I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I am not a planner when it comes to lunch. I never have been and I don’t think I ever will be. I can barely get myself out of bed to get to work let alone think of what to pack the night before. That’s why I rely on quick, easy lunches, and Dollar Tree has a lot of easy lunch ideas in their aisles. I’m talking frozen sandwiches, ramen bowls, pot pies, and burritos—all stuff you’ll actually be stoked to eat when lunchtime rolls around and you can’t possible justify ordering in again. Suck it meal prep services, this is true convenience! Here are some of the best easy lunch ideas at Dollar Tree.
- Fast Bites Frozen Spicy Breaded Chicken Sandwich
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Never worry about the dreaded lunchtime rush at your local fast food joint again! You can grab one of these spicy chicken sandwiches from Dollar Tree and a bag of chips to go with it for a grand total of $2.50 instead. If you’re really keen on having easy lunch ideas at the ready, load up your freezer up with these bad boys so you don’t have to take a mid-day trip down the street.
- White Castle Jalapeño Cheese Sliders
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Okay, I’m sorry for once again trying to push you to give up the midday trips to the drive-thru that keep you going during a mundane workday, but Dollar Tree has fast food faves, like these White Castle jalapeño cheese sliders. You still get that familiar fast food comfort but you can spend your lunch break watching a rerun of Seinfeld or staring at Instagram instead of sitting in traffic and then going right back to your desk. This is an especially great easy lunch idea for people like me, who happen to reside in a White Castle desert. (HEY, WHITE CASTLE, COME TO LOS ANGELES.)
Read our ranking of the best frozen sliders
- Hormel Compleats Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
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Hormel Compleats are for perf for people who can’t store their easy lunches in a fridge or freezer. Maybe there’s never space in the work fridge or maybe you just don’t trust your coworkers to not touch your food before you can get to it. I get that! These Compleats can be stored at room temp directly from the shelves of Dollar Tree, so you can keep them locked up in your desk drawer until you’re ready to dig in. Take that, phantom food eater!
Read our ranking of the best canned pasta
- Nissin Hot & Spicy with Shrimp Ramen Noodle Soup
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Ramen is the ultimate easy lunch equalizer. College students, office workers, and unemployed artists all come together to enjoy a delicious and frugal bowl of ramen that couldn’t be any easier to prepare for lunch on a busy day. Dollar Tree happens to stock one of Sporked’s favorite instant ramens, Nissin’s Hot & Spicy with Shrimp noodle soup. Sporked’s Jordan Myrick found it to be ideal for any shrimp lover out there with a true shrimp stock taste and a spicy kick that’ll wake you up on even the sleepiest work days.
Read our ranking of the best instant ramen
- El Monterey XXLarge Bean & Cheese Burrito
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A massive burrito is always one of the best easy lunch ideas. It’s stupidly easy to heat up and it’ll keep you full for hours—maybe even days when you’re going for a burrito labeled “XXLarge.” That’s a burrito that’s not messing around! Dollar Tree has a few burrito offerings, but I’m inclined to reach for a bean and cheese burrito rather than one with meat. It’s vegetarian friendly and way less greasy than a beef burrito. Lunches can be quick and easy without weighing you down for the rest of the day.
Read our ranking of the best bean and cheese burritos
- Banquet Turkey Pot Pie
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There are a number of frozen meals at Dollar Tree, but this is the only one that is endorsed by the Sporked team: Banquet’s turkey pot pie. This is a pot pie that was so good it snuck its way onto our ranking of chicken pot pies. That’s one I have faith in and it makes for a relatively well rounded meal you can make for a quick and easy lunch.
Read our ranking of the best chicken pot pies
- Bibigo Spicy Chicken Crispy Dumpling Bites
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A ground rule for easy lunches is that they don’t require you to add anything that doesn’t come in one package. That means no extra sauces or ingredients should be needed to make a full meal. Bibigo thought ahead for this moment when they threw a packet of sweet and sour sauce into the bag with these crispy dumpling bites. I know, I know—you’re thinking that dumplings aren’t an easy lunch, but these can specifically be heated in the microwave. And Bibigo dumplings are a Sporked fave.
Read our ranking of the best frozen dumplings
