No More Sad Desk Lunches: What’s Your Favorite Brown-Bag Work Lunch?

My beloved avocado toast | Photo by Adjua Fisher

Pretty much every day around 12:30 p.m., one of my coworkers makes their way over to my desk to have me sprinkle some salt on their avocado toast — a brown-bag lunch that I have long been a fan of. (Anyone who follows Be Well Philly on Instagram knows my love for avocado knows no bounds.) It’s easy to make, it’s freakin’ delicious, it’s healthy and it’s filling. Plus, when I get home in the evening, I don’t have any containers to clean. In the past few months, I have turned many-a coworker into an avocado-toast-for-lunch convert, hence their need for salt and chili flakes.

Now, whenever I see someone walking out of our tiny office kitchen with a piece of avocado toast in their hands, I squeal. The amount of joy spreading avocado-toast love gives me is weird and embarrassing — but part of the joy of food is turning other people on to it, right?

When I make my avocado toast at work, I keep it simple: I bring in an avocado and two pieces of bread. Come lunchtime, I toast the bread in the office kitchen and slice up the avocado and top the toast with it, along with some mayo if I’m in the mood (I keep it in the office fridge), salt, chili flakes and hemp seeds (for the protein). It’s simple, cheap — avocados are just $1 at Trader Joe’s and a loaf of bread is around $3, so that rounds out to be a lunch that costs less than $2 — and I can mix it up if I want to. Sometimes I add cheese, sometimes I add tomato — sometimes I get really wild and add nori flakes. My point is, it’s versatile.

In sharing my love of avocado toast as a work lunch, I’ve realized that, for many, finding a work lunch you can always fall back on is like finding a pair of jeans that always make your butt look good. It’s hard.  And that’s where you guys come in. I’ve shared my avocado toast love, now it’s time for you all to dish: What’s your favorite brown-bag work lunch recipe? Shout it out in the comments and help your fellow desk jockeys avoid the dreaded fate of the sad desk lunch. My guess is, you’ll get some inspiration too.

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