On this week’s Big Batch, cookbook author Sarah Butler breaks down the best lunchbox recipes you can mix and match. 

The most neglected meal of the day for many, it can be easy to be stuck with a “boring lunch box”, according to Sarah. 

“We spend so much time worrying about what we’re going to give the kids in lunch boxes we don’t think about ourselves,” she told Lunchtime Live.

According to Sarah, however, you can create a variety of lunchbox recipes with a few simple cornerstones: potato salad, pasta salad, marinated chicken, and coleslaw. 

“Make them all up and have them there in your fridge – they’ll all keep for three to five days,” she said. 

Marinated chicken 

Sarah recommended spicing up your “boring” roast chicken with a few simple spices. 

“One tablespoon of paprika, one tablespoon of oregano and a teaspoon of garlic powder,” she said. 

“With salt and pepper and oil, you’re mixing all that up and then rubbing it in [to the chicken].” 

You can then either leave your chicken to sit and absorb the spices for an hour or immediately cook it in the oven or on the stove. 

Sarah said you can use this chicken as a staple to your other lunch essentials. 

“You can add it into a wrap, in the pasta pesto salad,” she said. 

Lunchbox recipes: salad

The pasta pesto salad is even easier, according to Sarah: buy a jar of red or green pesto, mix it into a pasta of your choice and add some pine nuts and parmesan.  

“Even with some bread, it’s really nice,” she said. 

You can also use leftover spuds by cutting them up and mixing them with mayonnaise and other ingredients of your choice to make a potato salad. 

Coleslaw

Those who are partial to it can also use coleslaw in their lunch boxes, although Sarah said this is a more “controversial” discussion. 

“Coleslaw is actually very controversial but if you have it there, you’ll use it or not,” she said. 

“You can have it with a sandwich, with a salad. 

“It's a case of finding out what taste you prefer.” 

She said you can make your own coleslaw with exactly your preferences. 

This may seem like a lot of preparation, but Sarah said healthy lunchbox recipes every week are easier to achieve than most think. 

“If you do this little bit of work on a Sunday evening and you have it all in your fridge, you'll easily make it to Thursday,” she said. 

Sarah’s newest book Comfort Food is out now. 

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