When you’re a busy adult who’s short on time, one of the first things you often forgo is making lunches for work or school. Instead of cooking a meal, we turn to convenient, sometimes unhealthy, and often expensive, takeaway options. But, the good news is that making lunch doesn’t have to take up a lot of time. In fact, that’s what this article is all about. We’re going to explore more than 20 quick and easy lunch ideas designed to save you both time and money.
Plus, I am going to give you a few bonus tips on how to find more time in your week to make these lunches.
What To Do If You Don’t Have Time To Cook
When your calendar is jam-packed with events, it can be difficult to make time to cook every day. So what do you do if you don’t have time to make a daily lunch? Here are my top tips:
(If you want to jump straight ahead to the easy cheap lunch ideas, click here!)
1) Create A Rotational Lunch Plan
Deciding what to make for lunch is the first step, but it’s not always as simple as it seems. It’s incredibly easy to waste time and energy just trying to decide what to make for lunch, only to give up and say something along the lines of, “I’ll just pick something up.” Sound familiar?
Thankfully, there is a solution, and it’s all about setting up a rotational meal plan!
Simply decide how many days you want for your rotation. (I recommend 5 or 10 days to give your lunches some variety.) Select a lunch per number of days. Then, rinse and repeat.
What’s nice about this is you can switch out an option when you’re growing tired of something, make seasonal lunch plans, and keep your daily lunches cheap and healthy.
2) Plan 10-Minute Meals
Another way to save yourself time during the week is by planning meals that can be put together in 10 minutes or less.
You’d be surprised how much you can make in 10 minutes!
Some popular 10-minute meal ideas include:
- salads
- sandwiches
- soups
- wraps
- and more!
You will have even more options if you can make some time on the weekend to do meal prepping. Even if it’s only 30 minutes!
3) Meal Prep
When you think of meal prepping, you probably envision the people who do half of their Sunday meal planning for the week ahead, shopping, and cooking. But you won’t have to do this when you set up a rotational meal plan and focus on easy lunch ideas.
Here are some of the top things you can prep ahead of time for your lunches:
- cut up all your vegetables
- cook grains like quinoa or rice
- make your dressings and sauces
- prepare proteins like grilled chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, lentils, or black beans
All of these things can be stored in your fridge to be used in salads, bowls, sandwiches, and more.
4) – Utilize Leftovers
There are two different ways you can use leftovers to save time during the week to save time and stretch your budget.
The first way is to use leftovers for lunches the following day. With this option, you don’t need to make time to put together a lunch since you will just be using leftovers. This can work well, especially for meals like pasta, soups, and stir-fries.
The other way is to use leftovers for dinner the next day, and use the saved cooking time the following day to prepare your lunches.
Both of these are effective ways to reduce the time needed to make your daily lunches!
5) – Make Your Lunch While Cooking Dinner
The final tip is to make your lunch while cooking dinner. And I know this can sound overwhelming at first. But with a little bit of strategy, it is 100% doable. Here are my top tips for doing this effectively:
- Cut and prepare all your vegetables for lunch and dinner at the same time.
- Don’t cook a different kind of protein. Keep it super simple by cooking more of the protein you’re already making!
- Cook extra grains or starches.
The Complete List Of Quick & Easy Lunch Ideas
1. Hasselback Tomato Clubs
Time: 10 Minutes
These bread-free sandwiches are perfect for your lunch when on the go. Not only do they take less than 10 minutes to put together, but they are also flavorful thanks to the variety of ingredients. Plus, if you’re on Keto or are just trying to reduce carbs, this quick lunch option is for you!
2. Basil Chicken Sandwiches
Time: 15 Minutes
While sandwiches can often feel basic and a bit boring, these basil chicken ciabatta sandwiches pack a punch. These little sandwiches are simple yet with an elevated flavor profile. One bit and you’ll be transported to your favorite cafe or bistro!
Tip – if you are meal prepping, you can cook the chicken in advance to save time making the sandwich during the week.
3. Chicken Avocado Salad Roll Up’s
Time: 10 Minutes
On this list of quick & easy lunch ideas, we had to include this popular chicken avocado salad roll-up. Not only is the flavor great, but the recipe yields a lot which is perfect if you are meal-prepping. You can either eat this alone or include it alongside a few snacks to add a bit more variety to your lunch.
4. Italian Deli Pinwheel Sandwiches
Time: 15 Minutes
If you consider yourself a meat lover, then you’re going to love this easy lunch idea! Plus they are easy to make and can even be prepared in advance since there aren’t any ingredients included that would make them go overly soggy.
5. Turkey, Corn, and Sun-Dried Tomato Wraps
Time: 15 Minutes
If you love that sweet and tangy flavor of sun-dried tomatoes, then you’ll fall in love with this quick & easy lunch idea on our list. If, however, you don’t like sun-dried tomatoes, you could easily swap them out with fresh, sliced tomatoes to complete this simple wrap for your homemade lunch.
6. Spicy Buffalo Honey Mustard Ham And Cheese Croissant
Time: 10 Minutes
You’re going to love this spicy take on a classic ham and cheese croissant! The homemade dressing is a perfect balance of spicy and mustard, adding tons of flavor to this simple sandwich option.
7. Slow-Cooker Meal-Prep Burrito Bowls
Time: 7 Hours, 15 Minutes
As I said above, meal prepping can take up a lot of time if you don’t have a strategy in place. However, if you can use a slow cooker, it can help to cut meal prep time down significantly, and this recipe does exactly that!
The chicken itself takes 7 hours to make. However, once the chicken is cooked, you can throw these bowls together in less than 10 minutes, perfect if you need to throw together lunch in the morning.
8. Spicy Tuna Bowls
Time: 20 Minutes
This easy lunch idea only needs 4 ingredients, plus whatever you need to make the sauces, making this a super simple and budget-friendly lunch idea!
The recipe calls for cauliflower rice which is great if you’re trying to eat more veggies or are on a low-carb diet like Atkins, Keto, or Paleo. However, if you prefer actual rice, you can easily make the sub without altering your cook time or compromising on flavor.
9. Quick Guacamole Quinoa Salad
Time: 30 Minutes
Don’t let the 30 minutes needed to make this bowl fool you! It’s actually a very simple recipe to throw together. Cooking the quinoa is what takes the most time, but you can do this while cooking dinner or meal prepping at the beginning of the week.
Plus, it’s light yet packed with flavor and is a great option if you’re not only health-conscious but also budget-conscious.
10. White Bean Arugula Salad
Time: 30 Minutes
Another lunch idea that you will love is this white bean arugula salad! While it doesn’t require that many ingredients, the homemade dressing is bursting with flavor.
This lunch option will take you a bit longer to make than some of the other recipes on our list. However, if you want to reduce the time it’ll take to make this meal and are fine with going meatless, you can remove the pancetta. Cooking the pancetta accounts for a good portion of the overall cook time.
11. Easy Buffalo Chicken Salad
Time: 10 Minutes
If you like spicy food, you’re sure to enjoy this buffalo chicken salad! This recipe is all about using your leftover chicken which is an awesome strategy for saving both time and money. However, you can make fresh chicken if you don’t have any leftovers.
12. Pesto Chicken Salad
Time: 30 Minutes
This versatile pesto chick salad is a quick and easy recipe you can make for your weekday lunches. You can use it in sandwiches, wraps, quesadillas, bowls, and even on top of salads, making it a perfect meal prep idea!
13. Gluten-Free Greek Pasta Salad
Time: 15 Minutes
Do you like pasta salad? Many people think of this as something that goes well with dinner or for a potluck, but it can also make a really budget-friendly lunch option! The ingredients are simple, and you can easily prep this in advance to be eaten throughout the week.
14. Ham and Cheddar Lunch Box Muffins
Time: 40 Minutes
Do you often find yourself eating lunch on the go? These little muffins are the perfect cheap, easy lunch idea if this sounds like you since you can eat them while walking, driving, answering emails, etc. While they do take a while to bake, they only take a few minutes to prep, so you can easily make these while doing other tasks too.
15. Baked Potato Soup
Time: 45 Minutes
Soup is almost always a budget-friendly option. And this hearty potato soup is no exception. The recipe yields a lot of soap that can be spread out over several lunches. Whether you make this once and eat it a few days straight, or if you freeze some to be used the following weeks, this creamy soup won’t disappoint!
16. Healthy Chicken Lime & Avocado Soup
Time: 35 Minutes
Another great soup recipe that you can make once and eat multiple times is this chicken lime and avocado soup. It tastes great, is very healthy, and doesn’t cost a lot to make.
17. Cabbage Apple Slaw with Honey-Lime Dressing
Time: 1 Hour
Slaw is often thought of as a side dish. But I dare you to try and push this delish apple and cabbage slaw to the side! This healthy, low-carb lunch idea is simple but full of amazing flavors and lots of crunch.
18. Meal-Prep Turkey Meatballs with Zucchini Noodles
Time: 35 Minutes
Love spaghetti but are looking for a healthier option? These turkey meatballs are healthy, flavorful, and pair beautifully with zucchini noodles. With this recipe, you’ll get all of the things you love about a pasta dish without feeling heavy afterward which is perfect when you have meetings all afternoon.
19. 10-Minute Gluten-Free Vegetable Lo Mein
Time: 10 Minutes
Looking for something to throw together that is quick but tastes delicious? This vegetable lo-mein is exactly what you are looking for! Plus, you can add as many vegetables as you want, making it a perfect way to clean out your fridge at the end of the week.
20. Cucumber Subs
Time: 10 Minutes
Subs and sandwiches are great, but the carbs can start to stack up quickly if you’re not careful. But, with these cucumber subs, you are getting the same great flavor, all with the satisfying crunch of the cucumber!
21. Cold Noodles in Peanut Sauce
Time: 20 Minutes
And the final easy cheap lunch idea is this cold noodle bowl, combined with homemade peanut sauce. This is something you can easily cook when doing your meal prep or the night before while cooking dinner that won’t disappoint in flavor!
Is it cheaper to make your own lunch?
There’s no doubt that prices are on the rise, that includes takeout and convenience foods as well. In contrast, making your own lunch is a far cheaper option. This is especially true if you can be strategic with your groceries and ingredients.
For example, a great source of protein that is often forgotten about is beans. A single serving of beans has 7-8 grams of protein in it. You can buy a can of beans for less than $2 and split it over two days which is just $1 per day for good quality protein.
Making your own lunch is also a great way to eat healthier and make sure you’re not consuming excess calories or processed ingredients.
What is the easiest thing to make for lunch?
Many people find that the easiest thing to make for lunch is either sandwiches or bowls. This is because:
- they take less than 10-minutes to put together
- you can prepare most, if not all of the ingredients in advance
- they taste great cold or even at room temperature
- plus, you can use whatever ingredients you have in your fridge or pantry
Overall, it is 100% possible to make your own lunches, even if you’re extremely short on time.
I hope that this list of quick & easy lunch ideas has inspired you to start making your food again, save money, and eat a healthier lunch!
Read Next:
49+ Cheap Food To Buy When You’re Broke & Hungry
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