10 Lunch Packing Tips for Healthy and Tasty Lunches

10 Lunch Packing Tips, hacks, and ideas to help you get your lunch packing game on track! Learn how to make a plan, what equipment you need, and other strategies for delicious and healthy lunches for work or school. 

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Love it or hate it, lunch packing season is here! Maybe you're back in the office IRL or maybe you're working (or studying!) from home. Either way, a good lunch packing strategy will help streamline and simplify your week.

I get it, lunch packing isn't for everyone, but there are a lot of good reasons you should pack your lunch: First of all, the food you pack will almost certainly be more nutritious and less expensive than if you go out for lunch.

Bringing your own lunch saves time so you can spend your lunch hour on other things (I like to get my exercise in on my lunch hour). And in most cases, bringing something from home will be tastier than what you might pick up.

Looking for lunch packing inspiration?

Here are 20 Vegetarian Lunch Ideas and 22 Vegetarian Sandwiches and Wraps to get you inspired! And be sure you don't miss out on these 15 Healthy After School Snack Ideas either.

There are also lots of reasons people don’t like packing their lunch. It’s a chore, for starters, and one you need to put aside some time for. If you don’t pack it right, you could end up with a sad, soggy lunch. And let’s face it: if you don’t put much thought into it, your lunch can be pretty uninspiring.

But there’s hope! If there’s one thing I may officially declare myself an expert it, it would be the art of packing lunch. And today I’m sharing 10 lunch packing tips to help you pack healthy, tasty, and budget-friendly lunches.

1. Equip yourself

If you want to pack good lunches, you’re going to need some stuff! I went out and bought a separate set of food storage containers that I set aside specifically for my lunches, so that when I’m ready to pack my lunches they’re always available.

Nothing fancy, just rectangular containers with lids. For dinners and leftovers in the fridge I have a set of nice glass containers with snap-top lids, but for lunches I prefer plastic as they aren’t nearly as heavy. And since I commute on my bike, the weight of my backpack matters!

These wide-mouth mason jars are great for layered salads, and if you’re into compartments there are lots of cute little bento-style boxes available. I love these stainless steel bento boxes because they're light, durable, and BPA free.

If you like packing sandwiches for lunch, I find that the key to making sandwiches that last a few days in the fridge and don't get squished on your commute is a good sandwich container. I like these ones from Lunch Bots, which are stainless steel and last forever.

Food storage bags are great, but if you're trying to reduce your single-use plastics, I highly recommend these reusable silicon food storage bags. They're freezer friendly (I love them for making Frozen Smoothie Packs), microwave friendly, and you can even boil them!

One of my favourite lunch packing tips is to save those little single-serve jam jars from restaurants and hotels. They’re the perfect size to tuck a bit of sauce or salad dressing in with your lunch without having to dress anything in advance.

If your office or school doesn’t have a fridge, you may want to invest in a couple of ice packs or a good insulated lunch bag. Or you can just plan lunches that do well at room temperature. Which leads me to…

2. Make a plan

Make a plan, yo! If you find yourself standing aimlessly in the kitchen waffling about what to packfor lunch, agonizing that you’re going to be late, then throwing your hands up in defeat and just hitting that questionable salad bar at the grocery store near your office yet again, a plan will help you.

Related: Meal Planning: The Basics.

So here’s what you do: late in the week, say Thursday or Friday, get some paper and a pen (or your phone and your notes app), and make a list of easy lunches to take to work or school the following week. Decide whether you're going to pack the same thing for lunch all week, or whether you need something new each day.

Are there days where you have lunch meetings planned? Then you can skip those days on your lunch packing plan. Are there leftovers that will need eating? Make a note of those!

Start a Pinterest board where you can save recipes from around the web that looks like they’d make for good packed lunches. Follow other people’s boards for lunch packing tips. Pull it all together with recipes and ideas, and make a grocery list. And then…

3. Pack for the week on Sunday

Set aside some time on your Sunday to prep and pack your lunches for the week ahead. You can totally do it! Related: Batch Cooking For Beginners.

Make a grocery list from your meal plan, get your ingredients ready, and get to work! Whether you just cook up a bunch of roasted vegetables and whole grains that you can add to meal bowls (Related: How To Make A Meal Bowl Without A Recipe) or you plan out specific recipes to make, setting aside a couple of hours on the weekend will make your week day life So Much Easier.

Remember that:

• Sturdy greens like kale are much more durable than delicate greens like spinach. So a Massaged Kale Salad that you make on Sunday will likely will be in good shape when lunch rolls around on Thursday.
• You probably don’t want to include short-life ingredients like avocados until the last minute.
• Intact cherry tomatoes fair much better over time than does a diced field tomato.
• Salads last much longer without dressing, so pack the dressing in a separate container to add at the last minute, or go for layered Chickpea Mason Jar Salads with the dressing on the bottom.

4. Hit up your freezer.

One of my biggest lunch packing tips (and, let's be real, life tips in general) is to make friends with your freezer.

There’s so much you can bulk prep and freeze to have on hand for grab-and-go packed lunches. Freezer Burritos and wraps are a favourite of mine, and I love to freeze lasagna and other casseroles in single-serve portions. Vegetarian Breakfast Casserole also freezes brilliantly (and makes an excellent packed lunch) cut into squares and wrapped in foil.

Soups, chilis, and stews are freezer friendly by nature. And to be honest, frozen is my favourite way to transport soups in my packed lunches. Nobody wants a container of liquid soup sloshing around in their bag!

Related: How To Stock Your Freezer For Healthy Eating.

5. Repurpose leftovers

Dinner leftovers make great lunches! Plan to make more than you know you’ll eat – intentional leftovers – are a great lunch packing strategy. Write it into your plan so you don’t forget!

Here’s an expert-level lunch packing tip: when you’re cleaning up after dinner, pack the leftovers into lunch containers right then and there. Label them, and then pop into the fridge or freezer right away.

You can also parlay leftovers from one meal into another, more packable meal. For example these Mediterranean Roast Vegetables can be made into a Roasted Vegetable Frittata, which packs like a boss!

6. Pack delicious lunches you actually want to eat

This one is important. If you pack yourself a sad desk lunch that you’re not excited about, the likelihood that you’ll stick to your lunch packing goals is low. And the likelihood that you’ll ditch your soggy salad and go out for lunch anyways is also high.

So, back to point #2, you need a plan. And your plan should include delicious, healthy lunches that you really want to eat.

7. Pack smart

If you were packing your bags for a trip you wouldn’t throw your shoes on top of your best silk shirt, would you? So don’t pack your lunches like that either.

Delicate things need delicate handling. For example, I like to pack my muffins in a sturdy container rather than throwing them into a plastic baggie because it prevents them from getting squished in my backpack.

Get good lunch containers, layer your items from sturdy to delicate, and protect things that are going to get squished or broken. You want your lunch to be palatable when you sit down to eat it!

Another favourite lunch packing tip is to bulk schlepp. My office has a good amount of fridge space, so I tend to take a few lunches with me at a time. That way I can load up my backpack with lunch boxes on Monday, but then on Tuesday, which is a swim day, I’ve got room in my bag for my swim gear instead.

8. Start a lunch packing club

What if you only had to pack one lunch a week?

Consider starting a lunch packing club at your school or office. Get a group of five people together, taking into account any food preferences or allergies, and make each person responsible for bringing just ONE lunch each week that feeds everyone in the group.

It’s fun, you’ll get to try new things, and you’ll only need to cook / pack lunch one time each week (or less, depending on how many people are in your lunch club).

9. Dress it up

A little salt and pepper can go a long way in turning your lunch from blah to beautiful. As can a drizzle of good olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Or a dollop of mustard. Or a taste of tamari.

You get the point. Keep a selection of your favourite condiments at your office, and you’ll be able to spruce up your lunch any old time.

10. Give yourself a break!

And the last lunch packing tip… give yourself a break! Food is fun and social, and sometimes you just need to get out of the office.

A nice lunch out with colleagues from time to time is great, and sometimes necessary to vent and blow off some steam from the work week. I’ve taken to preparing four packed lunches each week, because most weeks I’ll have a lunch meeting or two.

But if I don’t I’ll either grab something from the freezer, or take the opportunity to go out with colleagues. And since I only go out for lunch occasionally I feel totally justified in treating myself to a nicer lunch than I would if I went out every day.

So what’s your lunch packing strategy for the coming months? Let’s help each other out and share more lunch packing tips and strategies in the comments below!

 

 

 

Originally posted August 21, 2017. Last updated August 20, 2021.