Lunch Recipes & Ideas

There’s something about eating food from a bowl that just makes it even more appealing, and smoothies are no exception. They’re certainly delicious in a tall glass, but pour a smoothie in a bowl and add all the toppings and you’ve got something really special to sink a spoon into. The very best smoothie bowls are thick and frosty; you don’t want to end up with a bowl of thin smoothie soup.

In theory, packing a lunch sounds like a simple thing. But it’s always those simple things that turn out to be the toughest to tackle. Even with the best of intentions and best-laid plans, packing a lunch can be a tall order. But these smart tips will make it a little easier for you. Follow Ariel’s lead and start by planning to pack your lunch a few days a week, rather than jumping into the deep end and committing to every day right off the bat.

Q: I’m going to be staying at a fancy resort for a weekend wedding. I’m already dropping big bucks on the location, and I want to minimize my food costs wherever I can. Dinners will be included in the experience, but breakfasts and lunches will not. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I’ll have access to any sort of refrigeration, other than bringing a small cooler in my car.

Whether you’re packing a lunch for the office or lunch for the kids, you want to make sure you pack the right foods properly to help prevent food-borne illnesses. We talked to Katie Morford, registered dietitian and author of the book Best Lunch Box Ever, to share her tips on how to safely pack lunches so you keep everyone healthy and happy! “Avoid putting certain foods in lunch boxes altogether.

Q: I have transitioned to being a stay-at-home mom and have enjoyed the challenge of cooking more of our meals from scratch. My biggest problem is weekend lunches. Inevitably, we finally get out the door to have fun or run errands, and breakfast was hours ago and dinner is far away. What can I grab for us to eat? I am looking for five-minute-or-less prep — including any cooking in advance! — and able to be eaten in the car. Our only standby is a turkey sandwich. Help!

Q: My department at work (about 30 people) holds frequent lunch potlucks at staff meetings. I’ve exhausted my cache of recipes that fit the necessary constraints: …must be made the night before (bonus points if parts of it can be made two nights before), must be served cold or room temp, must work on a buffet table (easy to serve quickly), and must feed a lot of people. Salads and desserts are obvious choices, but I’m looking for new and impressive dishes that taste great.

The grilled cheese is the little black dress of sandwiches with good reason: it’s classic and never goes out of style. There’s just something about the simple-yet-unbeatable combination of buttered, toasted bread with gooey cheese in the middle. But what if you could up your grilled cheese game by making them even cheesier? A sprinkling of a hard, aged cheese like Parmesan or Pecorino Romano onto the buttered bread before you toast it adds an amazing dimension to the final sandwich.

How is Week 2 of your Cooking Cure? How is lunch going? I sense a couple trends: Many of you are Bored With Lunch. Others of you snack your way through the afternoon. And then others, like Bright Lights, dutifully pack a lunch, but work gets in the way, and the nice lunch deteriorates in the fridge. Can you relate? Do you have any suggestions for Bright Lights and lunches that last well for a whole week in the fridge?

Yogurt with fruit and granola is perhaps one of our most basic breakfasts — I think all of us here at The Kitchn eat it from time to time, if not more frequently. But yogurt is a flexible staple, one well-suited to lunch as well as breakfast, and easily made savory, if sweet isn’t your speed. Here are five ideas for working tangy yogurt into your lunch — all savory!

What challenges are you coming up against as you look for new inspiration in your lunches? I loved this question from one of the Cure-takers about vegetarian freezer meals. Here’s what cuminafterall said: My lunch is almost always leftovers from the night before. I haven’t gotten bored with it (our dinners are quite varied!), but if we decide to eat out for dinner, it can be challenging to scrape together a lunch for the next day.

Sure, you could buy ice packs or even make your own — but you don’t have to. There are plenty of lunch items that can be frozen and packed, keeping the rest of your lunch cool as they thaw. Even better? At the end of the day there’s nothing extra to schlep home in your lunch bag. Freeze a bottle of water, juice, tea or iced coffee and sip your still-chilled drink alongside your lunch.

Day 7: Ask yourself 3 questions about your lunch habits. How sad is this lone chicken thigh? It’s the only thing leftover from last night’s dinner. We ate all the broccoli that went with it, and there wasn’t much of the freekeh and butternut squash salad to begin with, so that’s definitely gone.

It wasn’t until about a year ago that I became an avid sandwich eater. Before the fateful day when I consumed The Perfect Sandwich, I never understood the appeal – why not just consume the ingredients in salad form? Why did everything turn out so soggy? But lo’, sandwiches have so much more to offer when done right. You see, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients (especially bread), and awesome spreads and lots of textures.

It’s Lunch Week at The Kitchn, which means that salads are the star. Oh wait, what’s that? Salads are your lunch of last resort? You’d prefer a good grilled cheese? Well, perhaps you’re not eating a swanky enough salad to keep you interested. There’s nothing so satisfying as a hearty salad chock-full of intriguing bits of nuts, fruit, cheese, and perhaps a seductive handful of bacon.

You woke up late and didn’t have time to throw anything together before rushing out the door. Or — much worse — you made a great lunch the night before and forgot it at home. Whatever the reason, now you’re at work and the clock is inching towards lunch time. Not to worry! If you keep these five essentials in your desk, you’ll always have an emergency work lunch on hand.

With all of the work and time put into preparing holiday meals, family feasts and friendly gatherings, sometimes you just need a break — something simple to prepare, something that satisfies your most basic cravings, something that makes use of all that fresh baked bread that has found its way to your kitchen table. As far as American cravings go, there’s just something about a simple hamburger.

I try out a lot of recipes in the kitchen — some good, some bad, some worth filing into a digital locker of some sort. Like wine, I rarely try the same thing twice: there simply are too many new tastes to explore. Sometimes, though, a recipe speaks to you on an emotional level. And sometimes, making it costs you $500. How did this recipe cost me $500, you ask? The cost of the ingredients totaled no more than about $10.

A can of chickpeas, an avocado, whole wheat couscous, a tube of harissa paste — these probably weren’t your mother’s pantry staples, but they have become the new basics in many home kitchens. They are also the foundation for quick, flavorful and healthy lunches that keep well, and today chef and author Aida Mollenkamp tells us how to turn a handful of these modern pantry staples into appealing and affordable lunches that come together in about ten minutes.

Admit it: Part of the charm of buying your lunch is eating a fancy sandwich. Sure, you know you could make it at home, but when it comes down to it, time is short and it just seems easier to fork over a small handful of cash at that adorable gourmet deli near work. Homemade mayo is a whole other story (a very delicious story!), but even a store bought jar combined with the right ingredients can do wonders to spice up that sorry excuse for a turkey sandwich thrown together in the morning.

In a recent piece about frittatas for The Washington Post, food writer Joe Yonan discussed deciding which cheese to use for his spring frittata. He favors a salty feta, although he recognizes that not everyone agrees. For instance, he mentions that chef and cookbook writer Lidia Bastianich reaches for a rich, whole-milk ricotta (which I’d never thought to do).