5 Easy and Delicious Lunch Recipes
Breakfast and Dinner are often thought of as the most important meals of the day, but skipping lunch is not always a good idea. Here are five easy recipes that should incentivize eating a proper lunch.
1. Grilled Cheese.
One of the easiest of easy recipes, grilled cheese is also endlessly versatile. It pairs well with many other foods, and can be altered and upgraded with various additional ingredients such as meat, veggies, or sauces. Due to it’s simplicity it’s also a snap to make, so you don’t need to worry too much about scheduling some time to make one. There’s also plenty of nostalgia associated with this classic of classics, so that’s also a plus. While the recipe says to use cheddar, you can replace with other cheeses if you feel like it.
- Ingredients:
- 4 slices white bread
- 3 tablespoons butter, divided
- 2 slices Cheddar cheese
- Directions:
- Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Generously butter one side of a slice of bread. Place bread butter-side down in the hot skillet; add 1 slice of cheese. Butter a second slice of bread on one side and place butter-side up on top of cheese.
- Cook until lightly browned on one side; flip over and continue cooking until cheese is melted. Repeat with remaining 2 slices of bread, butter, and slice of cheese.
2. Chicken Noodle Soup.
The Second of our easy recipes takes only 25 minutes, but makes 12 servings, enough to cover lunches and possibly dinner as well for an entire week. If you feel like you’ll get sick of eating this soup before then, you can halve the ingredients. Chicken soup also pairs well with many other dishes, so you can mix up some other foods to serve along with it. If you happened to eat a roast chicken or recently, you can make this soup using the leftover. You, know, you could probably use turkey instead if you’re making this sometime after thanksgiving. I know that’s a while off, but food for thought?
- Ingredients:
- 2 quarts water
- 8 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
- 6-1/2 cups uncooked wide egg noodles
- 2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
- 3 cups cubed cooked chicken
- 1 cup sour cream
- Minced fresh parsley
- Directions:
- In a large saucepan, bring water and bouillon to a boil. Add noodles; cook, uncovered, until tender, about 10 minutes. Do not drain. Add soup and chicken; heat through.
- Remove from the heat; stir in the sour cream. Sprinkle with minced parsley.
3. Egg Salad
The next of our easy recipes is one near and dear to my heart. Egg Salad is an extremely simple and versatile dish, and is delicious if prepared correctly. You can make sandwiches or just eat it on its own, there are a lot of possibilities. Another great thing about egg salad is that you can modify it to a ridiculous extent, depending on what kind of taste or texture you want it to have. Basically every ingredient is “to taste” and I usually just eyeball most of the ingredients. It’s incredibly easy once you get the hang of it.
- Ingredients:
- 8 eggs
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup chopped green, white, or red onion
- 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 1 large spoonful of Pickle Relish
- salt and pepper to taste
- Directions:
- Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel, and chop
- Place chopped eggs in a bowl; stir in mayonnaise, onion, relish and mustard. Season with paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir and serve on your favorite bread or crackers.
4. Chicken Salad.
Number Four on the list of easy recipes is another classic. Chicken salad has a lot of the same benefits as egg salad when it comes to ways you can serve it. It goes well with lettuce in sandwiches, and there are are many ways you can tweak this recipe, such as adding grapes or olives if you enjoy them. This recipe takes practically no time at all to actually prepare, and if you make a large batch it’ll last you a good while. I’d be a bit more careful about eyeballing ingredients here than with egg salad, but there are many great ways to modify this dish. Overall its an easy, affordable, and versatile recipe you should absolutely try out.
- Ingredients:
- 2 cups cooked chicken chopped
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 1 green onion diced (or chives or red onion)
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon seasoned salt
- pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon fresh dill, optional
- Directions:
- Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve as a sandwich or over salad.
5. Sausage and Pepper Sheet Pan Sandwiches.
The last of our easy recipes is something a bit more exciting than just regular sandwiches. These oven-cooked delights are a snap to make, and you can reheat if you’d rather eat them over the course of a week. They don’t require too much specialized cookware, so you should be able to do this as long as your dorm/apartment has an oven.
- Ingredients:
- 1 pound uncooked sweet Italian turkey sausage links, roughly chopped
- 3 medium sweet red peppers, seeded and sliced
- 1 large onion, halved and sliced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 hot dog buns, split
- 6 slices provolone cheese
- Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375°. Place sausage pieces in a 15x10x1-in. sheet pan, arranging peppers and onion around sausage. Drizzle olive oil over sausage and vegetables; bake, stirring mixture after 15 minutes, until sausage is no longer pink and vegetables are tender, 30-35 minutes.
- During the last 5 minutes of baking, arrange buns cut side up in a second sheet pan; top each bun bottom with a cheese slice. Bake until buns are golden brown and cheese is melted. Spoon sausage and pepper mixture onto bun bottoms. Replace tops.
