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I find cooking really relaxing. In fact, I’m rarely happier than when I’m in the kitchen cooking for friends. But what I love is the fun social event that results from my hard work (and hopefully a compliment or two). I just don’t get the same satisfaction from cooking as ‘meal prep’. I find it boring.

I have a strict Friday-only rule when it comes to buying lunch so most other days I end up with the same fairly dull homemade sandwich or underwhelming salad. I enjoy leftovers from homecooked meals, but my busy work and social schedule means I’m not necessarily in for dinner every evening, and I’m definitely not in the mood to make a complicated from-scratch meal for the next day.

What I want to find are exciting and varied but quick and easy lunches I can prepare at home and mix up during the week. So I’ve challenged myself to find new lunch recipes each week. I already use Pinterest to save recipes I find around the internet, but often they’re complicated dinner recipes I won’t try until I’m having a dinner party. So I created a new board for my lunch recipes, researching on Pinterest itself. I love that when I started typing ‘lunch box’ it gave me suggestions like ‘lunch box ideas for adults’ to get me started.

Something different

Pinterest gave me so many really simple ideas of things I’d never thought of, like using blackberries and blueberries in salads. Once I’d saved a few things I liked the look of, my Pinterest home page was full of new ideas – it didn’t take long for my board to fill up. Two recipes that immediately appealed were noodle pots and frittatas with quinoa and feta salads.

The noodles had the feel of being an after dinner leftover, but you can make a huge batch ahead of time and store it in pre-prepared jars (which also look pretty cool). Frittatas take literally minutes to cook, and the quinoa salads were easy to make a batch and add in fresh bits each morning.

Both had loads of saves and likes on Pinterest, and the delicious-looking pictures made me really keen to try them, so I set aside some time on Sunday for lunch prep. Both recipes have a few ingredients but I had most in the fridge already, and a quick dash to the shop took care of the rest.

Upgrade your lunch: we're making 1pm more fun with Pinterest