10 Awesome Desk Lunches That Will Put Your Coworkers' Leftovers To Shame

Eating lunch in the office doesn't have to mean a soggy sandwich and some stale chips.

With the help of Food52, we've put together a list of some delicious alternatives to your boring work lunches. These recipes are bound to make you the envy of your co-workers. After all, who knew you could make grilled cheese in your office kitchen?

Here are 10 of our favorite desk lunches.

Pasta Salad

Pasta salad is often the sad side dish at family gatherings and cookouts, but with the right ingredients, you can make it a stand-out dish for lunch. Marian Bull of Food52 suggests using short pasta with lots of nooks and crannies, so each noodle will hold onto your added toppings.

Follow these steps to make the salad >>

Cheese Toast

Everyone loves a good grilled cheese, and you can make a decent version of the beloved sandwich by using your office kitchen. Just toast a piece of bread, melt some cheese on top in your mini-oven, and dig in!

Follow these steps to make cheese toast >>

Leftover Roast Chicken

By roasting a chicken on Sunday, you're setting yourself up for a week of great lunches. You can eat the leftovers of your first roast chicken meal, and add it to other dishes like salads and soups.

Click here for more roast chicken tips >>

A Well-Packed Sandwich

It turns out there is a solution to the soggy sandwich problem! Marian Bull suggests making an avocado sandwich and initially adding only what will hold up for a few hours, like rye bread and hard-boiled eggs. She carries avocados and mustard into work with her and adds them to the sandwich right before she eats, making for a delicious and soggy-free meal.

Click here for more sandwich tips >>

Lettuce-less Salads

There are lots of healthy options for salad greens besides lettuce-check out the salad above, made with green beans, fava leaves, and pea shoots. These greens won't wilt as much as lettuce when you add salad dressing ahead of time.

Find more salad options here >>

Avocado Toast

This looks so good that we can't stop thinking about it. Avocado toast can be made pretty easily by smashing avocado on some thick slices of bread and adding flaky salt and other toppings of your choice.

Get the recipe here >>

Quinoa Salad

This delicious salad is made in five simple steps, making it the perfect choice for a desk meal. Before making the salad, you should rinse the quinoa to get rid of the bitter taste these seeds often have.

Follow these steps to make the salad >>

PB&J Sandwich

This classic choice might remind you of elementary school lunch, but there's no denying the tastiness of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You can make your sandwich more interesting by using different ingredients, like almond butter with raspberry preserves.

Click here for more PB&J suggestions >>

Tomato Sandwich

A good tomato sandwich is a very refreshing summer meal. Food52's Editor-in-Chief Merrill Stubbs loves this sandwich made with wholegrain bread, a beefsteak tomato, Kosher salt, and coarsely ground black pepper.

Check out the ingredients here >>

Grilled Chicken Salad With Noodles

This super-tasty salad features a bunch of ingredients, including Savoy cabbage, jalapeno, Sriracha, and pad Thai rice noodles, all coming together to create this refreshing lunch dish.

Get the recipe here >>