we just do sandwiches every day. PB&J or meat& cheese. Plus fruit or veg. Occasionally leftovers from dinner.

I've worked from home for around 30 years and the first thing I tell people is to stay out of the kitchen! It's difficult to avoid the inevitable weight gain otherwise.

But to answer your question:

My first choice is leftovers, it's the best way to get rid of them. Other than that, a light lunch - some fruit, a handful of nuts, a dozen jerk chicken wings.

Leftovers. And we usually prepare extra at dinner just for lunches. We also like sandwiches and omelets. I wish I could convince Jim to do more cheese-and-crackers dinners for the days when we go out for lunch.

Breakfast.

Sorry. I overslept. By lunch do you mean a small meal meant to tide you over until city dinner (6-8 o'clock), or country dinner (big meal at midday)?

For the former, we keep it simple. Make your own sandwich fixings, or soup, or cottage cheese with veg, or a salad. Nothing that takes a lot of prep. If it's leftovers, it's something that's good straight out of the fridge, but it's usually not leftovers because we want more vegetables than mains.

For cooking, since you like to cook, and for a more substantial meal, there's pasta (either simple with a sauce or baked in a casserole), eggs (omelettes, fritattas or baked), a bazillion things to do with chicken parts, casseroles, quiches, pies, etc.

What do you want to cook? Is it, perhaps, that you'd like to "retire" from the kitchen and only cook the things that interest you for fun? If so, make your own sandwiches is a good one.

Some years back, I had a project where I had to archive some recipes for a newsletter, but the early ones didn't have photos. If there was no image at all associated with the recipe, I made it so I could photograph it and fed it as the center of a lunch for family who came to sample. It was a lot of fun and I made a lot of things I wouldn't have otherwise chosen. You could try that with an interesting new cookbook (I have a book I want to do that with, but can't right now). Just cook your way through it, front to back, skipping the things you really don't like.

My evening meals are planned each day, so leftovers are intentionally planned to provide lunches or the components of other meals.

The refrigerator freezer is stocked with those components for any number of quick meals throughout the day - everyday. We're gluten-free, and instead of a traditional sandwich, we have quesadillas, lettuce wraps, Sloppy Joe on 1/2 of a gluten-free "sandwich bun" I make, and I try to keep a stack of arepas in the freezer for a ham and cheese "fix". I also make a recipe for cornbread that is baked very thin in a pan; cut and split to make grilled sandwiches.

Individual Stacked Pizzas made on corn tortillas (they take 6-minutes to make) - a good way to use small amounts of leftover meat, vegetables, cheese. You can also make them on flour tortillas.

There's always soup, chili, stew in individual portions in the freezer. A small container of chili works as a topping on a baked potato or a Taco Salad (a la Wendy's). There are all kinds of meat items I can choose from in small packets, casseroles-for-one (I like casseroles - hubby doesn't), muffin tin entrées to heat & eat, and one of my new favorites - Meals-In-A-Mug (which I've turned into a class at the Senior Center).

In a hurry.... I'll grab a homemade gluten-free waffle or pancake from the freezer and I'll eat one with peanut butter and a sliced banana. All kinds of things made with eggs (fresh or hard-cooked).

I make tuna/salmon patties and bean burgers and always have those in the freezer.

Salads galore. With all the vegetables out of the garden it's a given. Does anyone but me eat cottage cheese anymore? It's an inexpensive protein that can be used a lot of ways - just add fruit and/or vegetables.

I like tabouli and make it often with quinoa (found already cooked in the freezer) while there are fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley from the garden.

One of my favorite meals during peak apple season is a small Jonathan apple, chunk of good cheese, couple stalks of celery, and a handful of crispy almonds.

-Grainlady

i think my biggest problem right now is the dr ordered mediterrean diet for dh and incorporating 6 veggie servings a day (1/2 cup per serving) is difficult without salad which we get a little tired of even if you're talking about salad in different forms.... i have to plan carefully to get it all in there.... soup is very helpful but he's not really crazy about soup, even in winter, much less on 100 degree days.....

anyway all these suggestions are very helpful.....

Elery and I are the opposite, we eat breakfast, skip lunch and then have supper, although he usually has a small snack midday. I get the idea that you'd like a substantial lunch and then have a smaller evening meal?

As mentioned, eggs are always good, and I plan leftovers so I can get two or three meals from something like lasagna or chili or soup. I bake bread, muffins, homemade tortillas and freeze them for later. We like burritos and enchiladas filled with eggs or beans as well as we do those filled with meat.

I like to can, so I always have a jar of vegetable soup or chili that I can open in a pinch, and probably a couple of tubs of soup in the freezer too, so soup and homemade bread is a viable option for us.

Maybe it's a guy thing because like Grainlady's DH, Elery does not like casseroles. We do have a small Nesco roaster which we use a lot, I can put a chicken in there, or a pork loin, a small roast or ham, add some liquid and leave it, it'll be done in a few hours and I don't have to turn on the big ovens for a single item.

I'm not crazy for sandwiches, although Elery loves them. It's just too much bread for me, so many times I'll have the "filling" in a lettuce leaf or just on a single piece of bread, while Elery has the traditional sandwich.

Cold salads, like potato or pasta based ones are good in the fridge for a couple of days, so we can have it for a meal, skip a day, then finish it up with another entree.

My favorite, though, is beans. I can make soup or baked beans, use them as a dip, make refried beans to have as tostadas, add them to a big vegetable stew, they are cheap, healthy and versatile. And that's my "bean" commercial for the day, LOL.

Annie

I second beans. Bean dip, soup or salad, yum. Have salsa with the beans to get another vegetable in. Make a meat pie with left over beans, freeze serving of beans for later.

I just made a ham and cheese pasta dish that is good hot or cold.

cold cucumber soup is nice, haven't perfected the recipe yet, but its good. Parsley salad is great this time of year.

You need more vegetable ideas then....

-Use cauliflower instead of rice and use it to make a vegetable-heavy fried rice dish. http://ohmyveggies.com/how-to-make-cauliflower-rice/

-Add chopped parsley and/or grated carrots to (nearly) everything - and LOTS of it. I'm also famous for dehydrating kale and adding it to "everything". Meatloaf, meat balls, or meat patties (using ground beef or ground turkey) with parsley, dehydrated kale and lots of mushrooms.

-Make fresh salsa and use it as a topping on things like meat, eggs, baked potatoes....

-Stir-fry instead of salad, and you can still add a HUGE handful of greens.

-I love freeze-dried vegetables! You can eat them rehydrated or out-of-the-can as a snack (be sure to drink water with it). I can add a few tablespoons of rehydrated corn and peas to a cup of leftover rice (or cauliflower "rice"), along with some salsa or ketchup for serving with Mexican entrées.

-I make pasta salad with only a tiny amount of pasta and a LOT of fresh chopped veggies, and a tiny bit of Italian dressing and a couple shakes of McCormick Salad Supreme seasoning.

-Get some good vegetarian cookbooks from the library. We eat a lot of meatless meals, make our "chips" in the microwave with thinly-sliced sweet potatoes, and find all kinds of ways to add vegetables without always having to have a salad.

Ah! The veggies! One way to go is to really do it the Mediterranean way. If you go into a Middle Eastern restaurant, one of the options is usually a "salad plate". There might be a plant protein, like hummus, at the center, or it could have meat and pita on the side for making the equivalent of sandwiches. The main part is the salads. Each thing gets its own salad, instead of being a minor player in a lettuce salad.

So, think of small portions (not necessarily Middle Eastern) of cucumber salad (cucumbers and herbs in either yoghurt or vinegar dressing), carrot salad, tabouleh (bulgar salad), eggplant salad (there are at least a hundred versions, from a paste with tehinah to grilled with olive oil and pimento to stewed with whole hummus (chickpeas), or Italian style stewed (caponata)), olives or olive salad (tapanade), corn salad, bean salad, cauliflower couscous, tomato salad, grilled peppers, etc., etc.

There's a huge scope of new and interesting things to make salads out of. The great thing is that a lot of these are the get better in the fridge variety, so if you make enough to be worth the bother, like 2-3 cups worth, it'll last you for three days. Every day make one or two more, so the menu is constantly changing, but not much work on any particular day. Serve with whatever proteins and bread-type things you want, keeping them as the backup players for conveying the wonderful salads. Pita are so great because you can layer in the different salads, add some sliced or chopped meat or egg if you like, and it tastes great all muddled together. Or you can do the no dishes touching kind of thing. Or pile it all onto some fried rice or noodles.

If avoiding Summer heat is an issue, you can do your grilling, roasting, etc., the night before, or in the early morning, since you'll be serving cold anyway.

We're both retired and my husband has health issues, so we fit the description, "always at home." Like others, many of our lunches are leftovers from dinner. They can accumulate, so it's not always from the night before. I'm making dough right now for pizza tonight. I can guarantee you that there will be enough pieces left over for either my husband's breakfast or lunch tomorrow.

Lately, I've been able to get wonderful farm fresh tomatoes at our local farmers markets. So we've had tomato sandwiches daily for lunch. He never tires of them when tomatoes are in season. We do sandwiches, grilled burgers, and cold cut wraps quite frequently too, along with soups and chili during the winter months. My husband's favorite sandwich is a fried egg sandwich.

He's on a low sodium diet, so all products used are either salt free or low sodium. I make our bread, burger buns, and sandwich rolls, so they're all low sodium too.

For a really interesting med diet, have a look at this cookery book. It's fabulous.

https://www.amazon.com/Mediterranean-Harvest-Vegetarian-Recipes-Healthiest/dp/1605294284/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1468389522&sr=8-3&keywords=martha+rose+shulman

I've been using it for years and it's really great.

For lots of vegetables try ratatouille and caponata. Both are great eaten cold.

I always make a huge pot. It's a lot of work (especially the ratatouille ), but very much worth it.

Lots of recipes on Google for both dishes, which are classic Mediterranean ones.

Six servings of vegetable a day is only 3 cups. In summer it's really simple. Almost any leftover veggie can be eaten as a salad with a little dressing on it. Or there are bean salads, tomato salads, beet salads, cole slaw recipes with no sugar and full fat yogurt replacing some of the mayo. Even raw veggies with a good dip. A large serving of any of these with perhaps a couple of healthy crackers or a small piece of whole grain bread and you're good to go. If you feel you need something just a little heartier, place some smashed sardines or a small piece of meat on the bread. But the veggies are the main course.

I definitely make dinner w/ next day lunches in mind. I also love a tin of smoked sardines w/ lemon salt & pepper on some whole wheat crackers plus fresh fruit. That's my go-to when there aren't any leftovers.

I also will bake a few chicken breasts w/ lemon, salt & pepper & keep in the fridge to use for chicken salad or sandwiches.

I like to cook supper but not lunch.Make a roasted chicken for supper, tear leftovers apart, add grapes, pecans for chicken salad. There are some good flavors of Triscuit crackers, add ham, cheese and a big drop of mustard. Serve with green olives stuffed with garlic. My dh likes pasta salad so will make one a week to use with lunch. He also likes hot dogs (the ones that the company answers to a Higher Authority in their process) so those and pasta salad. While he is a real man, he also likes quiche so I do cook those for lunch every once in awhile. Also, grilled cheese and tomato on rye...in the winter with tomato soup. We have salad almost every day, I try to vary the ingredients. Since he is not a big bread eater I add meat or shrimp to the salad when serving for lunch. If I've made spaghetti for supper, will turn the leftovers into baked spaghetti, adding cheese, for lunch...(use the vegetable spaghetti). For a hearty lunch, fry some ground beef, add garlic. Nuke some refried beans. Put on a plate with guacamole and sour cream and some tortilla chips and salsa. (very little meat, mostly beans, guacamole and salsa). We also like pimiento cheese and will have that on a bed of lettuce with Triscuit and fruit. I try to have fresh fruit every day with lunch. My dh will also eat eggs any time of the day or night so sometimes we have them for lunch. Very thin pork chops and cabbage...cooked in chicken broth. Great lunch leftovers.Since he is on the Med diet and we, as you can see, are In Georgia, I won't tell you about the fried bologna, the peanut butter and potato chip, or the mayo and pickle sandwiches. :))

so many great suggestions thank you all though i sometimes get in a rut (yesterday) most of the time i love being in the kitchen now i have more ideas to work with

I make large pots of soup and freeze a few large containers of it so that I can rotate soups and not get tired of one. I have pea soup defrosting in the refrigerator now that I made with a ham bone from Easter. Just finished a defrosted container of multi dried beans soup with kielbasa, onions, carrots and celery. I plan to make some chicken noodle and vegetable soup this week and freeze several containers of it too. If I have any left over vegetables, I throw them into the soups too.

My parents are snackers. They keep cheeses and fruit and some deli slices of ham and such for mid-day snacking.

I like to stock their freezer with 1/2 pints of various things like caramelized onions and mushrooms, roasted chicken in homemade stock, ham in veg stock, tomato salsa, mixed grain in stock, beans in stock, etc...all cooked and frozen and just needs to be popped out of the container and into a sauce pan on low heat.

They can take out any three 1/2 pints in any combination and make a nice meal. Mom can add anything from her small herb garden or some fresh greens she is growing, or fresh corn they are getting now from the local grocery. (i gave her some seeds for a mixed salad green that is growing well i've heard).

They no longer garden but i'll stock them up again come fall.

They do like eggs for mornings and have never bothered to make tarts or quiche and have only had that when i visit so i'm thinking of making easy to heat up frozen mini quiche...

Dad loves my tacos and quesadillas and tamales and mini pizzas and they do freeze well, so i need to put that on my list for more rather than the 3-4 packages... They do get confused how to heat them up but that is usually a quick phone call.

Are you including breakfast for your veggie serving? I started out by frying up some onions and peppers and mushrooms and such and stirring it into scrambled eggs. But then I started cooking veggies on the side with the rest of my breakfast. Like a side of sliced cukes with yogurt or a dish of green beans with a sprinkling of thyme. It's amazing how quickly I got to missing veggies at breakfast if I was traveling and couldn't get any. Of course that was back then. Now I'm into the smoothies which include kale so I get my veggies in that way at breakfast.

Also look into other kinds of salads. I love this lentil salad as a main or a side on hot days. I'm still looking for a good carrot and ginger salad...I had one in a restaurant that was sooo good, and I've been looking for a version ever since...maybe like this one.

Another thing to do is look for veggies you've not cooked before. The other day I sauteed up some kohlrabi and it is sooo sweet and tender. But it's a veggie that many don't think or know about. There are some I've never tried...like jicama or jerusalem artichoke...that I need to give a shot some time. Also try using a collard green as a wrap for a sandwich instead of a flat bread. It's really tasty.