Easy Pasta Lunch Meal Prep

Lunch can be one of the hardest meals to plan. You don’t want to eat too much, but you need to have enough to get you through the rest of the day. It’s also always been important to me to have something reasonably healthy. When you are home for lunch, it is a lot easier to whip something up for lunch. However, when you are working, it’s a different story. You need something to grab and bring with you that you can reheat at lunchtime.

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For six years my husband had sandwiches for lunch every day while at work. Not good sandwiches with vegetables, spreads, and other good stuff on them. I’m talking about sandwiches with deli meat and cheese and that’s it. That gets old. So, I started to experiment with other things that we could do for lunch. The trick was to find something that was filling, easy to make, would last a week (at least) and would be relatively healthy. As I dove into the world of meal prep and freezer meals, I started to experiment and this has been my most successful recipe for lunch.

The first problem was to make something filling. That’s what brought me to pasta. My husband is in construction, so getting energy from carbohydrates can really help him get through the rest of his day. Pasta is the perfect solution to that. Once I knew what I’d use for my base, I started thinking about other ingredients that would keep it healthy enough, while still tasting good and keeping it simple.

Ingredients:

Penne
Chicken (a lean protein – cut into bite-size pieces)
Grape Tomatoes (halved)
Shredded Mozzarella
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Basil (if you have it, fresh is better)

These ingredients supply the energy and basic nutrition to get through the day while tasting really good together. What is better, is they all freeze really well and so I can package lunch portions and that makes them a perfect grab and go lunch!

Steps:

First, I cook the penne according to the directions on the box. Then I mix in some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and basil. Next, I add raw chicken cut into bite sizes, a couple small handfuls of mozzarella (I have small hands so it’s probably one handful for the average person) and gently fold in halved grape tomatoes.

Once this is all mixed together, I pour the pasta into a glass casserole dish and top it with a little more mozzarella. After covering with foil, I bake the casserole for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Then, it’s done! To package it for lunches, I’ll divide it into five quart-sized freezer bags, squeeze the air out, and lay them flat in the freezer. It is important to make sure the pasta is cooled before bagging it since it is going into plastic bags.

Now, when my husband leaves for work in the morning, he can just grab one of the bags and heat it up at work! It’s a perfect way to provide a hot lunch every day without too much effort and without breaking the bank! I’ve been cooking this weekly for a while now and it’s been a big hit. It’s so quick and easy.

I’m a big fan of meal prepping freezer meals for dinner and so it seemed only logical to try and do the same thing for lunch. It is even cheaper than buying the deli meat every week and is much more filling.

My other favorite thing to prep for lunches is a Burrito Bowl, but this one can’t be frozen, so it has to be eaten quickly.

What’s your favorite thing to prep ahead for lunch? I’m always looking for fun, new ideas to try!