As my clients very quickly discover, if you plan dinner, lunch will quite often take care of itself. How?

The obvious lunch option is leftovers of last night’s meal, but you could also think about cooking some extra chicken, salmon, pasta, rice, vegetables, or whatever it might be that you’re having that night, so that you can use them as a starting point for a salad, wrap, rice bowl (…) that you can quickly pull together for lunch the next day or the following few days. You don’t always have to make the lunch the night before or in the morning. Stick some bits in a couple of Tupperware boxes then pull it together and dress your salad at lunchtime.

Don’t forget to rummage in the fridge to find bits and pieces that need using up and that would combine well with what you’ve cooked. And, having a well and thoughtfully stocked fridge, freezer and store cupboard will also give you a helping hand. A pack of feta or halloumi, some tinned beans or fish, some lemons and herbs, some small bits of leftovers that you’ve frozen can all contribute to a lunch feast.

If you have the oven on or the BBQ lit, you could think about what else you can cook to make use of the energy. Throw a potato in the oven to bake whilst its hot or grill some veggies on the BBQ as it cools down, for instance.

Maybe you’d prefer to spend some time on a Sunday prepping some bits and pieces for the week ahead – roasting a whole tray of vegetables, chopping a bunch of salad items, cooking a big batch of lentils or quinoa, steaming some fish, boiling a few eggs can mean that you have a number of items to pick from and combine to make a healthy lunch.

If you’re planning ahead for your evening meals, it’s easy to think about how lunch might fall into place.

This is one of my recent ‘pull it together’ lunches using bits and pieces from the fridge and a wrap from the freezer; shredded lettuce, grated carrot, sweetcorn, leftover harissa aubergine, halloumi, seeds, lime juice and tamarind chutney in a wholegrain seeded wrap. Deelish. And no, I did not successfully fold my wrap and made a giant mess. Such are the joys of eating!