Lunchflation is affecting fast food and restaurants all over the country right now and I’m fighting back with deliciously easy homemade lunch recipes everybody can make.
lunchflation is real!
Labor shortages, supply chain issues, and inflation…the prices at your favorite restaurant and fast food lunch places are soaring. According to eatthis: “Compared to the same time last year, prices at fast-food restaurants are currently more than 7% higher, part of an industry-wide increase of 6.9% in average menu prices. The 6.9% jump, which includes price growth for full-service restaurants, is the steepest increase for the restaurant industry since 1981.“
The payment company Square says “lunch item costs [are] rising faster than the average cost across all other items.” Combine this with surging gas prices, and lunch just got a lot more complicated. It’s time to take action against lunchflation with easy homemade lunch recipes, here are some suggestions.
if you love to hit Panda Express for lunch…
Splurging on that premium entree used to be a no brainer…not so much anymore. Try my spot-on copycat Panda veggie chow mein instead, and heck, throw in some shrimp if you like, you can afford it! (Try my other Panda Express copycat recipes here.)
Easy Vegetable Chow Mein
are you a Panera grain bowl fan?
Grabbing a bite at your favorite lunch spot is eating into your paycheck, I get it. I love a great grain bowl, too, and I’ve found I can do it so much better at home. Just prep the grains on the weekend and save money all week long.
Lunch Prep: Instant Pot Wheat Berry Salad
need to replace your $$$ubway footlong?
You’re working from home anyway, so no worries…my simple tomato toast has the most transcendent basil mayo, and your waistline won’t miss that bag of chips at the counter.
Tomato Toast with Basil Mayonnaise
is Sweetgreen’s garden cobb clobbering your budget?
Sweetgreen has raised its prices 10% over last year. The smart move is to make a fresh cobb salad at home, you can even add leftover salmon to yours, which gives lunchflation a one-two punch.
Salmon Cobb Salad
the Impossible Whopper is how much??
My falafel burger is so much better, and anyway…engineered meat? Not so much. You can prep these chickpea based burgers ahead, and freeze them, too.
Falafel Burger Recipe
craving Chick-fil-A’s mac and cheese?
You can have a whole pan of my easy mac and cheese ready and waiting before you could make it through that snaking drive-thru line, trust me. Take that, lunchflation!
How to Make Mac and Cheese without a recipe!
obsessed with Chipotle’s barbacoa?
Let’s skip the sneeze guard and make a big pot of authentic barbacoa on the weekend. You can have the best tacos all week.
Instant Pot Barbacoa Recipe
Starbucks is planning price hikes, yikes!
Some of us love nothing better than a coffee shop breakfast sandwich for lunch, but Starbucks is taking ‘pricing actions‘ this year. Don’t know exactly what that means, but it doesn’t sound good. My cheddar cornmeal biscuits make the best breakfast sammies ever.
Cheddar Cornmeal Biscuits
CPK’s gourmet pizza your jam?
The tax and tip really add up, and none of us needs the math anxiety. My easy homemade pizza dough can be topped with anything you can dream up.
The EASIEST Pizza Dough Recipe
I figured out that if I order deli meat by the slice rather than by the pound, I get exactly what I want/need so there’s no waste. Plus it’s so much easier for the person slicing the meat. Also, if I ruffle the meat on the sandwich rather than lay it flat, it seems like more.
Wow! You really hit all the notes with those choices. I see many I’d like to try. Thank you~