5 Delicious Throw Together Lunches Under $30

Eating food is necessary, unfortunately cooking food takes time. And time has a stealthy way of sneaking right past us if we’re not careful. So you end up having one of those days.

• The day you end up pulling through the drive through at lunch because there’s literally nothing in your fridge besides condiments.
• The day you run late to an afternoon meeting because the sit-down lunch took longer than it should have.
• The day you stuff yourself at dinner because you were in meetings all day and there was nothing at the office to eat.

Next time you find yourself assaulted by one of those days, keep calm. On the way to work, stop by the grocery store. You only need 15 ingredients, $30, and about 10 minutes each day and you’ll have 5 delicious throw together lunches.

Shop as though you live in a college dorm room

A sink, a microwave, and a mini fridge. You may have grown up, but most often the office kitchen is just as lacking as your old dorm room used to be.

These 15 ingredients are economical too. All you need is $30 to have delicious, office assembled lunches that only take up 10 minutes of your day to prepare. 

Shopping List

1. 1 small head green cabbage
2. 1 small head red cabbage
3. 1 brown bag wild rice and veggies mix
4. 1 bag Melissa's cooked lentils (or frozen bean of choice)
5. 2 avocados
6. 1 small container Feta cheese
7. 1 bag whole wheat tortillas
8. 1 small container of hummus
9. 1 medium cucumber
10. 1 bag shredded carrots
11. 1 small bag spinach
12. olive oil
13. 2 lemons
14. Optional: canned tuna or chicken
15. Optional: fresh fruit to finish off the meal on a sweet note.

Assemble your throw together meals and be prepared to impress

1. Lentil and rice bowl

   Cut out ⅓ of your lentil package and microwave for 2 minutes.
   Microwave rice according to package directions.
   Meanwhile, shred ⅓ of each cabbage. Mix with 1 teaspoon olive oil, juice from ½ lemon. Salt to taste.
   Dice up your avocado and tomato.
   Top the cabbage salad with lentils, rice, avocado and tomato.

2. Rice and lentil burrito

   Follow the same directions as the previous day. When finished, wrap the ingredients in one 100% whole grain flour tortilla.

3. Avocado chicken hummus wrap (chicken is optional)

   Assemble your cabbage salad.
   Slice up ½ of an avocado into slivers.
   Open and drain your can of chicken if you are using it.
   On your whole grain tortilla layer 2T hummus, avocado, 2T feta cheese, cabbage, and chicken. Roll up and enjoy. If some of the ingredients do not fit, serve them on the side as a salad.

4. Greek lentil bowl

   Warm up your lentils and rice in the microwave.
   In a bowl, layer 2 cups spinach, 1t olive oil, ½ tsp salt, juice from ½ lemon, ⅓ of lentil package, ⅓ of rice package, 2T feta cheese, ¼ cup shredded carrot, ½ of the cucumber sliced.

5. Italian (tuna) wrap - tuna is optional

   Slice up ¼ of your cucumber.
   Slice up ½ of the avocado.
   On your whole grain tortilla, layer 2T hummus, 1T feta cheese, cucumber, ¼ cup shredded carrots, 1 cup spinach, 1t olive oil, juice from ½ lemon, and tuna.
   Roll up and enjoy. If some of the ingredients do not fit, serve them on the side as a salad.

There you have it. 5 delicious lunches thrown together in 10 minutes and less. Much healthier than the drive through option. Readily available to assemble no matter how chock full your schedule is.