These lunch meal prep ideas give you three ways to fill your lunch container: cold peanut noodles, a no-cook hummus box, or smoky chicken with sweet potatoes. Choose by the time you have to prep and whether you can reheat lunch at school or work.
Each recipe below comes from Beth Moncel of Budget Bytes. You'll find a short guide to what makes each one useful, plus a direct link to her full recipe. There's a five-minute option for the day you mainly want to open the hummus, and a cooked batch for when you have more time in the kitchen.
If lunch is part of your Sunday reset routine, pick your recipe before you make the grocery list. One batch is a useful place to start.
Choose a lunch by prep time and reheating
The hummus box has the shortest prep time. Peanut noodles give you a cold lunch with a little cooking first. Chicken and sweet potatoes take longer and suit a day when you can reheat your meal.
| Lunch | Creator's listed total time | Batch | How you'll eat it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hummus lunch box | 5 minutes | 4 servings | Cold, with pita and vegetables |
| Cold peanut noodle salad | 30 minutes | 4 servings | Cold, with dressing added at lunch |
| Smoky chicken and sweet potatoes | 1 hour 10 minutes | 4 servings | Reheated, with green beans |
Those are the recipe pages' listed times. Give yourself room for your own pace and the dishes. The four-serving batches also mean you can choose one recipe without planning three separate cooking sessions.
1. A hummus lunch box for a no-cook prep day
Beth's hummus lunch box pairs hummus with pita, cucumber, grape tomatoes, and kalamata olives. It suits a snack-style lunch, with several things to dip and pick from as you eat.
For serving, a light dusting of ground cumin is an optional addition to the hummus. The original uses store-bought hummus, so the prep stays short. This is the option to look at when you've got groceries but don't feel like turning on the stove.
Beth also suggests leaving the pita in halves and filling it at lunch. That gives you another way to serve the same ingredients. Choose the dip-and-pita version or the filled pita before you pack it.
Recipe by Beth Moncel of Budget Bytes. Get the full hummus lunch box recipe.
2. Cold peanut noodles for a lunch with crunch
Beth's cold peanut noodle salad combines spaghetti with fine shreds of red cabbage, carrots, cilantro, green onions, and chopped peanuts. The peanut-lime dressing goes in a separate small container for meal prep.
That last detail matters for this recipe: Beth keeps the dressing separate so the noodles don't soak it all up before lunch. You'll stir it through when you're ready to eat.
Choose this one when you want a bowl of noodles and won't have a microwave nearby. You cook the pasta during prep, but lunch itself needs no reheating. The cabbage and carrots bring plenty of crunch, while the peanuts give you something extra in each forkful.
Recipe by Beth Moncel of Budget Bytes. Get the full cold peanut noodle salad recipe.
3. Smoky chicken and sweet potatoes for a warm lunch
Beth's smoky chicken meal prep brings sliced chicken breast, roasted sweet potato halves, and green beans together in one container. The chicken gets a smoked-paprika seasoning, and cinnamon goes on the sweet potatoes.
A small pat of butter on the warm sweet potato is an optional serving addition. This is the longer kitchen session of the three. The sweet potatoes roast while you work on the other parts, and the finished batch makes four servings. Choose it for a week when a warm, cooked lunch sounds good and reheating fits your day.
It also gives you a different lunch format from the noodles or hummus box: a main and two sides, packed together. If that's the meal you're looking forward to opening, the extra cooking time may suit you.
Recipe by Beth Moncel of Budget Bytes. Get the full smoky chicken and cinnamon roasted sweet potato meal prep recipe.
Match the batch to the lunches you'll need
Start with the days you plan to bring lunch and the place you'll eat it. Two cold options give you a choice when reheating won't fit. The chicken batch gives you a warm option when it will.
You can also plan around variety. Four servings may cover several lunches, or you might share a batch at home. Check the original recipe's storage notes as you decide how many portions to make.
Once the food is chosen, there's room to think about the rest of your break. Our fall lunch-break ideas for your first office job cover a nearby walk, a warm drink, and places to sit when you have a little time left after lunch.
