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The Best Lunch Ideas You Will Ever Make! It’s time to start thinking about packed lunches again. Whether you are packing just for yourself, co-workers, or kids! New lunch ideas and classic recipes are always neat to see! Here are a bunch of smart and yummy lunch ideas to save. A soup or sandwich is always nice, but these recipes are even better.
Smart and Yummy Lunch Ideas
1. Make Ahead Chicken Fajita Lunch Bowls
Make this recipe on Sunday and have all of your work lunches ready for the week! This dish saves beautifully in the refrigerator for days. Meal-prepping is made easy with healthy lunch ideas like these.
2. Chicken Enchilada Roll Ups
These Chicken Enchilada Roll Ups are a great appetizer or pack & go lunch idea! Easy to make ahead and easy to serve. Easy lunch recipes are always better if you can make them ahead!
3. Taco Salad in a Mason Jar
Taco Salad in a Jar — This quick and easy lunch recipe is not only delicious, but it’s also packed with healthy food! Layers of lettuce, tomatoes, beans, and more! A midday meal packed with flavor wins every single time!
4. Use a Door Hanging Shoe Organizer for Snacks
Think outside the box with this clear shoe organizer. Use it to have snacks ready for your kids or to organize school lunches for the week. Genius! Add a little protein by pairing these snacks with chicken salad or hummus.
5. Turkey Ranch Club Wrap
Easy and so good! These wraps are ready in 10 minutes tops! Red onion is optional, making this a great lunch recipe for picky eaters.
6. Pizza Calzones
With just 5 ingredients and less than 10 minutes of prep, you’ll be devouring these calzones in no time! Wrap them in foil and take one for lunch. Easy lunch ideas that include pizza dough and dipping sauces, we love it!
7. Microwavable Pasta Packets
These freezable pasta lunches come in at just $0.24 per serving. Not only are they insanely inexpensive (can you even buy a pack of gum for $0.25?), they offer convenience and endless possibilities for variety to spice up your work lunches. Pasta salads are classic lunch recipes. This make-ahead version includes carbs, protein, noodles, and a delicious sauce.
8. Make-Ahead Mini Chicken Pot Pies
Make-ahead meals for busy families! Take them to work or make them for dinner. So smart!
9. Taco Salads To-Go
Good make ahead for the week meal. Use homemade taco seasoning and salsa rather than sour cream if you want to take it for lunch! Make it with ground beef or chicken! Top with avocado, sour cream, and peppers.
10. Muffin Tin Meatloaf
Good make-ahead lunch idea for the office! Mini Meatloaf Muffins made in a muffin tin are easy to make and quick to bake, plus the leftovers are delicious! They can be made ahead, frozen, or quickly baked for dinner.
11. DIY Lunchables that Cost a Fraction of the Price
Make ahead, keep all week, and mix & match lunch combos. Get the plastic cups super cheap HERE on Amazon. Plastic cups can be reused for certain foods! (Original source no longer available)
12. Lunch Bins for Making Lunches Quickly
This is a “back to school” lunch-making trick that is SO handy for us to be using right now. I don’t know about you but my kids have been wanting to snack all day since they are home and I feel like I’m cooking constantly. I decided that we need to go back to having school-type lunches because that structure is something both myself and my kids need. Check out how this easy lunch system works and be sure to show this to any other parents who are home with their school-aged children. We need all the help we can get!
- popcorn or veggie straws (I’ll mix it up with what they call “junk food”)
- goldfish, rice, and ritz crackers (again, I’ll mix them up but they don’t have to have the same thing every day)
- fruit to go and fruit & veggie source bars
- fruit cups and apple sauces (will do fresh fruit most often, but good backup, and with 3 kids liking all different fruit, this is my compromise)
- cheese strings, Babybell cheese, and yogurt tubes. Again will mix it up with Yoplait drinks and diced regular cheeses I have)
- Meat & veggies. The hardest one as all three kids is not big meat eaters! Here I have turkey lunchmeat rolled up, turkey Pepperettes (Costco) and carrots or cucs from our garden! I will do hard-boiled eggs or leftover diced chicken breasts from supper too!
- will be granola bars, banana muffins, or cookies!
This is all trial and error but the kids were so excited to pick what they wanted and told them I was open to suggestions!
13. Homemade Lunchables
Pack lunches on Sunday for the whole week!
14. Mason Jar Fruit Salad
Prep everything on a Sunday and make jars for the week. Brilliant, beautiful, and so smart!
15. Mason Jar Lunchable
A mason jar Lunchable is a smart and creative on-the-go snacking idea.
16. Copycat Cheesecake Factory Egg Rolls
It’s so much cheaper to make right at home and it tastes a million times better too!
17. Turkey and Cheese Biscuits
The smell, the gooey cheese, the flakey crust, the warm biscuit… these will be gone in no time!
You can cut your own cheese instead of buying cubes or rectangles.
We make DIY lunchables by. adding meat and olives and pickles to silicone muffin cups in a gladware square container. The bread is Hawaiian rolls (2) sliced. To make sliders. We make a snack mix and divide into snack bags, gogurt, protein or granola bar, and the fruit snacks. And we do jello with fruit. Hates fruit only way he’ll eat it unless in pie. Capri sun and extra napkins. Snack in the top of the box and we are good.
Wish there were more study, reusable containers. I hate to be responsible for the kids throwing away so much in a year! Will keep looking to adapt your idea to something that is sustainable for the kids’ future!
XO
I’ve purchases containers that have compartments to do my own lunchables, you have to look around, but you can find them. Depending on what I put in them I will also use muffin tin liners to separate items within a food storage container. hope that helps!
I love that you are using our Princess House 2 Tiered Basket. I am a consultant with Princess House and own 2 of these because I love them so much. Thanks for the wonderful tips!
Great ideas! Actually looking forward to getting creative with school lunches this year!
Love the recipes