Coming up with inspired lunch ideas takes some effort. One of the things I’ve been trying to be better about is lunches on-the-go. Often times, let’s be honest, it’s re-marketing leftovers. Too often, if we’re not going to be home for the day, we just wing it. And I’m nearly always sorry we didn’t make the effort to pack a good lunch. This is especially true if we’re on some sort of trip, towing the Airstream. Because on those days parking dictates where you’re lunching. And just thinking about it is making me cringe. So yeah, we’re trying to do better over here and I thought I’d share some recent wins.

Lunch Ideas #1 

These lunch boxes (above) came together pretty quickly. Nearly everything was a leftover, or component of a previous meal. To pull it together I peeled and chile-dusted the hard boiled eggs, sliced the avocado and sliced the mandarin.

1. Spicy Sesame Coleslaw: You’ve seen it before, you’ll see it again. Lol. It’s my favorite coleslaw, and I’ll basically tuck in anywhere. Feathery green and red cabbages along with carrots, apples, and scallions tossed with a spicy, creamy sesame dressing.

2. Pickled Cauliflower: The pop of color you need in your lunch. This quick pickled cauliflower delivers a good amount of tang and crunch in the midst of less structured components. I make mine with chiles, mustard seeds and slivered onion, but you can play around.

3. Chile-dusted Hard-boiled Egg: Here’s how to make these. Combine equal parts chile powder and MDH chana masala powder in a small bowl. I like to use this Kashmiri chillie powder, but use what you have (and like). Hard boil eggs, peel them, rinse, dab each egg a bit on a clean towel to take off excess water, then roll them around in the spice mixture until completely covered. Slice and serve, or pack into lunch.

4. Turmeric-Scallion Tofu Spread: This is actually leftover wonton filling from my last round of wonton soup. But it’s also great as a lettuce wrap filling, cracker and sandwich spread, and on its own. Here, I nestle it into a stack of 2-3 little gem leaves. Get the recipe – it’s the first part of the recipe on this page, minus the wrappers.

5. Red-spiced Edamame: I’ll write this up as its own recipe soon, it’s a homemade spice blend made by crushing Kashmiri chillies, smoked paprika, brown sugar, sesame, dried onion flakes, salt, and a kiss of cardamom together. Sprinkle generously. There are a lot of other spice blend ideas in the Spice / Herb / Flower / Zest PDF that members get. Just about any of those are great here. Experiment!

6. Pepita & Curry Leaf Tadka: I’ve definitely over-stripped my young curry tree making this lately. Toast a cup of pepitas and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stir in 50-ish fresh curry leaves. Continue to stir and when the leaves begin to crisp up add 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds. Keep stirring and when the seeds have toasted a bit and stopped popping, add 1/2 teaspoon chile powder. Pour this over your pepitas, toss well, and salt to taste. good on everything, Including the soba in the next lunch.
Also: purple rice, sliced avocado, mandarin wedge, nutritional yeast kale chips

Lunch Ideas #2 

The one component of the lunch boxes (above) that wasn’t made ahead of time, was the soba noodles. I boiled them, and ran them under cold water just before packing up. 

6+. Soba with Pepita & Curry Leaf Tadka:  The same pepitas as above (lunch ideas #1), this time tangled with cold soba.

7. Vegan Tamagoyaki: This is a vegan version of tamagoyaki, the much-loved Japanese rolled omelette. I like to make chickpea-tofu version, and this one is lined with nori and seasoned with scallions and herbs. They’re fantastic lunchbox heroes because you can make and roll them ahead of time. They’ll keep for a few day so you can slice and go.

8. Blistered Artichoke Hearts: Leftovers from dinner the previous night. I cooked these from frozen. So easy, so good. I wrote a long post about how to cook artichokes – both fresh and frozen. So, if you love artichokes, but think they’re too much work, read this. Same goes if you think the frozen ones are going to be bad. They aren’t and they’re great in scenarios like this one, quick pastas, casseroles, etc.

9. Fava Beans Tossed with Citrus Olive Oil: These are fava beans that have been shelled, boiled for a flash, shelled again, and then splashed with a bit of lemon olive oil, and tossed with a pinch of salt. From previous dinner. I do the same with edamame, but favas are in season and I they’re worth all the shelling and peeling drama.

10. Kale Chips: Some extra crushed kale chips tossed with the remaining pepitas. My method for epic kale chips is this: buy curly kale, make sure it’s dry if you recently washed it. Toss the kale with olive oil and scrunch it all up with your hands, be sure it’s all coated. Toss with a lot of nutritional yeast, get a good coating going. Season with salt and bake at until the chips at the edges start browning. Toss well. Continue to bake until crispy but still mostly green. Or have a look at this kale chip recipe.

Also: blood orange wedges for dessert.

A Couple Pro-tips

There’s actually just one main tip, but I’ll add more as I think of them. Line your bentos with parchment paper for easy clean-up (pictured below).  This isn’t as important with stainless steel containers, they clean up quite quickly. Bentos, often made of cedar, are a bit more fragile and take more care if you want them to last for many years. Also, clean up as soon as you get home. The reset is key to looking forward to your next special box lunch.

More Lunch Ideas: Salads!

Salads are another favorite lunch idea. For the best experience, keep the dressing on the side and toss just before eating. Also, pro-tip, leave a good amount of room or headspace in your salad vehicle, so tossing is contained and less messy. For to-go or desk salads, I love bringing the components for a Nicoise salad or Nicoise-ish salad. The lettuces and other ingredients can stand up to transportation and you get a great mix of protein, greens, and veggies all in one lunch. See photo below.

Favorite Lunchbox Containers

Bentos: I have (and love) my small collection of bento boxes. They’re beautifully crafted and fit the perfect amount of food. They often come with small dividers to create separation between food, but you can also use lettuce, or other small containers to divide things up. 
Tiffins (or dhabbas): These containers have long been used in India to enable healthful, homemade meals outside the home. I have a circular, triple-stack stainless steel version I love for a number of reasons including durability, compactness, and security. The tiers nestle tightly making spills and accidents unlikely. I have my eye on a rectangular version as well.

Both bentos and tiffins have a tradition of enabling meals made with care and love. And continuing this tradition is something I try to channel when I’m packing a lunch for myself or someone I care about.

I don’t mind mixing different types of lunch containers. And sometimes I’ll make an individual lunch for each person, each in its own container. But, other times I think it’s fine to load up a few family-style containers and do it that way. I think that works great for components that can be more communal, like edamame, or a bunch of dumplings, a stack of paratha, vegan sushi or quesadillas, quinoa patties, etc.

Hot Lunch!

Use a thermos to bring hot miso soup or tea or rasam or whatever else you can think of. This is always the icing on the cake and unfailingly makes me happy (or happier!) When I really have things lined up, I’ll bring green tea, miso soup, or soba tea and a durable glass or two wrapped in cloth. Simply rewrap when you’re finished.

I hope this provides a bit of inspiration! It’s really wonderful to take a bit of time to sit down to a thoughtfully prepared, healthful homemade lunch and I’m never sorry about making the extra effort (in the long run). Even if it can make a morning a bit more demanding than usual, I know when I do it, I’ll eat better, feel better, and get excited about sitting down to lunch. Enjoy! -h

More Lunch Ideas

• Vegetarian Lunch Ideas: One Sauce, Three Lunches
• 10 Lunch Ideas that Spark Joy
• Otsu
• Vegan Sushi
• Quinoa Patties
• Mushroom Hand Pies
• Black Sesame Otsu

Continue reading Feel-good Lunch Ideas on 101 Cookbooks

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Pinwheel sandwiches aka tortilla roll-ups are a delicious lunch recipe or easy game-day appetizer. They can be made in advance and customized to your liking with your preferred deli meat, veggies and cheese.

Don’t forget the cream cheese to keep these roll-ups holding together! Read on for more.

Maven’s Quick Tips

Soften your bread. This is critical to ensure you can roll-up your pinwheel sandwiches. I do this for 30-40 seconds in the microwave.

Use a binder. Cream cheese is my preferred “binder” but you can get creative here. Vegan or dairy-free cream cheese spread works but so does hummus or even tzatziki. More ideas are listed below.

Make ahead…but not too far ahead! I like to make these up to 24 hours in advance and store in the fridge. You can make them up to 3 days in advance but note that it may mean the wraps get a little soggy.

Customize. Lots of pinwheel sandwich ideas below but feel free to customize to your liking.

Serve as lunch or appetizers. These make an easy lunch recipe or finger food for game day. My kids love these too!

Ingredients in Pinwheel Sandwiches

• Base – I like using flour tortillas as my sandwich base but you can also use lavash, flatbread or even large pieces of lettuce.
• Spread – this is what keeps your roll-up together. I like use cream cheese but other ideas include hummus, tzatziki, baba ganoush, or even pesto.
• Meat – My preference is for smoked turkey but you can use any sliced deli meat, thinly sliced chicken, cooked bacon or even smoked salmon.
• Cheese – any sliced cheese works here but I can’t deny a turkey + cheddar combo!
• Veggies – typically leafy greens but you can also use thinly sliced peppers, cucumbers or shredded carrot if desired.

How to Make Pinwheel Sandwiches

STEP 1: SPREAD EVENLY

Soften your tortillas in the microwave for 30-40 seconds. Spread your softened cream cheese in an even layer over all 4 tortillas. Sprinkle ranch seasoning (or everything but the bagel seasoning) equally over tortillas.

STEP 2: ADD MEATS, CHEESE + VEGGIES

Along the bottom layer of the tortilla layer on 2 slices of turkey, 2 slices of cheese and a small handful of spinach.

STEP 3: ROLL + SLICE

Starting from the bottom roll up your tortilla into a log and then slice into 1-inch pinwheels

Easy Swaps & Substitutions

Swap the meat – Add a different deli meat like chicken, salami or ham will work in place of smoked turkey. Smoked salmon would be a creative substitute too!

Change the veggies – I like using spinach but any leafy green will work in these.

Use a different cheese – Any sliced cheese will work here.

Switch the sauce – instead of using cream cheese you can replace it with hummus, if desired. Tzatziki would also be great as would pesto or any other creamy sauce.

Add pickles – I love adding the acidity of pickles to my turkey pinwheel sandwiches. I’d recommend using sliced bread and butter pickles.

Add bacon – to give your pinwheel sandwiches more of a “cobb salad” type flavor you can always add cooked and chopped bacon.

FAQs

What are pinwheel sandwiches?

Pinwheel sandwiches are tightly rolled sandwiches made in a wrap, tortilla or flatbread and then cut into rounds – hence the name! They typically include some type of meat, cheese, veggies and dip or sauce.

Can you prep pinwheel sandwiches in advance?

Yes. Pinwheel sandwiches can be made up to a day in advance. Note that they will soften the longer they sit so I don’t recommend making them more than 24 hours before.

Best type of bread for pinwheel sandwiches

I personally like using flour tortillas as my wrap for pinwheel sandwiches. You can use any of the varietals like spinach or sundried tomato tortillas. You could also sub in gluten-free wraps or lavash wraps, if desired. Just be sure to soften them in the microwave before rolling.

Can I make these pinwheel sandwiches dairy-free?

Yes – simply omit the cheese and use hummus in place of cream cheese to help bind the sandwiches together.

Do I have to use the ranch seasoning?

No you do not! I just like the flavor it adds. Feel free to skip, if desired.

Storage Instructions

You can store pinwheel sandwiches in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 24 hours. They will last longer (more like 2-3 days) but may get soggier the longer they sit.

I do not recommend freezing these.

More Sandwich Recipes:

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Pinwheel Sandwich Recipe

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Pinwheel sandwiches aka tortilla roll-ups are a delicious lunch recipe or easy game-day appetizer. They can be made in advance and customized to your liking with your preferred deli meat, veggies and cheese.

• Author: Davida Lederle
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 0 minutes
• Total Time: 10 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings 1x
• Category: Lunch
• Method: Roll
• Cuisine: American

• 4 large flour tortillas (or lavash or flatbread)
• 8 ounces softened cream cheese
• 1 tbsp ranch seasoning or everything but the bagel seasoning
• 8 slices smoked turkey (or other deli meat)
• 8 slices cheddar cheese (or other sliced cheese)
• 1–2 cups baby spinach

1. Soften your tortillas in the microwave for 30-40 seconds.
2. Spread your softened cream cheese in an even layer over all 4 tortillas.
3. Sprinkle ranch seasoning equally over tortillas.
4. Along the bottom layer of the tortilla layer on 2 slices of turkey, 2 slices of cheese and a small handful of spinach.
5. Starting from the bottom roll up your tortilla into a log and then slice into 1-inch pinwheels.
6. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for 24 hours.

Note: The cream cheese ensures these hold together fairly well but if you have any issues you can always use a toothpick inserted through the middle to keep them together.

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