5 Ways to Up Your Lunch Game This Year

As a defiant response to Sad Desk Lunches, the Food52 team works to keep our midday meals both interesting and pretty. Each week, we'll be sharing our happiest desk lunches -- and we want to see yours, too.

Today: Looking back at 2014, here are the midday snacks and lunch tips that have stood by our -- and our computers' -- sides.

It's 1:00 PM and the ham and cheese sandwich you cobbled together last night is looking soggier by the minute, or worse, you sacrifice half of your lunch hour to wait in line at the overpriced salad spot on the corner. It's safe to say we all have some lunch regrets, but last year's brown bag is this year's trophy lunch.

We revisited the best of last year's Not Sad Desk Lunches to bring you our favorite lunch tips -- because bad work lunches are so 2014.

1. Avocados are the answer to, "I don't have time."

Throw an avocado and a slice of bread into your purse, borrow a fork, and voila: avocado toast! Don't even have one minute? Halve an avocado and spoon out the meat with some homemade dressing paired with a side of last night's leftover rice for a fresh lunch in a snap.

2. Never underestimate toast.

Transform toast into a tartine with some radishes or smashed tahini peas; make last night's leftovers into a crostini; or utilize your office toaster to make cheese toast, because cheese makes everything better.

3. Desk picnics are the new park picnics.

Why should charcuterie and brie be limited to sunny days? Grab some cured meat, the contents of your cheese drawer, and a slab of bread for an indoor take on the cloth blanket favorite.

4. Make the most of your office kitchen.

Make a baked potato bar at your desk with some cheese (Ricotta! Feta!) and all the trimmings or bump your salad up a notch with some warm vinaigrette or goat cheese, baked in the toaster.

5. Salads are a lunch classic, with good reason.

Maybe it's because they're so easy to transport, or because they make your leftovers look good, or maybe it's because they're just so darn delicious. We could wax poetic about the virtues of a fresh salad lunch, but we have a feeling you already know what we're talking about.

Oh, and don't forget dessert!

 

 

Tell us: How do you wrap up your lunch for safe travel?

Photos by James Ransom and Mark Weinberg