I’m an especially huge fan of fast prep meals. The longer you’re sitting in the kitchen making lunch, the less you’ll want to cook dinner later. (or maybe that’s just me). I usually start prepping at 11:45, and it’s on the table for lunch by 12:05 at the latest. I looked at all the lunches I tend to make and broke them down into 4 quick and easy lunch ideas categories you’ll surely love.

Before listing these out, I’ll preface this by saying that I focus on whole healthy eating. I do not advocate for any type of fad diets or elimination diets. I *gasp* eat bread. The only time I advocate removal of a food is if it is causing you problems, in particular.

I have a few food ideas I like to follow:
-mostly whole unprocessed foods.
-try to serve veggies with every meal.
-lunch time shouldn’t weigh you down the rest of the day.
-balance. I don’t fear carbs or fat, but I do try to include as much protein as possible.

These ideas work for me because I am home almost every day for lunch. My ‘day job’ is bartending, which is more of an evening thing, and I can set my own hours for my business. If you work out of the home during the day and can’t sneak away, you can still adapt many of these ideas by prepping ahead of time.

I do a ton of quick assembly foods for lunch. Partially due to getting lost in work, then looking at the clock and yelling “OH NO!” and running to the fridge. While there is plenty of experimentation in the kitchen… I notice that when it comes to lunch, I tend to gravitate towards 4 main ideas.

4 quick and easy lunch ideas – under 20 minutes

1. Breakfast

Breakfast is, by far, the lunch that I eat most often.
Why?
It’s absurdly easy!
There are also many choices. I don’t normally eat breakfast (I’m a coffee til noon kinda gal), but breakfast foods are some of my favorites.

We cook a lot of bacon in this house. Either Wright brand regular bacon because it’s thick cut and cooks so nicely, uncured turkey bacon (Godshall makes a great one I get at Sams Club), or whatever our local butcher has. They all fry up in around 10 minutes on low heat. While that’s cookin, I can decide what to have with it.

Most common is good ol fashion bacon, eggs, and toast. I do buy either Dave’s Killer bread, or the Aldi knockoff for toast. This combo is the fastest. As soon as the bacon is done, I transfer to a paper towel and use the same pan for eggs. This combo ALSO creates the least amount of dishes.

Other delicious breakfast ideas for a quick and easy lunch:

Carrot cake and oat donuts. These can be meal prepped and kept for days. I just grate a few carrots and put them in a blender with a handful of oats, an egg, bit of baking soda, and spices (vanilla, cinnamon, etc) and then bake. I’ve done this as a little loaf bread, donuts, or muffins.

Kodiak pancake/waffle mix. I usually add extra protein powder to these just to bump up the content, and add an egg in. I can cook an entire box at once, and freeze the waffles so at lunch time just take one out and pop it in the toaster.
Increase the protein even more by topping them with either cottage cheese (just trust me, it’s good), or by mixing up Greek Yogurt with a bit of flavored protein powder for an “icing”). Top with peanut butter, jam, fresh fruit, whatever.

Spiralize zucchini noodles, crack eggs in the middle, bake.

Take your toast up a notch. Turn it into avocado toast. Toss some cream cheese or cottage cheese on then add sprouts. Top it with some hummus and roasted chickpeas.

Serve it with a side salad. This is quickest if you already keep veggies chopped and ready to assemble in your fridge.

Home fries. I use my little air fryer for this. Just chop potatoes and throw them in with a bit of oil for 10 minutes, shaking a few times. Or pan fry them. You can also use jicama, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and more. Anything in the root family works really well!

Veggies in your eggs. You can make a big ol omelette that has a bunch of different veggies in it though. I like low moisture choices so my eggs don’t get soggy… like spinach, mushrooms, peppers, and broccoli.

Breakfast is especially versatile when it comes to the need for a quick and easy lunch. Look in your fridge. See what fresh veggies you have. Throw in some leftovers.

I’ve chopped lunch meat up into eggs.
Tossed the leftover corn and black beans from taco night into the frying pan with chopped potatoes to make a skillet.
Leftover burgers? Egg on top!
Oatmeal is fast and you can make a ton of it on the stove at once. Perfect for cold days.
Breakfast tacos.

There are also prep ahead options like chia pudding or overnight oats.
Yesterday, I baked off a whole pack of turkey bacon. It’ll make it easy to grab a few slices to have with lunch, or I can use up some leftover tortillas and make turkey bacon and cheese quesadillas!

2. Sandwiches

Sandwiches are the most universal lunch item. They’re fast, cheap, and if you work in the office… they keep well and can be consumed in minutes.
Tip if you bring these out of the office: Keep any wet toppings separate until you’re ready to eat. Tomato and pickles can make bread soggy. If you can’t keep them separate, try to layer them in between “solid” things like the cheese and lettuce!

The trick with making sandwiches easier is to keep things on hand ready to assemble. I might be more willing to throw some sliced cucumbers on top if I already have them pre sliced in a container ready to grab vs needing to get out the cutting board.
To stop sandwiches from getting boring, always change up your toppings and sides.

A breakfast sandwich is a great way to combine breakfast AND sandwiches! I used to eat one every single day, until I accidentally burned out the boyfriend on them and he said “can I just have these things, but separate on the plate?” oops. I guess you can serve one meal too often lol. I still go back to the basic breakfast sandwich (bacon, egg, tomato, cheese) around once a month.

Regular ol lunch meat sandwiches work as well. I try to use turkey or chicken, either from a whole rotisserie chicken if I’m feelin fancy… or from the local butcher… oooor if from the grocery store, either Applegate brand, or Oscar Mayer Natural (JUST the ones that say ‘natural’ on the front. Some of the other lines they make are scary). Those are the two brands that seem to have the least amount of junk in them that I’ve found.

Then pile that sandwich high with veggies, because of course.
Sprouts. Pickles. Spinach. Peppers. Cucumbers. Tomato.

This is also a great way to get rid of those random buns you have leftover from burger day. Or the tortillas from last Tuesday.
Need a side dish? More veggies! You can see a trend in what time of day I try to pack in the most green stuff. If I get as many servings of veggies in as early in the day as I can… I feel a little less guilty if I don’t eat as many with dinner or snacks.

Pickles and pickled okra hit my plate pretty often.
Have an air fryer? Some chopped carrots and zucchini take 10 minutes to cook up!
Or make a pretty looking smoothie to go with it.

Quick and easy lunch from fridge to plate in 10-15 minutes. Even less time if you keep some of your veggies pre-chopped and ready to grab.

3. Salad

I feel like you knew this was coming after talking about vegetables so much, right?
Can we just re-read that bit ^ a few sentences higher about having things pre-chopped and in the fridge ready to grab?
Trust me here.
I know from experience… if you keep them ready to go, you will be more likely to eat them.

It also turns this into a 5 minute meal prep!

For a base, use any greens. Iceberg is trash, unless you really love it, so I guess don’t use ANY greens, use anything other than iceberg hahaha. I personally suggest starting out with something much darker in color. I usually have a big container of spinach in the fridge I throw into as many meals as I can.
Lately I’ve been buying red lettuce heads as well… because pretty colors.

I also sometimes grab one of those premade salad bags that is something like broccoli slaw with carrots… or a cabbage coleslaw mix… or other random chopped up greens I wouldn’t probably grab whole and add if they weren’t conveniently in a bag.

Once you have your base… have fun!
There are no salad rules.
(I’m that person who goes to salad bars and doesn’t even use any lettuce half the time. So you can really trust me on the no rule thing).

I grow my own sprouts so I always try to include some of those. Throw some random stuff on top, or go with a theme. Tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, olives, onions, and a tzatziki or olive oil style dressing make a great Greek salad.

^this one? PEACHES!!! Yes, peach slices. There’s also chicken, bacon, olives, feta, tomatoes, and more in there. Fruit is perfect on salads to give them a hint of sweetness. Blueberries and strawberries are other favorites of mine to add.

Chickpeas. Chopped nuts. Seeds. Chopped pickles. A pack of tuna. Boiled eggs. Avocado. Brussels. Shrimp. The possibilities really are endless.

As for dressings, I like the following:
-Bolthouse yogurt ranch. (way way less fat than most ranch)
-oil and vinegar, or oil and lemon juice.
-salsa.
-cottage cheese
-oil, vin, mustard, and a bit of honey

Those wiggly guys up ^ there are sprouts. If you haven’t used them yet… just know that I’m completely obsessed with them. They do so much for your health, I try to sneak them into everything I can!
I somehow manage to combine breakfast and salads pretty regularly. Sourdough bread + a waffle iron for the above effect. I honestly wouldn’t recommend it, I won’t do it again. It made it quite hard. Throw another piece on top though and it combines salad, sandwich, and salad! haha

4. Pizza

Pizza? Really? You’re going to go through this whole spiel about eating salads and healthy stuff… and then… add PIZZA to the list?
… YEP
Unrelated: I just googled the word spiel. I’m glad I did because I was about to spell it schpeel, weird.

Not only is this one of the quickest and easiest to make lunches ever, but you can also keep it light… and it knocks out that craving you might have to call and order out.

I know I should be making my own dough from scratch.
I don’t.
Not right now anyway… I make pizza the LAZY way. If you want to make your own dough, by all means, do it!

I buy a big bready thing to use as the base, then throw what I want on top.
Giant tortillas. Naan. Lavish wraps. Flatbreads. Heck, you can even use english muffins for little personal size pizzas.

Most people are generally traditional about their toppings. For instance, using cheese, pepperoni, and sauce…. I specifically use pizza as a way to use up leftovers.

This is my go-to lunch sometime after we have some sort of pasta for dinner, because there’s usually some sort of pasta sauce left in the fridge. Once there is too little left to use with pasta, it ends up being the perfect amount to use on a pizza.
Meat sauce from said pasta night works, also.
Have one random potato about to go bad? I did. I sliced it up super thin, air fried it for 5 minutes, then added it to the top of the pizza. (for that one, I just did a garlic olive oil sauce).

Anything goes on pizza day!! 5 minutes to assemble one, and 5 minutes under the broiler.
Tip: most thicker crusts like naan you can just assemble and broil. A thinner crust like a tortilla or lavish, I’d broil it alone for 1-2 minutes, then add toppings, then put it back in… because it can get a little hard to hold if you don’t.

Tip 2: Also add veggies to the side. That is, if they aren’t on the pizza already. 😉

BONUS QUICK AND EASY LUNCH IDEA:

Chicken Nuggets. You can prep a huge amount all at once and just pop them out of the fridge to heat up, or eat cold! When you’re sick of plain ol chicken, these things are perfect.

That’s it! There are your four (well, I guess five) fast and simple lunch ideas. Which one will you make this week? Let me know on Instagram, where I’m probably hanging out.