Lunch ideas for Adults

If you work in an office, you will be familiar with the age old image of: sandwich, yoghurt, packet of crisps, piece of fruit. Repeat. Day in day out, until it gets to Thursday or Friday and you just can’t be bothered to make your own lunch anymore and end up going to the café or the local supermarket. If you looked at your bank balance and body at the end of the month, you would not be happy. Yes, your body needs some nutrition, but you also need to enjoy your food!

We want to encourage our Preloved members to try out some these recipes. You can make several servings that will either feed you for a couple of days, or that will feed your other half, friend, or teenager. We hope you’re not hungry while you read this. You have been warned.

1. Apple, cranberry and walnut salad. Add some feta cheese and a dressing of your choosing and voila! The dressing for this particular dish is made from apple juice, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, black pepper and oil.

2. Balsamic chicken salad with lemon quinoa.Prepare the quinoa as normal, but add the juice of half a lemon. Sauté the chicken with garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, stock powder and the juice of half a lemon until it is cooked through, crispy and golden on both sides. Let the chicken cool a little, slice it and add it to lettuce, cherry tomatoes, onion, olives, feta cheese, parsley and quinoa.

3. Grapefruit salad with pistachios.Mix pistachios, sesame seeds and honey, spread out on a tray and roast for about 15 minutes; wait until the sesame seeds start to brown. While the pistachios are cooling, put rocket, goat cheese, fennel and pink grapefruit in a bowl. To make the dressing, mix olive oil, grapefruit juice, salt and black pepper.

4. Lunchboxes like these are every adult’s dream. Everything is compartmentalised and you only need one container! This choice in particular has steamed green beans, roasted potatoes, chicken salad with walnuts and olives, fruit, crackers and chocolate-covered cherries.

5. BLT Pasta Salad. One of the easiest dishes to make yet! Cook and cut up the bacon, cook the pasta according to the instructions and run it under cold water after you drain it. Add romaine lettuce, tomato, bacon and pasta in a bowl, and drizzle the dressing of your choice. Typically it´s mayonnaise, but this recipe has ranch.

6. Sweet Potato, Hummus and Green Wrap. Roast some sweet potato and use it along parsley to make the base of the wrap. Add some dill, pomegranate seeds, soft boiled egg, hummus, a ripe avocado, a peeled tangerine, crushed toasted almonds, a dash of fresh lemon juice, sea salt, some ground pepper, and sumac, cumin and tahini. Place on a wrap and there you have it. An amazing mix of delicious flavours.

7. Olive, bacon and cheese bread.A filling loaf if we ever saw one! Whisk white wine, oil, 4 eggs and salt in a large bowl. Mix the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl, sift, and stir into the egg mix. Chop an onion finely and cook in a skillet with some olive oil. Add bacon and cook for a few minutes, making sure you drain both. Slice the olives (green and black) and parsley, and cut some ham. Add all ingredients and add some grated cheese. Pour into a buttered loaf pan and bake for an hour at 180°C.

8. Watercress with Seared Prosciutto & Peaches.Wrap the peaches with prosciutto and sear them. Leave them to cool down completely before adding them to the salad so the leaves don’t wilt. Add pistachios or other nuts or dried fruit al gusto.

9. Pizza baguette.You can literally put anything you like on it and shove it in the oven until the cheese melts and goes crispy. In this case, we have tomato, olives and bacon. Why not add some mushrooms?! And it looks more dainty than a pizza, so you are still a sophisticated adult.

Some pointers: put the dressing in a small pot so the leaves don’t get soggy. Keep the container in the fridge until it’s time for you to leave.