Lunchtime Need a lunch recipe? What should I make for lunch. You’ve come to the right place. We’ve rounded up our favorite recipes, ranging from low-calorie lunches to comfort food for those rainy days. Whether you need to pack for work or just want a quick and easy meal at home, we got you covered with these delicious recipes! I’m sitting here typing this with a big hole in my stomach. It’s not because I haven’t eaten breakfast, lunch or dinner yet. It’s because I just finished making the most epic lunch of all time…but I can’t tell you what it is. Why? Because if I tell you what’s in it, then it won’t be a surprise next time you make it yourself. Which brings me to show you how to create your own What Should I Make For Lunch blog post.
What Should I Make For Lunch
IMHO, lunch is the best meal of the day. It breaks up the workday and gives you something to look forward to. These days, treat yourself to a satisfying and easy lunch while you’re working from home, even if you have just 10 minutes to work with. Here are some ideas.
1. Microwave 3-Minute Omelet in a Mug
Just combine eggs and whatever veggies and/or cheese you have on hand into a microwave-safe mug and you’re three minutes from lunch.
2. Microwave Loaded Baked Potato
Baking potatoes in the oven takes a while, but you can use your microwave as a shortcut. You can even heat up bacon simultaneously for the easiest loaded potatoes ever.
3. Three-Ingredient Chocolate Avocado Smoothie
4. Veggie-Packed Cauliflower Rice
Grab a bag of riced cauliflower and your favorite fresh or frozen veggies and toss them into a skillet. Season with soy sauce and add a scrambled egg for a speedy take on fried rice.
Canned tuna fish is the easiest way to turn a simple salad into something filling and delicious. Combine arugula, chopped tomatoes, avocado, red onion, olives, and tuna and dress with lemon juice and olive oil.
6. Sesame Garlic Noodles
This recipe calls for chickpea spaghetti, but you can really use whatever long pasta you have on hand like linguine, angel hair, or rice noodles.
Start with hearty bread (like sourdough), your favorite cheese, and pretty much any sliced deli meat. Slather on some Dijon mustard and cream cheese, then pop ’em into the oven until warm and melty.
8. Taco Lettuce Wraps
Use any ground meat you have on hand as the filling for these Mexican-inspired lettuce wraps. Then jazz them up with your favorite toppings like corn, salsa, jalapeño, and diced avocado.
8. Sheet Pan Turkey Melts
While this recipe calls for turkey, Swiss cheese, and white cheddar, you can use whatever deli meats you like best. Layer a few slices between thick-sliced bread and broil it in the oven for five minutes. Then garnish with your favorite veggies and condiments.
10. Pesto Tortellini Pasta Salad
Worthy of a summer picnic, this decadent tortellini pasta salad surprisingly only takes 10 minutes. Boil store-bought tortellini, toss it with sun-dried tomato and store-bought pesto, then garnish with toasted pine nuts.
The secret ingredient that makes this spaghetti so indulgent: cream cheese. Just trust us here.
12. Smoked Salmon And Avocado Sushi Bowl
Start with the miracle product that is microwaveable rice, and you can whip up this “sushi” bowl in minutes using only no-cook ingredients.13. Street Corn Avocado Toast
If you have leftover corn on the cob on hand, turn it into a jazzed-up avocado toast. Otherwise, canned corn works just fine.
14. Black Bean And Corn Quesadilla
You can fill quesadillas with whatever ingredients you have on hand, but we love this version that features mostly all non-perishables like canned black beans, corn, and bell pepper.
15. Brown Butter Sage Gnocchi
Keep a bag of store-bought potato, sweet potato, or cauliflower gnocchi in the fridge and quickly cook it with your favorite pasta sauce or a simple mix of butter, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
16. Mediterranean Tostadas
Start with corn or flour tortillas and top them with a chopped salad made with cucumber, tomatoes, green olives, shallots, and parsley tossed in olive oil and lemon juice.
17. Smoked Salmon Pinwheels
For a meal made with so few ingredients — tortillas, smoked salmon, cream cheese, spinach and some optional herbs — these roll-ups taste super fancy.
18. Chicken Teriyaki With Broccoli
If you cut boneless, skinless chicken breasts into small pieces, it cooks in no time. If you don’t want to make the teriyaki sauce from scratch feel free to use a store-bought version.
19. White Bean Soup With Parmesan
Made with mostly pantry ingredients such as vegetable broth, canned tomatoes, dried herbs, and canned white beans, this soup is a perfect no-fuss lunch you can throw together when you’re low on fresh groceries.
20. Wonton Soup
Grab a bag of frozen wontons or gyoza filled with shrimp, veggies, chicken, or pork, and turn it into a comforting soup that rivals your favorite take-out version.
21. One-Pot Shrimp Scampi
Defrost some frozen shrimp and cook them with butter, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, and chicken broth. Serve over cooked pasta, orzo, rice, or even over a salad.
22. Margarita Naan Pizza
Craving pizza in a pinch? Heat some store bought naan covered with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese in the broiler. Or get creative and use any of your favorite flatbread toppings.
23. Italian Chicken Wraps
You’ll want to use prepared chicken — rotisserie, leftover grilled, or whatever you can get your hands on — to make this easy lunch wrap, which is garnished with avocado, lettuce, tomato, crunchy croutons, and creamy mayo.
24. Reuben In A Bowl
Enjoy all the flavors of this beloved deli sandwich, but in keto form. This bowl starts with cauliflower rice at the base and calls for coleslaw mix, chopped corned beef, and red onion, all tossed in creamy Thousand Island dressing (and yes, store bought does the trick).25. Avocado Caprese Salad
Even if you hate lettuce you’ll love this fresh summer salad made with avocado, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, red onions, and tangy balsamic vinegar.27. Asian Chickpea Stir-Fry
28. 10-Minute Chicken and Avocado Roll-Ups
You don’t need many ingredients (and certainly nothing fancy) to make these chicken and avocado wraps. Eat it whole or slice it up into smaller roll-ups.
29. 10-Minute Peanut Noodles
Not only are rice noodles delicious, but they cook in about three minutes. Lather on the peanut butter, Sriracha, garlic, honey, and sesame oil and voilà: an irresistible Asian-inspired lunch.
30. Garlic Tuna Lemon Pasta
If you want to make this pasta creamier, swap the water for either milk or half and half. You can always add whatever ingredients are in your kitchen like capers, peppers, sun dried tomato, or onion.
1. Stuffed Avocado
Oh avocados, how we love you. They’re healthy, filling and just as versatile as a baked potato without the carb overload. Bonus: they’re ready to eat! Stuff them with this shrimp salad recipe or swap for chicken or egg salad anytime.
2. Sweet Potato Toast With Chickpeas + Avocado Dressing
Sweet potato toast is not only easy to make and really good for you, but totally delicious as well! Have fun with your toppings, which can be sweet or savory. We use spicy chickpeas with a tangy avocado dressing, which pairs beautifully with the sweetness of the potato toast.
3. Tahini Salmon Salad
Having a healthy meal for lunch is hard when you’re busy. Try this quick-and-easy recipe for your post-run lunch or in between Zoom meetings. All you need for this tahini salmon salad is a skillet, a few ingredients, and 20 minutes of your time.
3. Low-Carb Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs
These upgraded smoked salmon deviled eggs are a low-carb treat that’s perfect for an awesome packed lunch. If you like this recipe — tried our curried pickled eggs too!
4. Vegetarian Egg Muffins
Of all the egg recipes shared on Pinterest, these mini egg frittatas, developed Just a Taste blogger Kelly Senyei, were the most popular back in the day. We recreated the dish in our own test kitchen and we have to say they’re our new favorite go-to healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
5. Watermelon Mozzarella Ceviche
Watermelon is in its prime during the summer months and perfect for cooling down any time of day. We remixed ceviche, used a ton of juicy watermelon, fresh mozzarella and some herbs for this perfect and light summer salad.
6. Keto-Friendly Steak Tacos
Add your favorite taco fillings inside this crispy, Keto-friendly cheddar cheese shell for a beginner recipe that’s easy enough to tackle on a weekday for one person. The recipe may leave you with a little leftover steak… but who’s complaining about that? Chop it up and add it to a salad the next day.
6. Keto Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs
We replaced the traditional breadcrumbs in the meatballs with blanched almond meal and amped up the keto-ness by stuffing the balls with cheese and flavoring with a sugar-free jarred marinara with diced pancetta. Yum! You literally throw everything into the Instant Pot and approximately 15 minutes later, lunch is ready!
7. Roasted Veggie Quinoa Bowl
These herbed quinoa bowls are super simple to cook, delicious and gluten free — and when something is that colorful, you know it’s good for you.;) Feel free to change up the vegetables depending on what’s in season (hello, summer veggie recipes!) or what you have in the fridge, and swap the egg for an alternative protein if you like.
8. Quinoa Cakes With Ricotta Fig Bruschetta
This deconstructed, reconstructed recipe is gourmet, healthy and hearty. And delicious. Try it for lunch with a side salad or as a late summer party appetizer!
9. Zoodles With Almond Pesto
Almond Pesto Zoodles (aka zucchini noodles) are low-carb, gluten-free and super easy to make. Plus, we guarantee our homemade almond pesto will be your go-to recipe. Why almonds? For one, they’re less caloric than pine nuts (which are traditionally used in pesto). They also tend to be less expensive and add a super nutty flavor to the pesto that we love. Bon appétit!
10. Zoodle Pad Thai
Here’s a carb-free takeout hack that’s packed with fresh veggies, herbs and crunchy peanuts! For this Pad Thai (with a twist) recipe, cook up spiralized zucchini instead of rice noodles and load it with wholesome ingredients to keep you full until dinner.
11. Lemon Chicken Skewers
This Half Baked Harvest recipe is chock-full of Moroccan- and Greek-inspired flavors and truly the most delicious, addicting, creamy feta sauce. It’s perfect if you need something quick and easy to cook up for lunch at home.
12. Brown-Butter Salmon With Tomatoes and Capers
13. Keto Cheesy Brussel Sprouts
Remember Brussels sprouts gratin — a bubbly, cheesy baked casserole loaded with a breadcrumb topping? It’s not exactly low-carb.To curb our craving, we made the indulgent recipe over and developed this rich and satisfying three-cheese Brussels sprouts dish that’s perfect if you’re craving comfort food for lunch (but want to avoid the afternoon slump after). It’s a one-pot dish too that you can prepare over the stovetop vs. the oven. Win-win during the warmer months!