Taking a packed lunch to work is one of the best ways to save money, but it’s also one of the best ways to quickly become fed up and disinterested in your lunch hour. After a busy morning at work, coming face to face with a soggy sandwich or wilted salad is a sure way to ruin the rest of your day, which makes popping out for lunch all the more appealing.
Work lunches don’t need to be boring, and you don’t need to eat the same sandwich every day of the week. If you have access to a work kitchen, then your possibilities are endless and there are plenty of tasty and exciting lunch ideas that you can whip up in no time. Even just reworking and rethinking your lunchtime favourites can make them more interesting. With that in mind, here are 5 ways to make your work lunches more interesting.
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Jar Salads
Salads are a healthy and quick option when it comes to work lunches, but they can soon become boring and repetitive. If you’re tired of getting to your salad come lunchtime and finding that it’s wilted or gone soggy, then jar salads are a great way to keep everything fresh, whilst also adding flavours and seasoning. To make a jar salad, you will need a tall or large jar with a tight, secure lid. Then, put your salad dressing at the bottom, followed by wet salad items such as cucumber and tomatoes. After this, add things such as onion, radishes, olives and pickles or jalapenos. Then finish off with salad leaves.
When you’re ready for lunch, simply unscrew the lid and tip the jar upside down onto a plate or bowl and your salad is instantly ready to eat! If you want to add proteins, such as chicken or tofu, or additions such as croutons, then be sure to add these after you’ve plated your salad up, as they could get soggy or impact the flavour if stored together in a jar.
Avoid Just Using Lunchboxes
Whilst lunchboxes are really convenient for transporting your lunch to work, they also limit your creativity without you even recognising it. Most lunchboxes aren’t really leak-proof. They’re only good for holding things such as salads or sandwiches, so you’re less likely to try out new lunch ideas if you’re worried about leaks and spills.
Instead, make sure to add some lunch-sized jars and pots to your lunchbox collection to encourage you to take things such as soups, noodles and sauced-based meals instead. Not only will this broaden your lunchtime horizons, but will help to speed up the process of making your lunch, too. Get a few different sizes so that you can use them to store things such as salad dressings, pasta toppings or even some dips to transform your lunches.
Pimp Up Your Sandwiches
If you regularly have a sandwich and bag of crisps for your dinner, then this can quickly get boring and uninteresting. There are some simple ways in which you can easily transform a regular sandwich into something so much more interesting and tasty.
Firstly, start with the bread. Whilst loaves of bread are good for sandwiches, there are plenty of other options which will instantly transform your sandwiches, such as fresh focaccia, wraps and pitta breads. If you’re a fan of a ham and cheese sandwich, then switching up your ingredients to include carved ham and mozzarella, topped with salt and pepper, as well as a little bit of pesto mayo, will take a dull sandwich to one which you will be considering eating at 9 am, because you just can’t wait until lunchtime!
Include Some Treats Every Now and Then
One of the main reasons why most people take their own lunches to work is to encourage them to eat healthier, but it doesn’t hurt to include some of your favourite treats from time to time to make your lunches all the more interesting. Things such as bakery products, chocolate bars and bags of crisps are things that you should avoid having as part of your lunch every day, but once or twice a week helps to keep your lunch different from day to day and allows you to enjoy your favourite snacks, too.
Alternatively, if you are trying to keep your lunches relatively healthy, then that doesn’t mean that you can give your snacks a bit of a makeover, too. Nuts, dried and fresh fruits and things such as hummus and crudites are great lunchtime snacks to have if you’re trying to cut down on junk foods, and they help to give your body the vitamins and nutrients you need, as well as proper fuel to get through the rest of the workday.
If you want to refresh your healthy lunchtime snacks, then why not look at things such as apple slices with some peanut butter, crudites with hummus and garlic aioli or a fresh fruit salad? You could even make your own snacking trail mix to include nuts, dried fruit pieces (raisins, apricots and banana chips are great choices), dark chocolate chips, small pretzel bites and salted popcorn for a tasty snack to enjoy as part of your lunch or to graze on during the day.
Leftover Sunday Lunches
Sundays aren’t complete without a roast dinner, but if you find that you are left with roast chicken or vegetables at the end of your meal, then why not transform these into a delicious lunch you can enjoy the next day. You can easily turn these ingredients into a tasty bowl of ramen with a few little additions.
To a jar, add some ready-cooked udon noodles, then layer with the chicken and roast vegetables., adding in some fresh chillies or spring onion, and then top with some miso paste, chicken or vegetable stock powder and grated ginger and garlic. At lunchtime, simply top the jar up with boiling water and place the lid on for 5 minutes. Give it a stir, add some cashews, peanuts or sesame seeds and your lunch is ready, without much preparation at all!
