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 365 Lunch IdeasTo get started, click on a season above and scroll down to find a host of enticing bento menus. We're sure you'll find something that inspires you!New menus are being added all the time, so be sure to check back often. Winter Create this mouth-watering meal for a delicious New Year's treat. The glistening colors and crisp textures make this a more-than-satisfying mid-day (or anytime!) meal.  Prepare a large pot of beans on the weekend to have on hand throughout the week. Pack them for lunch with a whole wheat grain (rice, cous cous, bulghar), a fruit, and some greens for a delicious winter treat.  In an effort to keep ourselves warm from the inside out, over the weekend we made a big pot of chili, which we've been recycling for lunches. Whether it's warm or cold, chili is such a comforting food that it quickly takes the winter chill away.  A meze is a combination of palate pleasing foods often served as appetizers at Middle Eastern gatherings. Like much of the region’s cuisine, the meze often features dishes made of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes with a variety of spices. After having our own Middle Eastern feast for dinner last night, we decided to create a personal sized meze to enjoy today for lunch.  What is it that makes breakfast for lunch so appealing? Is it the decadence? The comfort of eating "morning food" in the afternoon? Perhaps it's simply the great taste. If you haven't eaten breakfast for lunch before, we recommend giving it a try. It's fun!  Consider keeping bulk dry goods on hand for those days when the fridge is bare. While nutritionally speaking this lunch is less than ideal, it certainly stacks up better than most fast food and processed pre-packaged options.  Leftover pasta dishes are an obvious choice for lunch, but be sure to look beyond the oh-so-ordinary spaghetti with tomato sauce. Pasta is versatile and easy to make, and pasta leftovers retain their flavor well. Tangerines are colorful and deliciously sweet at this time of year--and perfect in size. The broccoli provides color contrast, nutrition, and a bit of crunch as well. And the whole grain crackers are wonderfully nutty, salty, and sweet!  Pack these flavorful chckpea burgers with some juicy cantaloupe, tender spaghetti squash and an applesauce muffin--and you've got a light and delicious meal.  Enjoy this curry mild or spicy according to your preference. Balance the meal with some tart apples and sweet peanut butter and dark chocolate--a lovely meal for a cold, wintery day!  As the winter continues on, we decided to put together a healthy, yet comforting bento lunch. Eaten hot or cold, this week’s lunch is sure to warm you up and keep you plowing through these final weeks of the season.  The different tastes and textures found in this week’s bento lunch are sure to get you crunching and munching! Not only is this lunch fun to eat, it also offers a great balance of nutrition and is a breeze to pack.  Trying to get your loved ones to enjoy a rainbow of fruits and veggies? We say, "Let them dip!" Dipping is so fun and tasty that those veggie containers are sure to come home empty. Mission accomplished!  The easiest way to make lunch is to repackage dinner, so this week we decided to do just that and found ourselves in a win-win situation. Dinner clean-up was a breeze and lunch made itself. Did we mention that it tasted great? Who wouldn't want a lasagna meal for lunch?  Pizza's for lunch! Need we say more? While pizza for lunch is a definite treat, we also included steamed kale and persimmon wedges to help balance the meal out, so enjoy!  Not only is edamame fun to eat, considered to be a super bean, it is also a low fat source of fiber, protein, and iron. Edamame can be found in many recipes or steamed and eaten as an appetizer or snack. We enjoyed having edamame as the appetizer portion of this week's bento lunch.  This lunch is fun to make and fun to eat--and serves as a great excuse to make popcorn. The steamed carrot coins are a flavorful winter alternative to raw carrot sticks.  Now that the days are longer and our afternoon to-do lists have expanded, we decided that an energy packed lunch was in order. This protein and carbohydrate rich quiche proved to meet our lunch time needs perfectly. Paired with home fries, peas and a Clementine for dessert, this week's lunch helped us power through the afternoon and well into the evening.  The components of this flavorful lunch can be assembled into mini-sandwiches or enjoyed separately. They're colorful, light, and delicious!  It's so great to see fuyu persimmons back at the farmers' market again. This delicious and unique fruit is not only beautiful to look at, but good for you too. We purchased the sun-dried tomato hummus from a local restaurant vendor at the farmers' market as well, and picked up the falafel on our walk home. The tomato was plucked from our very sleepy-looking backyard garden, and the salad was left over from the day before.  This week's bento lunch is full of delicious foods that will leave your body feeling great! To cut back on the extra sugar, we chose to make our own granola, which was super easy and gave us the added control over what we put into our bodies.  As the Jewish Festival of Lights comes to a close, we decided to get creative with this menorah-inspired bento lunch. We hope you enjoy this festive bento as much as we did. Happy Holidays!  This simple menu makes a savory and sweet winter treat. Steam the vegetables until they're cooked through but not mushy. When lunchtime rolls around, enjoy them dipped in the tangy-but-sweet lime cilantro dressing. The homemade pumpkin spice bread, baked in advance, provides a sweet, sweet finish.  This week we decided to use some leftover veggie patties to put together a quick and easy bento lunch. We just stacked our patty onto a slice of bread and piled it with some of our favorite accompaniments. To make sure our burger would be easy to enjoy at work, we stuck with only one slice of bread which made it perfectly fork-able.  Ravioli is easy to prepare and, with the seemingly endless combination of fillings and toppings, is sure to be a hit amongst the entire family. We served our four-cheese ravioli with a fresh green salad, oranges and chocolate squares for dessert, which made for quite the lunch time treat.  Frittatas are delicious, and they're great for using up whatever vegetables you happen to have on hand. Be sure to include lots of fresh herbs as well. Don't be intimidated by the Caesar salad. Instead check out this simple recipe.  We decided to keep things basic this week and packed a sandwich for lunch. Whole wheat molasses bread and some of our favorite garden vegetables helped us keep this lunchtime staple both tasty and nutritious. We paired our garden sandwich with a crisp apple, sesame sticks, and oatmeal cookies which made for a deliciously well-rounded meal that everyone enjoyed.  We picked up some organic broccolini and juicy tangerines at the farmers' market on Saturday. We sauteed the broccolini lightly and placed it on a bed of whole wheat couscous (purchased from the bulk bin section of our local natural foods store) for a simple--yet delicious--main course.  If you're facing a stressful day at school or work, this is the lunch for you. Bananas play a starring role in this meal and their unique make up will help boost your energy, reduce your stress level and lighten your mood. All that and you get lemon cookies for dessert! How could your day not turn out great?  Traditional Hanukkah menus often include latkes as a way to symbolize the drop of oil that burned for 8 days and 8 nights following the rededication of the holy temple. Over the years, these traditional potato pancakes have evolved to become extremely versatile and can now be found in a number of variations. Although there are many options available, we decided to keep our latkes traditional and served them with sour cream and apple berry sauce as part of this fun and tasty holiday lunch.  A healthy, well-balanced lunch is a great way to enjoy the season’s treats without completely overdoing it. We packed this bento lunch using some of the healthier items left over from our recent gathering, which made putting it together a breeze and left us feeling ready to take on the rest of our day.  With the spotlight on heart health this month, we decided to fill our bento box with some delicious heart healthy foods. Combined with a suitable exercise regimen, eating nutritious meals both at home and on the go is a great leap toward overall long term health.  Looking to stretch your lunch dollar? Try making a big batch of lentil soup and letting it stretch into your lunch making week. That's exactly what we did this week and have been able to put together several well-balanced lunches such as this. Easy, cost-effective and nutritious... a definite home run lunch!  Pack your leftover lasagne from last night's dinner. Consider updating your favorite recipe by using whole wheat noodles, eliminating the meat, reducing the amount of cheese, using lowfat cheese, and including a layer or two of spinach or sauteed vegetables.  The holidays may be over but we're still hooked on fun (yet healthy) holiday food, so we've put some of our favorites from the appetizer table into this week's bento box. We topped off our appetizer spread with some homemade thumbprint cookies to make sure we were fully satisfied with holiday goodness as we ease back into our daily routines.  Macaroni and cheese may not be the most nutritious choice, but preparing it from scratch provides an opportunity to have fun and add value to an otherwise starchy meal. Select whole wheat pasta, use lowfat milk and cheese, and add some fresh chopped herbs or vegetables like parsley, broccoli, peas, zucchini, onions, and mushrooms.  If you're looking for a way to get more spinach into your diet, look no further. This week we're having spinach pancakes for lunch. Spinach pancakes are easy to make and fun to enjoy on the go which makes them one of our lunchtime favorites. Enjoy!  This mushroom strudel has a wonderfully rich flavor, and it travels surprisingly well. Drop the other items into the box, and off you go.  We’ve been enjoying our Christmas tree so much that we decided to carry that joy along with us in our bento boxes today. Our peanut butter and jelly Christmas tree was fun to decorate and is sure to be a hit this afternoon.  Few things go together as well as potato pancakes and applesauce. Combine that with a bit of spinach, salad dressing and some sausages, and you've got an awfully good lunch.  Following these stars will lead you to a well-rounded meal that will help you through those last minute shopping and holiday details. We hope your holidays are filled with joy, happiness, and of course, bentos for everyone!  Risotto is great for holiday celebrations as either a main course or a side dish. It’s fairly easy to make, can be customized to suit your palate and makes for great leftovers. We had fun using our leftovers to create this festive wreath!  Soup and salad make a delicious lunch any day of the year, but butternut squash soup in January is hard to beat! Prepare the soup and salads for dinner and pack the leftovers for lunch. They're delicious, nutritious, and gluten free!  Casseroles make terrific lunchbox leftovers and are great for adding nutrient-rich, fresh vegetables, like spinach, to your mid-day meal. Spinach casseroles, which come in many forms, can be prepared on the weekend and packed for lunch throughout the week. Try a spinach lasagna (pictured here) or a casserole made with brown rice, whole grain pasta, amaranth, barley, bulgur, or whole-wheat couscous.  Pineapple guavas are a wonderful treat this time of year. We packed a few with some fresh ravioli purchased at the farmers' market, some crispy garlic bread, and sauteed Brussels sprouts for a very yummy treat.  In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, we decided to prepare an extra special bento lunch to show our loved ones how much we care about them. Not only does this bento lunch taste great, it’s also loaded with vitamins and antioxidants, so have a happy and healthy day!  What better way to brighten a cold winter's day than with Frosty, the Swiss cheese sandwich? We hope this holiday bento will remind you to join in on the fun this season has to offer.  We had a hard time deciding what to have for lunch this week, so we went for it all... soup, sandwich and salad! All that and we had room left for a piece of fruit and chips. What more could we ask for?  In case you haven't heard, the staff of Laptop Lunches has gone vegan for the week, so, of course, this week's bento lunch followed suit. Although we were hesitant at first, we made some great vegan mayonnaise to go with our artichokes and felt completely satisfied after enjoying this delicious lunch.  Enjoy this colorful menu for dinner and then pack the leftovers for lunch. This isn't exactly a low-calorie meal, but it does feature a range of brightly colored fresh vegetables. Be sure to cut back on the amount of butter and sugar in the recipes you choose!  Prepare the chili on the weekend to eat for lunch throughout the week. Pack a lunch as pictured above one day and substitute various fruits (apples, pears, grapes, grapefruit), whole grains (rice, bulghar, bread, cous cous), and raw vegetables (red peppers, carrots, cucumbers, green beans) for variety on the other days.  We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it is often also the most rushed. Having breakfast for lunch is a great way to enjoy some of your breakfast favorites--but in slow fashion.  This week we've packed our Bento Box full of goodness using a flavorful veggie tofu loaf as the main course. Whether you're a full time vegetarian or not, veggie loaves are a delicious way to incorporate great flavor and a number of vitamins and nutrients into your meal.  Packed with vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants, we like to refer to black bean burgers as Wonder Burgers! They're easy to make, can be customized to please just about anyone's taste buds, and offer a wealth of health benefits. We hope you'll enjoy this week's bento lunch of Wonder Burgers and sides sure to leave you feeling great!  |
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