Lunch box recipes: 9 inspiring ideas for hot or cold meals

Looking for the perfect lunch box ideas? We’ve got 9 tasty recipes for you! In this article, we leave the traditional ham sandwich behind and opt for a tasty wrap, generous salads and hot lunch box ideas for adults or school. We’ll end up on a sweet note with some ideas for lunch box desserts.

Enjoy your discovery!

Cold lunch box ideas

Sandwiches and salads are two of the most popular cold lunch meals. Here are 3 recipes for lunch box meal prep that will provide you with a tasty lunch and allow you to reuse ingredients from last night’s dinner differently!

Chicken salad wrap

Do you have leftover chicken from your most recent dinner meal? This wrap will be perfect for enjoying your chicken in a different way for lunch the next day 😊. Make it with our Italian‑style chicken breasts or our chicken breasts with Black Forest ham, asparagus, and cheese.

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Chicken wrap with spinach and feta cheese

Mediterranean chicken salad

This salad is another lunch box meal idea, perfect for using cooked chicken from dinner the night before. No cooking is required (since your chicken will already be cooked 😉), and it is ready in 15 minutes. This fresh, flavourful salad is a great work cold lunch idea!

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Mediterranean salad with red onions, cooked chicken, cherry tomatoes, white beans and crumbled feta — Mediterranean salad with red onions, cooked chicken, cherry tomatoes, white beans and feta cheese crumbles

Mexican‑style rice salad

In this Mexican‑flavoured salad, sweet corn adds a burst of flavour, and black beans provide the protein needed for a hearty lunchtime meal. Sliced leeks cooked in a bit of butter make it a dream salad for any adult lunch box ideas! For cooked rice, we suggest you make more rice for supper if you cook a loco moco with beef, leeks, and shiitake, pilaf rice with asparagus, or pilaf rice with tuna. It’ll reduce kitchen time and help you prepare your lunch box for the next day 😊.

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Mexican‑inspired rice salad with spinach, rice, black beans and corn

Hot recipes: Lunch box ideas for picky eaters

If you prefer a hot lunch, we have many ideas for you. In all cases, cooking the night before so you can have a delicious treat at lunchtime the following day is a great strategy for our hot lunch recipe ideas 😊.

Lasagna with cheese and meat

There’s nothing better for a hot lunch than a mouth‑watering lasagna. Beware, your cheese and meat lasagna's exquisite smell will make everyone around you want to add this recipe to their own lunch box!

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Lunch box cheese and meat lasagna with a side of bread — Cheese and meat lasagna with a side of bread

Leek and lamb moussaka

Moussaka is one of those dishes that’s extremely tasty on the spot and absolutely divine when reheated. To enjoy all the flavours that will have mingled in our leek and lamb moussaka, we obviously suggest you eat it after you’ve prepared it, but also save a few portions for the lunch box meal prep.

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Greek recipe: leek and lamb moussaka — Leek and lamb moussaka

Asparagus and cheese pasta

Any pasta dish is an excellent lunch box idea for fussy eaters. Whether served hot or cold, our pasta with asparagus and cheese is probably the best lunch box recipe to cook. We love it hot for the lightly melted Oka cheese cubes and cold, pasta salad‑style, where we bite into the freshness of the asparagus and orange peppers.

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Asparagus pasta with orange peppers, cream cheese and cubes of Oka cheese — Asparagus pasta with orange peppers, cream cheese and Oka cheese cubes

Dessert and snack recipes for the lunch box

To finish your lunch on a high note or for an afternoon snack at work or school, we have 3 ideas for desserts and lunch box snacks that everyone will love.

Crispy strawberry‑raspberry bars

Forget the traditional store‑bought soft bar. Our strawberry‑raspberry crispy bars will be your new lunch box quick snack! Plus, you can freeze them, so you’ll always have a few ready to go before you leave in the morning 🙂.

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Raspberry mini cheesecakes

Here are mini cheesecakes that fit nicely in your lunch box as a dessert! The person sitting next to you in the cafeteria will be drooling over this sweet treat just as much as you will. With an easy‑to‑make raspberry coulis topping, this recipe is another lunch box idea to freeze, so you’ll have some handy, often!

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Mini cream cheesecakes with Graham cookie crust and raspberry coulis — Mini cream cheesecakes with raspberry coulis

Blueberry bran muffins for people with diabetes

Muffins will always be a classic dessert or snack for the lunch box. They are quick and easy to make, and you can easily replace the blueberries with strawberries, raspberries or any other small fruit you have in the freezer. You can add a few chocolate chips to the mixture for a sweet touch!

There’s no lack of choice when it comes to muffins at Crazy Leeks. Blueberry and orange muffins, raspberry and white chocolate muffins, banana and marbled almond muffins with strawberry, oat and blueberry muffins, blueberry and yogurt muffins, and bran and blueberry muffins are just a few of the muffin recipes available on our website 😉. Which one will you choose for your next lunchtime treat?

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Recipe for people with diabetes: blueberry bran muffins — Blueberry bran muffins

More recipe ideas for the lunch box

We need many lunch box recipe ideas to fulfill all the lunches of the year, so we eat different things. That’s good because, besides the 9 lunch box recipes you’ve just seen, we’ve got nearly 1,000 other recipes to discover!

We also have some culinary inspiration for you in our blog posts, like our original lunch box recipe ideas, our 12 quick and easy weekday lunch recipes and our 5 weekday lunches you’ve never thought of.

Bon appétit!