

 “It is never easy to compete with giants,” says Phuong, “let alone face them down.” But her family legacy is a story that proves David can indeed compete with (and even outperform) Goliath. Watching her father turn down a sum of money most could never dream to see was an event that shaped Tran’s entire philosophy from that day forward.

What has Phuong learned from the family values her father always applies in business?

5 Family Values to Business Success:

• Create an authentic local product.  Authentic local products are hard to beat.  That is because locals can beat the big guys in four critical areas – product, price, promotion and place.
• Govern growth. Many companies on an upward trajectory just assume that their success will always continue.  The best companies prepare for the inevitable ups and downs of business by growing slowly and methodically.
• Motivate employees and foster community spirit. As companies get bigger, they must focus on how their employees work with each other, as well as senior management and customers. 
• Adhere to standards. The best companies embrace standards rather than try to find ways to cut corners.  Her company adopted international standards for her products even though they were not forced to do so.
• Take responsibility. The ultimate responsibility lies with each person at the business, regardless of if it is the owner, manager or employee.

Whether you start with rice bowls or owning the entire rice factory, scaling a business requires strategy, discipline and good old fashion family values.

About Phuong Uyen Tran

Phuong Uyen Tran, author of Competing with Giants (https://www.thp.com.vn/en/), is deputy CEO of the THP Beverage Group, a leading beverage company in Vietnam that was founded by her father. She is responsible for the company’s marketing, public relations, and CSR programs nationally and across Vietnam’s 63 provinces. She also leads THP’s international marketing programs across 16 countries where THP’s products are distributed including Canada and China.