What's for lunch this week? As we all reluctantly march back from vacation and return to school and work, we thought it was time for a little lunchbox inspiration! Here are 20 recipes to help jumpstart your lunch-packing routine.
What sounds good this week? Stuffed hot calzone pockets? Or some crisp tuna-cabbage salad? And to finish up maybe a chewy, sweet peanut butter oatmeal monster cookie? Read on for these and more!
SANDWICHES
• 1 Farmer's Lunch Sandwich
• 2 Apple-Arugula Salad Wraps
• 3 Chickpea of the Sea
• 4 Cuban Sandwich
POCKETS & PASTA
• 5 How to Make Calzones (And Freeze Them for Later!)
• 6 BBQ Cabbage and Sausage Stuffed Sandwiches
• 7 Peppery Whole Wheat Pasta with Wilted Chard
• 8 Cauliflower and Chicken Sausage Casserole
LUNCH SALADS
• 9 Crisp Tuna-Cabbage Salad
• 10 Warm Chickpea Salad with Cumin and Garlic
• 11 Barbecue Chicken and Macaroni Salad
• 12 Warm Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Fontina
SNACKS
• 13 Veggies Stored In Dip
• 14 Homemade Cheese Crackers
• 15 DIY Potato Chips...in the Microwave
• 16 Make Your Own Fruit-on-the-Bottom Yogurt Cups
SWEETS
• 17 Peanut Butter Oatmeal Monster Cookies
• 18 Life-Changing Vegan Thumbprints
• 19 How To Make Halfway Cookies
• 20 Chewy, Sweet and Salty Ritz Cracker Cookies
What are you packing in your lunchbox this week? Trying anything new?
Related: 5 Quick and Delicious Lunches Under 400 Calories
(Images: See linked recipes for full image credits)



















Red-and-Pink-Stripe...

While all of these seem delicious, I especially love both the jar ideas. Also, thank you for introducing me to microwave chips -- I prefer British-style oven chips myself for the fluffy-in-crisp texture, but there's many a family member who will be overjoyed to see chips back on the health(ier)-food menu!
I borrowed a dehydrator from a friend and after playing with it I decided to buy my own. I will be making home made jerky and home made fruit leather for the kids' lunches, good way to use extra fruit that I may be about to throw away.
The Farmer's Lunch Sandwich looks delicious! Thank you for this post; my daughter heads off to Kindergarten soon and I feel like I really want her lunches to be AWESOME.
These do all look healthy and delicious. However, my 5th grade son would probably die if I sent him in with whole wheat pasta and wilted chard. There's only so much obvious difference many kids can stand apparently, and he likes to have lunches like a lot of the other kids. So while I do healthy lunches, they don't look so different, lol.
My mother in law sent such awesome sandwiches with her sons, they sold them to the other kids. One of their best "customers" ended up a true Foodie and now owns a restaurant that is frequently mentioned in the NY Times........talk about having some big shoes to fill! This list will help! :)
The Pediatric Journal of Medicine released a study that looked at the temperatures of 705 lunches containing at least one perishable item. An hour and a half before lunch, the food was measured with a temperature gun. Only 1.6% of items were at a safe temperature range.
With one icepack, only 14 were at a safe temperature.