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30 meal prep hacks for packing perfect school and work lunches

Prepping a week’s worth of lunches for yourself (or your family) isn’t just a great way to eat delicious home-cooked meals without spending hours in the kitchen every day, it’s also one of the easiest ways to eat healthy on a regular basis. That said, meal prep does take work, planning and time. A fair amount of time. Luckily, there are plenty of meal prep hacks that’ll ensure you don’t have to waste an entire Sunday in the kitchen! Here are some of our favorites.

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30 meal prep hacks for packing perfect school and work lunches

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If you’re using meal-prep recipes that call for cooked vegetables, consider cooking them either in your oven or on your grill, or broiling pan if you have one. This removes a lot of the water content of the vegetables, meaning they won’t be limp, tasteless and mushy messes in a few days.

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Invest in mason jars

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You probably already have a Tupperware or Pyrex set, but if you really want to up your meal-prep game, mason jars are key. Make-ahead salads are easy and fun to make, and the air-tight seal means your greens won’t get soggy. Plus, mason jars fit perfectly in your bag or your kids’ lunchboxes!

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Stock up on tiny containers

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Those adorable little plastic food containers may seem useless at home (what could you possibly be saving in them?), but they’re a lifesaver when it comes to packing lunches. Now you can safely package everything from a handful of grapes or nuts (or Grape Nuts) to ketchup, hummus or salad dressing. The alternatives aren’t pretty. You either have to hope your meal doesn’t end up soggy and saturated due to the condiments you’ve already added, or you need to bring a whole bottle to work and hope no one steals it out of the communal fridge.

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Wax on, wax off

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Curiously, most people transport their sandwiches in plastic containers or baggies — neither of which are time- or cost-effective. Instead, fold your sandwiches up in wax paper. Not only will the tight fit keep everything place, but you’ll have a mess-free place mat at your desk when you unwrap it. This is especially handy when you’re trying to prevent a wrap or burrito from falling apart.

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Stick to a schedule

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It might seem daunting, but if you take the time to plan out your shopping and cooking beforehand, you’ll save yourself a headache. Try to do your shopping, cooking and meal-packing all on the same day so your ingredients are still super-fresh when cooked. Breaking the steps up can cause undue stress — the exact thing meal prepping is supposed to combat!

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Pack your lunches in the evening

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Not only are your lunches more likely to be healthy and better prepared when made the night before (as opposed to in the morning, when you’re still groggy), but you can sleep in for a few extra minutes! Also, if you have leftovers from that night’s dinner, you can immediately pack them up as future lunches. 

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Cook in bulk

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Now, it depends on the recipe you’re using, but it is possible to prep meals for two weeks or longer if you know you’re going to be too busy to cook for a while. To do this, after you make your meal, you’ll need to portion your meal into single-serve containers. Stick five to seven of them in the fridge to feed you for the coming week, then stick the remainder in the freezer.

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Let your kids do the work

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Hacks are meant to save you time, and what better way to save time than pawning the work off on someone else? Sure, you’ll have to spend a few extra minutes helping your kids the first time or two, but having them pack their own lunches teaches them responsibility, how to identify healthy foods and make balanced meals, and it can even be fun! Just be sure to do a last-minute check before they run out the door; nobody wants their children going to school with an entire lunchbox full of candy. Rage Against the Minivan (amazing name!) has some additional tips here.

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Let your kids do the work (pt. 2)

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To help facilitate the aforementioned process, try making “snack stations” for your kids. These are bins with pre-selected, pre-organized snacks from which your kids can build their lunches. As Real Simple suggests, you might want to construct two stations: one for dried goods (which goes in the pantry or cupboard) and one for fruit, veggies and dairy (which goes in the fridge).

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Use your phone

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Any cook will tell you that the key to making meals quickly is an ability to multitask — so make sure you bust your phone out and set timers for everything. That way, you can multitask without worrying if anything will end up burnt! While that chicken is in the oven, you can save time by chopping vegetables for a salad (or, perhaps more realistically, slack off a bit and watch a YouTube video).

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Shop smart

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Unless you’re OK with eating the same thing for lunch all week (and some people are, there’s no shame in that!), you’re going to want to fill your shopping list with things that can pull double (or triple) duty. Greens like spinach and kale are as good sauteed as they are in salads. Lean proteins like chicken breasts and pork chops play well with tons of flavors. Vegetables like peppers, carrots and most squashes are also incredibly versatile — so pick ingredients that you’ll be able to get mileage out of!

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Shop smart (pt. 2)

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If you’re an old hand at meal prepping, you’ll already be a professional at gauging the different shelf lives of fruits, vegetables and proteins. If you’re not, now is a great time to start. Avocados brown hours after they’re cut, berries get mushy fast and squash has a relatively long shelf life — so take this into account both while buying ingredients and when prepping meals. You’ll want to make sure you’re eating your more volatile ingredients earlier in the week.

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Keep your avocados green

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Speaking of avocados, it’s not actually impossible to use them in meal prep. There’s a simple hack that can keep them green for much longer — all you have to do is slice a lime into wheels, and arrange them in a layer on top of your avocado-heavy dish so the limes are completely covering it. Your kids will thank you when they see fresh guacamole and chips in their lunches, trust us.

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Use a rubber band to keep apples fresh

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Worried about ending up with a soggy salad? After you’ve prepared your salad in a to-go container, drape a dry paper towel or two over the top of the greens before sealing it up. If you like this idea but it doesn’t work out perfectly, you can also start with a paper towel on the bottom, add the greens and then add another sheet on top. As Lifehacker points out, this method is great for storing salad in your fridge for a while too.

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Swap your slow cooker for a pressure cooker

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We’re obviously big fans of slow cookers for meal prep given their super easy set-and-forget nature. That said, if you are on a time crunch, consider investing in a pressure cooker. Where a slow cooker can take between four and 10 hours to prepare meals, pressure cookers can develop deeper flavors in only 40 minutes or so. The trade-off is that unless you have an electric pressure cooker (we recommend the Instant Pot), you should really keep an eye on it.

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Season smart with aluminum foil dividers

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A great way to save time and space in the kitchen (especially if you live in an apartment where your oven isn’t that big) is to use aluminum foil dividers in your pan, allowing you to batch-prepare your proteins with different seasonings without having the juices bleed over. You wouldn’t want your old bay and your lemon-paprika spice blends mixing, would you? (Maybe you would.)

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Batch-boil eggs in the oven

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OK, technically they aren’t “boiled” eggs, but if you’re prepping salads or sandwiches that need boiled eggs, a time-saving trick is to lay your eggs down in a muffin tray and bake them for about a half hour at 350 degrees. Just make sure you do a test run first to check your oven’s temperature! What’s that saying about eggs and baskets again?

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Be efficient, assembly-line style

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If you’re prepping multiple different meals, don’t cook them one at a time. Instead, cook them all at once but in stages — first washing, then chopping, then cooking. Not only will you save time, but you’ll also be spending enough time in each stage that you’ll actually become a better and more efficient cook. And who couldn’t do with honing their knife skills?

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Season heavily

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One of the pitfalls of meal prep — especially if you’re cooking for your kids — is the fact that at the end of the day, you’re probably eating only one kind of protein all week. To keep yourself (or your kids) from getting bored, season your meat heavily, and play with strong flavors. Curry, balsamic vinegar, horseradish, sriracha, fish sauce, and other spices, seasonings, and sauces will keep your dishes from turning out bland and samey, so don’t hold back.

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Don’t waste anything

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When you’ve finished chopping, you’re very likely to have some carrot stems, onion roots and chicken carcasses left over. Don’t throw these out! A nice homemade stock can provide a perfect base for your meal prep next week, so throw your discarded bits into a pot with some water and salt, simmer for a few hours while the rest of your meals are cooking, and get a head start on next week’s meal prep! Broth also freezes very well, so you can keep it for a very long time.

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Precook your grains

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Like broth, grains freeze easily. So if you’re looking at a week that’s heavy in grains like rice, couscous or quinoa, don’t hesitate to make a whole bunch and stash the leftovers in the freezer. Trust us, you’ll find a use for them, and your future self will thank you when you’re doing next week’s meal prep.

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Keep bread at work

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If you’re really concerned about soggy sandwiches, store a loaf of bread in a desk drawer at work. Then all you need to do is pack and bring the fillings (this is especially handy for all-in-one tuna, chicken or egg salad recipes like this “Best Egg Salad” from Serious Eats) in baggies or plastic containers. Just don’t forget about the bread. Nobody wants to be the person at work whose desk needs to be thrown away because there’s a mold monster living inside it.

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Use sponges or juice boxes as ice packs

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Obviously tossing an ice pack in your lunch box or bag is a great way to keep things cool, but what if you don’t have one handy? Try wetting and freezing a new, unused sponge inside of a plastic baggie, as suggested by My Kitchen Escapades. Not only will it have the same effect, but you’ll have a sponge in case lunch gets messy. Don’t want to send your kids to school with a sponge they’ll have to bring home? Freeze a juice box and use that instead!

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Use drink pouches for smoothies on the go

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Having a daily smoothie at work sounds wonderful (and healthy!), but it always ends up being too expensive to buy one every day and too time-consuming to make every day. Instead, concoct your smoothies in advance and store them in reusable plastic drink pouches like these. Then simply freeze the pouches until they’re ready to pack. As we previously mentioned with juice boxes, these can also double as ice packs!

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Unlock the power of the thermos

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There are two bugaboos when it comes to packing soup or pasta for lunch. First, how do you prevent them from spilling? Second, how do you package them so they can be reheated easily? Both of these problems can be solved with one simple answer: a thermos. Forget about the cheap plastic versions you had as a kid that leaked and lost all sorts of heat; thermoses today are totally airtight, and some (like this 16-ounce beauty) can keep soup and pasta hot for up to seven hours. No microwave? No problem!

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Unlock the power of the thermos (pt. 2)

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Did you know thermoses can also be used for solid foods? As a kid, we used to take hot dogs (in hot water) to the beach this way. If your thermos is of the short and stubby variety, simply slice the dogs in half. As for other kid-friendly meals, chicken nuggets can also be kept warm in your thermos! Just heat them in the oven and put a paper towel in the bottom of the thermos to absorb the extra moisture.

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Make meals more fun with cookie cutters

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Have a kid who doesn’t like crusts on his or her sandwiches? Save time trimming off the edges by using a cookie cutter instead of a knife. Not only is it faster, but the sandwiches will now be in a more unique shape! You can also use smaller cookie cutters of various shapes for apples, melon, kiwi, pineapple and other fruits! Or cheese! After all, it’s a scientific fact that 100 percent of kids prefer food in fun shapes (according to a study we made up for this slideshow).

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Make your own Lunchables

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If your kids are begging you to buy Lunchables (curse their fun packaging and exciting commercials!), try making your own version at home instead. For instance, using small pita rounds and mini containers packed with shredded cheese, sliced pepperoni and tomato sauce, you can duplicate exactly what’s in a box of Lunchables pizza. It’s cheaper, fresher and tastes a whole lot better! To save on cleanup, use one of these portioned containers.

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Make your own “junk” food

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If your kids clamor for sugary junk food snacks like Fruit Roll-Ups, you can still reward them without the guilt by making your own version at home. This recipe from Passion for Savings requires only three ingredients!