Good Healthy Packed Lunch Ideas

Even the greatest among us can’t get through a workday on only coffee and granola bars. You will experience fatigue, lose focus, and poor performance if you skip a nutritious noon meal. Giving your brain a breather around lunch allows you to recharge your body with the nutrients it needs to keep “killing it” throughout the rest of the day.

But before you reach for that caesar salad or ready-made deli sandwich, keep in mind that while convenient, these pre-packaged foods often have high fat, salt, and sugar content and might make you feel more hungry. Additionally, they rarely satisfy all of your dietary demands. All of the following should be present in a balanced lunch:

Protein
Try to eat protein in every meal as it aids in bodily repair and prolongs feelings of fullness. Make sure that a third of your daily calories come from your lunch. Pick lean foods such canned salmon, chicken breast, or tuna. A hard-boiled egg, beans, tofu, or low-fat cheese are also vegetarian options. Nuts, low-fat cheeses, and hummus are also excellent sources of protein.

Advanced Carbs
Dietary fiber is a type of carbohydrate that offers sustained energy throughout the day. Additionally, fiber keeps you satisfied for hours after eating. The secret is to choose complex carbohydrates, which aid in digestion by breaking down slowly. Whole grains, beans, sweet potatoes, fruits, pasta, and brown rice are a few examples of sources.

Suitable Fats
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats aid in the body’s synthesis of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin D, which is particularly important if you spend your days at an office. Fish, almonds, olives, and avocados all contain healthy fats.

Fruits and Vegetables
They’re vital for a healthy immune system, provide essential vitamins and minerals, and stimulate creativity. Plus, the color and texture they add will make your meals look like art. Make sure a good portion of your daily five servings is included in your lunch.

Water

Bring your own water to make sure you stay hydrated. Make your water bottle work twice as hard by freezing it over night and bringing it with you to lunch. By midday, it will have defrosted into a cool drink and kept your food chilled.

What’s the greatest way to guarantee you’ll fit everything in your lunch? Pack it yourself, of course!

Although it can be difficult at first to come up with inventive, healthy lunch ideas five days a week, having a schedule makes meal preparation much simpler. Here are 14 easy-to-make packed lunches that will give you all the nutrients you need to last till dinner.

Healthy and Creative Lunch Ideas to Take to Work

1. Taco Tuesday

Utilize leftovers from Monday night’s dinner by preparing tacos for lunch on Tuesday. For a complete supper, shred any leftover meat and pack it with corn tortillas, rice, lettuce, pico de gallo, and pepitas.

2. Tuna Salad Protein Box

Look no farther if you want to truly pile on the protein. The addition of an egg and unsalted almonds to tuna salad, which is made with Greek yogurt in place of mayo, ensures that you will get the required amount of protein. This meal is a top pick because to the two servings of fruit and vegetables.

3. Packed Like Sardines

Oily fish is heart-healthy and rich in heart-healthy fats. Cucumbers and sliced portobellos complement the sardines’ salinity and give them some bite. The two servings of fruit provide the ideal amount of carbohydrates, while the addition of almonds (and almond butter) boosts the protein content.

4. Meatless Mexican Lunch Box

No need for meat! Brown rice and beans provide a complete protein while also meeting the needs for fiber and carbohydrates. With homemade guacamole, tomatoes, and fresh greens, there are plenty of vegetables, and the salsa verde sauce makes it fun.

5. Spicy Chicken with Rice and Beans

This meal made in the Instant Pot is quick, simple, delicious, and healthful. The recipe is also adaptable. Use anything you have on hand, such as rice, quinoa, tofu, etc. This meal will be excellent as long as you utilize the cilantro “sunshine sauce,” though.

6. Tofu Sushi Bento Box

Sushi lovers, eat your hearts out! These vegan buns have baked teriyaki tofu and kale and bok cabbage that have been miso-marinated. If you still feel like you need more vegetables, the rest of the lovely bento is filled with Asian pears, persimmons, and carrots.

7. Egg Salad & Veggie Box

We adore how this lunch box’s huge compartment is stuffed with raw, fresh vegetables. The whole-grain crackers serve as the ideal tiny scoops for the egg salad, which has the ideal amount of protein. You can avoid the vending machine later with dried fruits and a square of dark chocolate.

8. Tofu Taco Salad

When a taco salad isn’t presented in a massive fried tortilla bowl, it’s remarkable how nutritious it can be. Extra points if you substitute crumbled tofu for the ground beef to save calories and saturated fat.

9. Avocado Chicken Salad Bento

You can pack more variety into your lunchbox the more slots it has. Three different vegetables, dried strawberries (which are always in season), a tasty chicken salad, and healthy fats from avocado and walnuts, which are rich in nutrients that relieve stress, make this a grazer’s delight.

Turkey Chopped Salad with Orange-Poppy Seed Dressing

Bid adieu to bland cafeteria food and pre-packaged salads. This salad of freshly sliced turkey is loaded with crisp bacon, market-fresh vegetables, and fresh herbs. Include a baggie of golden tortilla strips and a bottle of our OJ-spiked dressing to liven up the idea of a healthy packed lunch.

Santa Fe Turkey Wraps

Although we first came up with this idea as a picnic recipe, it also works as a brown bag lunch idea. This is so that it can be prepared four hours in advance and chilled until lunchtime. An abundance of vegetables, chopped turkey (or chicken, steak, or plant-based meat), spicy cream cheese, and dressing are then added to a tortilla. As soon as you see how delicious these look, it will be difficult to wait till midday!

Avocado-Yogurt Spaghetti with Veggies

Boost the vegetables and reduce your intake of refined starches. Voila! Pasta unquestionably qualifies as a “easy, healthy packed-lunch.” By adding sautéed vegetables, an avocado-yogurt sauce, and fresh herbs to 3 ounces of whole-grain spaghetti, we can stretch it to serve 4 people in this 30-minute supper.

Burrito Bowls

We enjoy everything about it: the seasoned lean beef, the cauliflower rice, the fresh guacamole, and the large amount of vegetables. Assemble your burrito bowl in a container with a tight-fitting cover for this fiber-rich, healthful packed lunch, but omit the lime dressing. For this restaurant-inspired recipe, storing the dressing separately keeps the layers tasty and fresh.

Shrimp and Broccoli Noodle Bowl