Whether your workplace doesn’t have a microwave, or it smells or looks disgusting, sometimes using a microwave to heat up your lunch just isn’t really an option. So it’s nice to have some ideas in your back pocket for lunches you can eat cold.
1) Tuna White Bean Salad
Tuna is a great, cheap, and handy high-protein item to have in your food pantry. This is perfect to top on any salad mix that you like, whether it’s spinach or spring mix. Add some white beans in there for a nice balance and some fiber, and you can make it truly colorful with cucumbers and tomatoes, whatever you like to put on your salad.
So you’ve got your protein and plenty of fiber, and you can add some dressing on top for seasoning. If you’re going for a low carb option, it’s perfect as is. If you need some more carbs, you could add some bread or toast, yogurt, or fruit on the side, or even put some couscous or quinoa right in the salad.
2) Chickpea Salad Sandwich
Chickpeas are another item that’s really handy to have in your food pantry. They’re so versatile, and they’ll give you some fiber and protein. Combine them with mustard, celery, and pickles, and mix it all up with whatever mayo you like, whether that’s avocado oil mayo, regular mayo, or Greek yogurt.
Then put it in whatever bread you like, such as whole wheat, pumpernickel, rye, or sourdough, and make a delicious sandwich out of it. You could dice up some tomatoes if you want more color, and it’s good to go.
3) Greek Salad
This is such a great meal because you’re going to have some chicken in there. Maybe it’s leftover chicken from the night before, or maybe it’s canned shredded chicken, which is great to have in the pantry for those in-a-pinch moments. You can put that over a bed of whatever lettuce you like. I love spinach, but you choose what works for you.
Then add whatever Mediterranean Greek ingredients you like, some garbanzo beans, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, and feta cheese, with a balsamic vinaigrette on top. You can have some additional carbs on the side if you want, and if not, beans are an awesome choice inside.
4) Soba Noodle Salad
This is such a great one to have because you get plenty of veggies in here, and I love to add edamame to this one as well. You could add some meat on top if you’d like, but the peanut sesame dressing is going to be really delicious on this noodle salad.
5) Caprese Grain Bowl
Who doesn’t love caprese, right? That combination of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil is so good, and you can add some olive oil or a balsamic glaze if you’d like. This is such a delicious lunch idea served over whatever grains you like. You could serve it over couscous, quinoa, whatever grain you want. I like those choices because they have some fiber and protein in there.
6) Chicken Slaw Wrap
You can use your leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, or canned chicken and combine it with some crunchy coleslaw. In your coleslaw, you could use yogurt or mayo, whatever you have. Then wrap it all up in a low carb wrap, a spinach wrap, or a flour tortilla, whatever you have. I love this one because it’s a complete meal with the protein, veggies, and carbs all together.
7) Sesame Chicken Salad
You can use your leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, or canned chicken from the pantry and combine it with some delicious soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. Put some edamame in here if you’d like, and you could even add some mandarin oranges if you like those with it.
You could put this on some sourdough or whatever bread you have, and it’s delicious. You’ve got the protein and the carb, plus whatever veggies you decide to add. You could put some carrot sticks on the side if you’d like.
8) Hummus Snack Plate
If you don’t have a favorite hummus yet, I heard it’s very easy to make at home with garbanzo beans, olive oil, and whatever flavorings you like to put inside. My favorite comes from Trader Joe’s. Find one that you love, and you’ll be feeling creative with all the things you can do with hummus.
Personally, I like to have some naan bread with it. You could find the large naan or the bite size, like the round naan bread. Serve this with diced tomatoes, diced cucumber, some carrots, and maybe some kalamata olives for such a great meal. You could also have some meat with this if you’d like.
9) Turkey Apple Sandwich
This is kind of like a chicken salad sandwich, but with turkey. It’s great because you’ll get plenty of protein, and this could be freshly made or leftover from last night. Dice up some apples and celery, and whatever else you like to put in your chicken salad, you can trade the apples for craisins, whatever you like.
I think the turkey, apple, and celery have such a great combination, with the crunchiness and the sweetness together. You could wrap this up in a tortilla, like a spinach tortilla, or put it on a sandwich like sourdough. What a delicious meal.
10) Smoked Salmon Bagel
Who said that salmon, lox, and bagels can only be served at breakfast? You can definitely have an everything bagel with some cream cheese, smoked salmon, cucumbers, and red onions right there for lunch. It’s perfect. You’ve got your protein, your carbs, and whatever fruits and veggies you add with it. This is such a delicious meal, and it feels fancy, but it’s not.
11) Tomato Mozzarella Pasta Salad
You could use any pasta you have on hand, whether it’s rotini, penne, or macaroni. Combine it with some olive oil for a delicious flavor, along with tomato, mozzarella, basil, and a little bit of balsamic vinegar. You could add some meat on the side if you want a little more protein, but the flavor is going to be so good. It’s like a caprese pasta.
12) Mediterranean Lentil Salad
Lentils are so good for you. They have some fiber and protein, providing you with lots of nutrients and helping you stay fuller longer with all that fiber. You can combine them with cucumbers, roasted red peppers, parsley, and feta, whatever you have in your refrigerator, to make a really refreshing Mediterranean dish.
Serve it over whatever lettuce you like, such as arugula, spinach, kale, or a mixture of all of them. This is a great meal, and you can add some meat to it, like chicken, if you’d like. You could also have some carb on the side, like some naan bread.
13) Pesto Chicken Salad
Pesto is such a favorite in our house because it goes with so many different flavors. In this recipe, combine the chicken with the pesto and some tomatoes and whatever beans you have. You could put cucumbers in this too, whatever flavors or fruits and veggies you have, just throw them in.
My favorite would be chicken, pesto, and tomatoes, and I’d probably add some mozzarella cheese. If you have a string cheese, you can cube that up and put it in. Serve it over whatever lettuce you have, I like spinach a lot, and you could add some olive oil or balsamic vinegar on top to give it a little dressing.
14) Avocado Egg Toast
Who says you can’t have eggs for lunch? If you’re at work, I would do a hard-boiled egg, which is probably the easiest way to go. Bring some bread, and a lot of times there’s a toaster at work you can use, then bring a fresh avocado to smear on and add the egg, cheese, and everything but the bagel seasoning if you have it.
If you’re at home, this is even easier. You can have a fried egg over medium or over easy, depending on whether you want the yolk a little runny. This is such a delicious meal, whether it’s for breakfast or lunch, and you’ll get protein, healthy fats from the avocado, and carbs from the toast. It’s a great meal.
15) Shrimp Avocado Salad
Your shrimp doesn’t have to be fresh, it could be straight out of the freezer. You can keep a bag of frozen shrimp on hand for opportunities like this, when you need to add a little protein and patch together a lunch. Just cook it up and combine it with some avocado, which gives you healthy fat, over whatever salad mix you like, such as spinach, kale, or spring mix.
Then add some cucumbers, tomatoes, and your favorite dressing on top, and this gives you a really great balanced meal. If you want to add a little carbs on the side, you absolutely could do that as well.
16) Niçoise-Style Salad
This is such a delicious one because you get plenty of protein with the tuna and hard-boiled eggs, plus some veggies like green beans, olives, and a small potato. You’ll have all that you need right here in this meal: protein, carbs, and veggies. It’s such a great complete meal with some vinaigrette on top.
17) Cottage Cheese Bowl
Yes, cottage cheese is still having a moment. It’s a great way to add protein to any meal, and we love scrambling it up in our eggs in the morning to increase the protein content. But in this lunch, you can put cottage cheese with whatever you have around.
I see a lot of people doing cottage cheese and then adding lettuce to it, along with spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, whatever you have lying around. Just chop it up and throw it in there. The cottage cheese is delicious and adds some moisture and protein to that meal as well.
18) Prosciutto Melon Salad
Such a great combination with the saltiness of the prosciutto and the sweetness of the melon. Add this on a bed of lettuce and you’ll have protein, veggies, and the sweetness of the melon, and you can put a little Parmesan and olive oil on top. If you want carbs, you can add some on the side, like a baked potato or some pasta.
19) Peanut Chicken Rice Bowl
The peanut sauce in this recipe is going to be so delicious when you combine it with the chicken, cucumbers, and carrots. You’ll get protein from the chicken, plenty of color from the cucumbers and carrots, and of course carbs from the rice.
You could use whatever rice you want, whether it’s brown rice or white rice, or you could even use quinoa for a little extra protein and fiber. Chop in some peanuts for extra crunch.
20) BLT Salad
It’s like a BLT but on lettuce, so why not? You’ve got your bacon, lettuce, and tomato, so you’ll get protein plus plenty of fiber and nutrients from the fresh produce. Use whatever lettuce you like, whether it’s romaine, spinach, or kale, and just make it into a delicious salad. I think some chopped-up mozzarella or string cheese might be yummy in this one as well, and ooh, some avocado too.
21) Veggie Couscous Bowl
If you haven’t had couscous yet, it’s a grain that looks like little balls, and it’s delicious. It’s a great way to change it up from rice all the time. You could roast some veggies for plenty of fiber, and then you have the carbs from the couscous.
If you want to add some toppings, try some cheese, like chopped-up string cheese, goat cheese, or feta. Then you could add some meat if you’d like, such as chicken, or you could even do salmon to get a little extra protein in this meal. Some garbanzo beans would be good too.
22) Spicy Dumpling Salad
I always seem to have some sort of dumplings or potstickers in the freezer, and they’re perfect for a quick meal. You can cook them on the stove ahead of time and get whatever flavored ones you like. We like the ones with little veggies inside, or chicken and veggies, to give us a little bit of protein.
Then you can serve them with some sort of dipping sauce or dressing. We like to use soy sauce, but any sort of dressing, like a rice vinegar, would be good too. I would probably add a little more lettuce and put the dumplings on top to give it more veggies and fiber to keep you fuller longer.
23) Turkey Hummus Pita
This is such a fun meal, and it gets you away from the standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Take your pita, whether it’s a regular or whole wheat pita, and spread whatever type of hummus you like inside, such as garlic hummus or Mediterranean hummus.
Then put your ingredients inside, and I would do some turkey for protein. You can add cucumbers, tomatoes, and feta cheese if you really want to lean into the Mediterranean theme. It’s going to give you a colorful, high-protein, delicious meal with carbs as well.
24) Antipasto Lunch Box
This is like a lunch charcuterie board, which sounds really fun. You can combine whatever you like, such as prosciutto if you want meat, or artichokes, olives, grapes, and cheese. I have so many favorite cheeses from Trader Joe’s, like the Unexpected Cheddar, which is a favorite for us right now, and goat cheese is so delicious too, along with the Syrah cheddar.
There are so many different delicious cheeses, and you can add some crackers, like whole grain wheat thin crackers. Have some jam or just use fresh fruit, like figs, which would be really delicious. That combination of salty meat and cheese with the crunch of the cracker and the sweetness of the fruit hits all the flavor points, and it’s going to be such a delicious meal.
25) Curry Chicken Salad
This is one of my absolute favorites, because I love curry. If you haven’t explored curry, please do, it’s so good, and you’ll get lots of protein from the chicken. Mixing that curry and chicken, you can dice up some other fruits or veggies if you’d like, or just put it on top of a bed of lettuce like spinach or kale.
Then I would chop up some tomatoes, and what I like to have with my curry chicken is some broccoli and carrots. You could do that either cold in the salad, or cook it the night before and put it on top. That would be a great combination.
26) Quinoa Tabbouleh
If you haven’t had quinoa yet, it’s really delicious. It’s a grain, but it actually has protein in it, plus fiber, so it’s a great way to switch up from rice and get a little more nutrition. Tabbouleh is such a wonderful, colorful, traditional dish with parsley and mint, all chopped up to give it great flavor.
You could serve this with chicken, but there’s already going to be plenty of protein and vegetables. It’s going to be a colorful, very filling, and satisfying dish.
27) Peanut Butter Overnight Oats
Overnight oats are so fun because they’re literally something you can make the night before. You just throw a couple of ingredients in a bowl, and in the morning it’s all ready. I like to throw the oats in and then choose whether I want yogurt or milk, and from there you just go with whatever flavors or theme of overnight oats you want.
Peanut butter and banana is a really great combination, and you could also do cinnamon and chopped apples, which is a favorite of mine. These give you some whole grains and are so easy to grab and go, whether as breakfast when you’re in a hurry or if you need to eat at work.
If you’re having this as a meal, I would probably want a little extra protein in there. You could add some nuts or have a hard-boiled egg on the side, and you’ll also get some protein if you add Greek yogurt or cottage cheese.
28) Turkey Roll-Ups
For your turkey roll-ups, you can use any kind of tortilla you have, such as low carb or spinach. I like the raw tortillas myself, the ones you have to cook on the stove and just heat on each side. They have fewer ingredients and last a while since you keep them in the fridge.
Slice up some turkey and put it on with some cream cheese, and you could add some cranberry sauce for almost a Thanksgiving sort of flavor. I would probably put some veggies on the side too, like apples, which would be really fun, or some carrots or broccoli.
29) Falafel Salad Bowl
You can absolutely eat this cold, with some yummy tahini dressing. If you haven’t tried tahini yet, it’s really good, and it’s plant-based, so you’ll get some fiber and nutrients from it. Have some cucumbers on hand and maybe some cherry tomatoes you can dice up.
You can add dressing to this and put it over whatever lettuce you like. I love spinach, but kale or romaine would be really great too. If you want, you can add some meat like chicken, but you don’t have to. You could also put some garbanzo beans in here for a little extra.
30) Chicken Caesar Wrap
Yes, I ate this for lunch the other day, and it’s such a great one. You can just buy a bagged chicken Caesar salad, make it up, and get your tortilla, whether it’s spinach, the raw ones I like to cook at home, or low carb. Put the Caesar dressing down and top it with your chicken.
You can buy chicken that’s already cooked at Trader Joe’s, and probably other grocery stores as well, so it’s just cold cooked chicken, or it can be leftover from the night before, canned, or rotisserie. It doesn’t matter, it’s going to give you plenty of protein. Put that on the tortilla with the chicken Caesar salad mix straight from the bag, roll it up, and voila, you’ve got a complete lunch.
31) Sardine Toast Kit
Sardines are great, and either you love them or you hate them. They’re pretty fishy and they’re a small fish, and you’ll get some calcium when you eat them complete with the bones. There’s so much you can do with them, and they’re actually very healthy for you.
You can combine them with some diced tomatoes and parsley and put it on whatever toast you have. Whole wheat toast would be really great for some extra fiber, and what a great spin on a sandwich. You’ll get some protein and carbs, and I’d serve some salad, veggies, or fruit on the side.
32) Steak Salad
This is perfect if you had steak the night before. I’m always encouraging my husband, please don’t eat all the dinner, leave me a little bit of leftovers, because I’m absolutely going to put that steak on top of a salad the following day. I’ll probably use spinach, but you use the salad you like, and I’ll chop up some cherry tomatoes and cucumbers and maybe add some dressing.
I like a white balsamic vinaigrette, but any dressing would be yummy on this, and you could even add some avocado if you’d like a little more. There’s so much you can do with this, and you’ll get lots of protein and colorful greens.
You could add some carbs on the side to make you fuller longer. When you combine protein, carbs, and a fruit or veggie, you’ll have more satiety and feel fuller longer.
33) Panzanella Salad
This is a delicious, colorful meal because you have the tomatoes and cucumbers, and you can bring the dressing on the side. If you’re bringing this to work, keep the dressing in a little container and keep your toasted bread cubes separate so they stay nice and crisp.
Then combine it all together with whatever lettuce you have. A spinach or kale would be nice and green, giving you lots of vitamins and nutrients. If you want a little more protein on the side, you absolutely could add some leftover meat from the night before, like salmon, chicken, or turkey.
