The secret to the chocolate brownie of your dreams? Take the chocolate out.

You'll be hearing from the staff at FOOD52 every week in Too Many Cooks, our group column in which we pool our answers to questions about food, cooking, life, and more.

 It's technically fall but still feels like summer, meaning your brown bag lunches should be in full celebration of this stage in between seasons.

It's time to think about school lunch again (and -- as always -- the quest for a civilized office lunch marches on). Lucky for us, our friends at Food Network have asked the minds behind our favorite food sites to pool their best ideas for lunches that will stand up to a trek in a brown bag (or one of these).

6 ways to perk up your brown bag lunch. 

Beat back-to-work doldrums with our lunch-making toolkit of homey, make-ahead treats.