Home visit: how to pack a healthier lunchbox

Kickstart your lunchtime by switching from takeouts to ‘take ins’ with our week’s worth of work-day meals. You’ll waste less, boost wellbeing and save cash! All you need to start is the right box.

Food being packed into lunchboxes. One has compartments with different food, there’s pasta salad in a round plastic tub.

Meet Cosima, our food-on-the-go guru

“I used to take a packed lunch to work because there were no real options for vegans. If you have a microwave at work then you can take in whatever you want, but if there isn’t one, you want to pack food that is still tasty when it’s cold. I would cook a meal in the evening and make sure there was enough for me to have for lunch the next day.”

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A young woman sits at a wood table with two bamboo-lidded glass food containers filled with lentil stew and spinach.

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Berry bento box

For this healthier sweet treat, pack your individual ingredients into a bento-style lunch box – the individual compartments will stop ingredients getting soggy before you’re ready to eat them. This is a twist on the breakfast Bircher, with yoghurt as the base, mixed with your choice of fruit, seeds and nuts. “I’m vegan, so I would use coconut yoghurt,” says Cosima.

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A white lunchbox with orange inserts, one has yogurt, the other berries, beside it is a round glass jar with berries.

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Easy summer pasta salad

If morning’s are a rush, batch prepare the ingredients and store them individually in containers in the fridge. In the morning all you have to do is mix a meal-sized portion in your lunchbox. Mix cooked spelt pasta, fresh spinach, cherry tomatoes, red onion, green olives and sunflower seeds. Dress with olive oil flavoured with Italian mixed herbs, salt and black pepper.

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A white plastic round tub containing tomato, red onion and green olive pasta salad, on top of a blue lid on a table top.

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Carry out lentil stew

Batch cook this and divide it into portable dishes to keep in the fridge. Before work, grab one and go. Melt coconut oil in a pot. Add diced red onion and garlic, toss until glazed. Mix in a teaspoon of turmeric, a can of coconut milk and cup of red lentils. Simmer for eight to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add water if needed and chopped cherry tomatoes at the end. Season with salt and pepper.

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Two piles of glass food containers and a vacuum flask on a wood surface. Hands fit a bamboo sealable lid onto one tub.

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Veggie ball wrap

Upgrade your sandwich to a wrap. IKEA veggie balls picked up from the freezer section of the Food Market are the star of Cosima’s vegan version. “Heat your veggie balls in the oven. Lay a few with chopped tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, spring onions, and cucumber on your wrap. Spoon on a dressing of soy yoghurt seasoned with salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Then wrap everything up and enjoy on the go.”

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A wrap tied with string inside a glass food container on top of a bamboo lid, beside an open wrap on a cutting board.

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The more, the merrier

Turn your leftover veggie balls into a pick-and-mix meal full of goodness. “We’ve been vegan since New Year’s Day 2014. We took a 30-day challenge and didn’t stop!” says Cosima of her and husband Mel’s diet. “Mel studied nutrition so with each meal we have a multigrain like wild rice or bulgur wheat couscous, plus a protein and green veg.” A handy tip to balance what you put in your lunchbox!

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A white plastic food tub with blue inserts, with different food, on a linen tea towel beside a tray of veggie balls.

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We love to see our customers get creative with our products. Go for it! But please note that altering or modifying IKEA products so they can no longer be re-sold or used for their original purpose, means the IKEA commercial guarantees and your right to return the products will be lost.