Five easy, on-the-go lunches you can prep in advance

Every Sunday, Lori Hacker buys a bunch of salad ingredients, and every Monday, she stocks three days’ worth of veggies, protein and extras in her office fridge. On workday afternoons, the Toronto PR professional makes herself a big, fresh lunch, ending up with something that looks beautiful and would cost double digits if bought ready-made.

Perhaps this sounds obsessive, but for Hacker, this forward planning is less depressing than the thought of an unappetizing midday meal. "Lunch is very important to me. It should be fresh and good with lots of texture," she says. She stores bottled dressing in the fridge at work, and always assembles on site. "Sometimes I even chop my vegetables at the office. It tastes so much better that way."

Canadians are budget-conscious when it comes to our midday meal: A 2016 study by Ipsos Canada found that three-quarters of us bring lunch from home to work or school. But the classic midday meal on the go – the sandwich – is falling out of favour, especially among young people, says Kathy Perrotta, Ipsos Canada's vice-president of marketing (which isn't that surprising when you consider how often sandwiches end up soggy and bland by midday).

Lucy Waverman: Comforting stew recipes for meat eaters and vegetarians

This drive for portability that pleases the palate has driven the rise of grab-and-go options that people can put together at the office. "Assembling is the new cooking," Perrotta says. But many of those easy options are highly processed and aren't really faster than grabbing some leftovers, or cheese, fruit and bread.

Family doctor Yoni Freedhoff rarely goes out for lunch. Instead, he advocates good leftover management. Freedhoff, who specializes in nutrition and weight management, always cooks more than what his family will eat for dinner so that everyone can pack a lunch the next day.

“A good lunch has protein it, but it also has to be a lunch that you enjoy,” he says.

Protein helps people feel full longer. When Freedhoff is short of lunch items, he grabs tinned sardines for a sandwich, which might not win any friends in the office kitchen, but will be more filling than a muffin and coffee. Other quick, less pungent mood-boosting proteins include canned tuna, chickpeas and roasted turkey. The Ipsos survey found that about one in five Canadians skip lunch altogether in favour of grazing, which Dr. Freedhoff says isn’t necessarily a problem as long as snack choices are healthy.

Our challenge this week was to create exciting office lunch solutions – restaurant-quality meals with a siren call louder than that of the food court. The results were some easy, inexpensive and delicious soup recipes.

Some of the ingredients can be stored at the office, but marking the container with an indelible marker is probably a good idea, as a labelled lunch is less likely to get inadvertently "sampled" or trashed. Like any good meal, these recipes take a little planning – but it's worth it to avoid another sad, soggy sandwich, isn't it?

Recipes

Tips for making the most of leftovers

Cook up different grains to use as a salad addition, or as a base for leftovers. Farro, quinoa and brown rice are all sturdy enough to last a few days and won’t get soggy at the bottom of a container.
Microwave a sweet potato and top it with chili, spaghetti sauce or leftover taco ingredients. Add cheese.
Roast extra vegetables to brighten up any salad.
For protein hits, try crumbled sausage, cooked shrimp, smoked salmon, canned tuna, chickpeas or beans.
Chop up leftover salad ingredients with some fresh vegetables and meat or tuna for a chop-chop salad. Add dressing at work.
Add crunch to leftovers by adding nuts and seeds or crumbled roasted veggie chips.
Use salsa, hot sauce, mustard or flavoured mayonnaise as a dressing for leftover or purchased meat. Keep interesting dressings on hand to perk up drab leftovers.
Cut up an avocado at work and add it to anything to make it better.
Everything tastes good in a wrap. Try using roasted seaweed sheets as a wrap.
Freeze leftovers in lunch-sized containers for emergencies.

Ideas for mason jar soups

For the base: Cooked or canned beans, cooked lentils, quinoa, barley, cooked pasta, rice, cooked potatoes.
Add-ins: Cooked or roasted vegetables, thinly sliced onions or carrots, thinly sliced or spiralized zucchini, riced cauliflower.
Finishing: Sliced baby kale, baby spinach, fresh herbs, thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms, tofu, cooked chicken, beef and/or shrimp.
Seasonings: Good-quality organic bouillon (Lucy prefers Better Than Bouillon organic chicken stock paste), tomato paste or passata, miso, Korean gochujang, kimchi, tamari, curry paste, pre-mixed Middle Eastern spices, grated lime or lemon, grated ginger or garlic.
For on top: Yogurt, sour cream, whipping cream, coconut milk, soy milk, almond milk.