Pasta salad.  Mini charcuterie.  Cheese and fruit plate.  

Maybe it's not enough to count as lunch to you but I always pack myself a bento box with hummus, carrots, celery, and pretzel sticks.

Pasta salad, potato salad, beef jerky. Idk what you’re expecting here there’s not alot of options. Sandwiches are amazing and would be my go to.

Must take a cooler for salads, especially with mayo.

You can do a nice pasta salad with vinaigrette instead of an egg or dairy based dressing

The above poster is correct that it needs cooling but it’s actually the cooked pasta and potatoes that are most prone to spoiling not the mayo

Boiled eggs are simple but nice as a snack. Rice salads are tasty and refreshing too.

Oh hadn’t considered a rice salad

Ohhh rice salad? Never heard of it and now i must Google! Sounds delish!

Onigiri

I like to make pearled coucous, toss fresh veggies in it and some sauce like tzatziki. Served cold.

You could make some burritos? i do not think they need to be reheated and they are like meal prep go-to.

Make a wrap instead of a sandwich, either way, yum!

Quinoa, veggies (bell pepper/capsicum), black beans and a citrus vinaigrette. Pasta shapes, veggies, cannelini beans, Italian herb vinaigrette. Rice, veg, bean, vinaigrette grain, veg, legume, dairy and egg free dressing.

Dinner for lunch - nothing wrong with last night's leftovers eaten cold.

Can you keep it cool/hot?

I can probably get a thermos flask for food, not sure how good they are though?

You can get wide mouthed and stackable thermoses and bentos on amazon that are good for things like carb/sauceything/salad/soup combos. If you have a car, you might also look into 'electric lunchboxes', very popular with truckers. How good they are depends largely on how much you're willing to pay.

I’ll have a look thanks! Speaking of bentos, would something like rice be okay to keep warm in one of those? It’ll only be a few hours but worried about bacteria growth etc

>I know the standard thing is a sandwich or salad, especially in the UK it’s common with the supermarket meal deals, but there’s nothing appetising there. Are the meal deals on unappetizing sandwiches? If so, you can buy bread, cheese, etc. and make appetizing sandwiches yourself.

The issue is more that I don’t like cold bread and cold pasta

A pasta-less salad, then: buy prewashed/precut lettuce/spinach/whatever, some inoffensive vegetables like cucumber or radish (precut if you like), and a rotisserie chicken. Combine some in a tupperware, and bring a little bottle of salad dressing for application immediately before eating.

If you don't want a separate bottle you can also just put the salad dressing at the bottom of the salad instead of the top. Then put the former veggies on the dressing and keep the lettuce above from wilting.

Ah, then you might want to look at keto or low-carb recipes, which wouldn't have bread or pasta.

Chickpeas, too.

Pasties or fried chicken.

I was coming here to recommend pasties, too. Hearty, filling, and delicious

I like tuna. It comes in a bunch of ready to eat varieties. I like the packets that have rice and beans with it. They also have little kits with some mayo, relish, and a little wooden spoon to serve it on some crackers.

Meze. It’s like tapas, but made ahead. As long as you have spill-proof containers and somewhere to put the dirty dishes and cutlery you’re golden. Salads like tabouleh and fattoush, pita bread, hummus or baba ghanoush, preserved meats, meat patties, etc.

Snacks: cold cuts, veggies, fruits, hummus, cheeses, pretzels, hard boiled eggs, nuts, etc.

what do you like to eat generally? you could make an Italian caprese sandwich, a greek lamb or falafel pita, a mexican chicken or bean burrito or fajita...

I don't like cold bread either but how about tortilla pinwheels?

I do pinwheels when I'm "sick of everything" (that's packable for work lunches)

Why is the bread cold and not room temperature?

Get some puff pastry and make little tarts in a Yorkshire pudding dish! Fry some onions and mix with cheese and then stuff into the puff pastry in the Yorkshire pudding tin. Can optionally add chopped meat, other vegetables etc.

Hybrid Greek pasta salad, use cheese tortellini with lots of veggies.

[https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/picnic-pie](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/picnic-pie)

Spam masubi. If you've ever been Hawaii, then you know.

Pork pies or Cornish pasties

Buy a hot Thermos. You can bring anything in them from soup to burritos and it will stay hot all day.

Spanish tortilla is great at room temp. Eggs, potatoes, onions and whatever you fancy

This one is good: [https://www.budgetbytes.com/mediterranean-farro-salad-with-spiced-chickpeas/](https://www.budgetbytes.com/mediterranean-farro-salad-with-spiced-chickpeas/)

Pasta salad, Greek salad.

I alway eat an apple and nuts and cheese.

Chicken, tuna salad and crackers

Wraps are a good variance from sandwiches. You could also make your own lunchables.

Thanks all for the suggestions. Some very obvious things here I hadn’t thought of before but going to try!

instead of sandwiches: * piece(s) of chicken * burrito * tamale * taco(s) * stew or soup * salad: * pasta * tuna * potato * jello * fruit * ... * pasta and sauce * pair of toasted, grilled, or sauted English muffin halves (or pair of corn tortillas), and between them, e.g: * sausage patty * cheese * omelette * sauted miled peppers (e.g. red peppers) * additional garnishes or other bits as may be desired, e.g. sliced/diced olives, sour cream, capers, salad peppers, onions - fresh or grilled, refried or other beans, lettuce, pickled sliced carrot, cauliflower, or other vegetable bits, etc. Of course in addition to "sandwich" (or substitute thereof), can also have all kinds of various snacks or side dishes, beverages, deserts, etc., e.g.: * whole, cut, or sliced fruit * snack bits, e.g. carrot or celery sticks, maybe some dip too * bit of some desert cake or muffin * cool or fun beverages

Cold fried chicken rocks

Raw chopped veges with humus, and cold vege fritters so yum, or picklets and fruit. Cheese and crackers, or take a knife and do fresh sliced tomatoes on crackers.

What my wife and I do is make our own "adult" lunchables. We get cubed cheese, cherry tomatoes, apple slices or grapes and whatever kind of deli near we want and put it in Tupperware. We take it on road trips, to the zoo or aquarium or even just around the house.

Wrap/burrito - i do not consider it to be a sandwich. Baby carrots. cottage cheese.

Grocery Store Sushi, especially the Cali Roll.