Featuring salads, sandwiches and wraps, these cold lunch ideas are perfect for teachers. During lunch, simply pull out one of these meals and enjoy, no microwave needed! Recipes like our Turkey Cheddar Lettuce Wraps and Chickpea Tuna Salad are healthy and delicious midday meals you’ll add to your regular rotation.
Turkey and Cheddar Lettuce Wraps
Crispy green lettuce leaves hold the filling inside this low-carb turkey wrap. It’s perfect for a quick and easy lunch or dinner on the go.
Creamy Chicken Salad with Pesto and Greens
For a healthy twist on creamy chicken salad, we replaced half the mayonnaise with basil pesto. Serve over green vegetables or make a sandwich for a healthy lunch.
Tuna salad with chickpeas
This chickpea tuna salad with capers, feta, and cucumber makes the perfect lunch to pack for work or school. You can prepare the salad the day before (just be sure to keep the spinach separate and dress the salad just before serving).
Pickled Beet, Arugula and Herbed Goat Cheese Sandwich
This pickled beet, arugula and goat cheese sandwich is peppery with creamy notes from the goat cheese and sweet and tangy undertones from the pickled beets. Chopped walnuts add nuttiness and crunch to this easy sandwich.
Spring green salad with boiled eggs
This salad capitalizes on fresh spring produce and benefits from a simple protein boost thanks to hard-boiled eggs. Make this healthy salad for lunch by mixing the salad base and simmering a batch of hard-boiled eggs on the weekend. Then you’ll be ready to simply add an egg or two with a drizzle of tangy vinaigrette for the easiest spring salad on the go.
Vegetable and cream cheese sandwich
The cream cheese in this veggie and cream cheese sandwich adds flavor while holding everything together. This colorful and balanced sandwich is crispy thanks to the cucumber and peppers, sweet thanks to the tomatoes and beets and spicy thanks to the banana peppers.
Protein Bistro Lunch Box
Inspired by Starbucks bistro boxes, this affordable lunch is easy to prepare and pack yourself. With protein-rich ingredients like a hard-boiled egg, edamame, and tuna, this bistro-style lunch will satisfy you.
Chick-fil-A Copycat Kale Salad
This Chick-fil-A Kale Salad has a sweet and tangy dressing coating tender kale and collard leaves that have been gently massaged. This salad can sit for an hour or two; just be sure to toss it before serving to redistribute the dressing.
Chopped Veggie Grain Bowls with Turmeric Dressing
In about 10 minutes, you can make a week’s worth of lunches using 4 simple ingredients from your local specialty grocery store. To minimize prep, we take advantage of the pre-chopped fresh vegetable mix and frozen quinoa (which heats in the microwave in less than 5 minutes). These crunchy chopped salad bowls are high in fiber but lower in calories, making them perfect for those following a low-calorie diet.
Chickpea “chicken” salad
This chickpea salad is a vegetarian version of a classic chicken salad. It doesn’t mimic the flavor of chicken; he replaces the chickpeas with chicken. This is an ideal recipe if you are looking for simple and healthy lunch ideas. It’s a delicious, fiber-rich vegetarian alternative! Plus, it’s easily portable, perfect for picnics, and will surely upgrade your usual office lunch. So whether you need healthy meal ideas for work or school, or healthy meal ideas for kids and teens, this fresh and creamy chickpea salad may be the answer.
Tuna salad with eggs
This simple tuna salad with egg has a clean, balanced flavor. The capers and lemon provide acidity to help everything come together and the chopped arugula adds a peppery touch. Enjoy it with green vegetables or on a slice of your favorite whole grain bread.
Chicken Apple Kale Wraps
Using kale leaves instead of bread to wrap your filling makes this healthy chicken breakfast recipe low in calories (and carbs!). If you can’t find lacinato (aka Tuscan) kale, try kale for your wrap.
Meal-Prepared Turkey Cobb Salad
Cubed deli turkey replaces chicken, while cheddar replaces blue cheese in this easy Cobb-inspired salad. Protein-rich turkey and cheese, along with eggs and bacon, give the salad staying power, so you won’t be hungry an hour after eating. Feel free to substitute cooked chicken or chickpeas for the turkey to mix things up. Serve the salad immediately or package it in individual containers and you’ll be ready for lunch for days.
Cucumber salad, hummus and pita Bento Box Lunch
Enjoy this refreshing bento box idea during your lunch break. It combines cucumber salad, hummus, pita and more for a satisfying work lunch.
Spinach salad with tuna and olives
This tuna salad recipe is upgraded with olives, feta, and tahini vinaigrette. Served over baby spinach, this is the perfect easy and light salad for lunch or dinner.
Green Goddess Sandwich
This Green Goddess Sandwich is a fresh and satisfying sandwich. The dressing packs a flavorful punch with capers and lemon juice. The cucumber and sprouts add crunch, and the seasoned avocado adds creaminess.
Chopped Cobb Salad
This single-serve Cobb salad recipe replaces chicken with bacon, making it a great source of protein for lunch. If you prefer another vinaigrette, feel free to use it in place of our honey-mustard vinaigrette.
Bistro Fruit and Cheese Lunch Box
This Starbucks bistro box inspired fruit, cheese and cracker box is a fun and healthy alternative to your standard sandwich. It’s the perfect personal-sized cheese plate to take to a work lunch or a picnic at the park.
Salmon pita sandwich
This quick lunch recipe is packed with heart-healthy omega-3s from canned sockeye salmon. If you’re bringing this sandwich for lunch, keep the salmon salad aside and stuff the pita right before eating.
Spinach and Strawberry Meal Prep Salad
One of our most popular salad recipes, Spinach and Strawberry Salad with Feta and Walnuts, gets a makeover in these simple but totally satisfying spinach salad bowls. They require minimal preparation and can be customized to your liking. Swap the chicken thighs for roasted salmon and almonds or pecans for the walnuts, and use any fresh berries that look good at your market.
Egg Salad Lettuce Wraps
We love the retro vibe of these egg salad lettuce wraps. Iceberg lettuce makes a perfect low-carb replacement for bread for serving egg salad.
Plate of fruits, vegetables and cheeses
This healthy plate of fruits, vegetables and cheese is easy and affordable to prepare for a fun snack-style dinner at home or can be packed up and enjoyed as an outdoor picnic.
Tuna Salad and Sweet Relish Sandwich
This sweet version of a classic tuna salad sandwich is a healthy, protein-rich lunch that even your kids will love.
Creamy 3-Ingredient Roasted Chicken Salad
We add a twist to classic chicken salad by using a lemon-herb mayonnaise. Try other varieties of mayonnaise, like roasted garlic or chipotle lime, in this quick, no-cook lunch recipe. Serve this roast chicken salad recipe with whole grain crackers.
Whole Wheat Vegetable Wrap
Use whatever vegetables you have on hand to fill this vegetarian wrap. The avocado and hummus help hold the wrap together and provide heart-healthy fats and fiber.
Mediterranean pasta salad
You might not consider using hummus as a pasta sauce, but the creamy dip provides the perfect backdrop for the bold flavors of this healthy, Mediterranean-inspired pasta salad.
