Cook Once, Eat Twice: Dinners That Make Tomorrow’s Lunch Easier

Making dinner every night, whether you love it or loathe it, is one thing most of us accept and do. But what about lunches? Is it really necessary to plan and cook these meals separately day in, day out?

I, for my part, don't believe so. Today I want to share a few dinner recipes that do double duty perfectly. I have learned that if you cook a little extra and set tomorrow’s portion aside before everyone goes back for seconds, lunch is already halfway done.

Here are my favourite dinners that easily turn into next-day lunches for kids and adults — some exactly as they are, others becoming totally new dishes with minimal effort.

GOOD TO KNOW: Planning for leftovers rather than simply hoping there will be some can save time, money and food waste. Love Food Hate Waste NSW recommends intentionally cooking extra portions and deciding how you'll use them before they spoil.

Two dinners worth cooking in bulk

1. Big-batch beef + lentil tomato ragu

A big pot of tomato-based mince is one of the most useful things you can have in the fridge or freezer.

For dinner:

Brown:

• 2 kg beef mince
• 4 large onions
• 6 large grated carrots
• 4 long finely chopped celery sticks
• 2 crushed garlic cloves

Add:

• 1 cup red lentils (ideally washed and soaked for at least 4h)
• 2 x 400 g tins crushed tomatoes
• 700 g passata
• tomato paste, red wine and/or beef broth to taste
• Italian herbs (my favourite mix: oregano, marjoram, rosemary, a pinch of sumac, cinnamon and crushed anise seeds)
• salt + pepper to taste

Simmer until the lentils are soft and the sauce is thick. Traditionally, Bolognese sauce is stewed for at least 4 hours. Serve with spaghetti, parmesan and a simple salad.

Tomorrow's lunch #1: Pasta Food Jar

Reheat the ragu with pasta until piping hot and transfer it into a preheated Food Jar. Add parmesan, chilli flakes or extra herbs.

Tomorrow's lunch #2: Cheesy ragu quesadilla

Mix a little ground cumin and paprika (optional) into the cold ragu, spread it over half a tortilla, top with grated cheese, fold, and toast. Cool before packing into a Bento with fruit, vegetables or a small tub of guacamole.

This one feels far enough removed from spaghetti bolognese that nobody needs to know they're technically eating the same dinner again.

Tomorrow's lunch #3: Pizza toast

Spread a thin layer of ragu over bread or a halved roll, add cheese, sprinkle with dried oregano for a real pizza taste and grill. Easy for a school lunch, especially if your child prefers finger food to pasta.

2. Lemon + herb tray-bake chicken

Cook extra chicken, and you've already sorted several lunches.

For dinner:

Add to a large baking tray:

• chicken thighs
• baby potatoes
• pumpkin
• zucchini
• capsicum
• red onion
• olive oil
• lemon
• garlic
• oregano

Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are golden. Serve with yoghurt or tzatziki and a green salad.

Tomorrow's lunch #1: Chicken couscous salad

Chop leftover chicken and roast vegetables and mix with:

• couscous
• baby spinach
• feta
• cucumber
• lemon dressing

This is particularly good for an adult work lunch and tastes great cold.

Tomorrow's lunch #2: Chicken pesto pasta

Combine chopped chicken with cold pasta, pesto, baby spinach and cherry tomatoes. Pack into a Bento 2 or Bento 3 with fruit on the side.

Tomorrow's lunch #3: Chicken wrap

Add sliced chicken to a wrap with lettuce, grated carrot, cucumber and hummus or tzatziki. Simple enough for a school lunch and completely different from the roast dinner it started as.

More dinners that make great lunches

Curry + rice

One of the easiest Food Jar lunches: Butter chicken, dahl, chickpea curry and mild vegetable curries usually reheat well and often taste even better the next day.

Dinner: curry + rice
Lunch: hot curry + rice in a Food Jar

For children who prefer things separated, pack rice and sides such as cucumber or naan in a Bento 5 and send the warm curry separately in the food jar.

Meatballs

Make twice as many as you need.

Dinner: meatballs + spaghetti
Kids' lunch: meatballs + tomato sauce in a Food Jar
Adult lunch: meatball wrap with salad + yoghurt dressing

Or slice cold meatballs and pack them with crackers, cheese, cucumber and fruit for a snack-style lunch.

Fried rice

Fried rice is one of those rare dinners that needs almost no reinvention.

Cook extra, refrigerate promptly, then reheat thoroughly in the morning for the Food Jar. Add extra egg, chicken, tofu, or edamame, plus whatever vegetables are already in the fridge.

Dinner: fried rice
Lunch: fried rice. Done.

Sometimes that's all the creativity Wednesday needs.

Roast vegetables

Always cook more than you need.

Pumpkin, sweet potato, capsicum, zucchini, cauliflower and onion are a useful, winning, versatile mix.

Dinner: roast vegetables + meat/fish/protein

Then use the leftovers in:

• couscous or quinoa salad
• wraps
• frittata
• pasta salad
• toasted sandwiches
• grain bowls
• mince and vegetable pie

For adults, add feta, chickpeas, leafy greens, and dressing for a completely different lunch in a few minutes.

Taco night

Make extra mince, beans or shredded chicken but keep the components separate.

Dinner: tacos
Next-day kids' lunch: quesadilla + corn + fruit
Adult lunch: Mexican rice bowl with lettuce, avocado, salsa and leftover filling

Same prep. Similar lunches for different palates. 

Homemade pizza

Possibly the easiest leftover lunch of them all. Make an extra pizza at dinner, refrigerate it and pack slices cold the next morning. Add fruit, vegetables, cheese or yoghurt to your kid's Bento 5. No transformation necessary. Who doesn't love cold pizza?!

Sausages + vegetables

Cook a few extra sausages while dinner is on.

The next day:

• slice them into pasta
• add to a wrap
• pack cold with cheese + crackers
• turn them into a quick sausage and vegetable fried rice

This works particularly well when everyone wants something different for lunch, but you're not keen to cook several meals from scratch.

Which leftovers work best hot or cold?

For kids

Keep the transformation simple. If they loved the chicken at dinner, there's no need to disguise it beyond recognition the next day.

Try:

• chicken → wrap
• mince → quesadilla
• meatballs → Food Jar
• pizza → cold slices
• pasta → same pasta, reheated
• roast vegetables → frittata or pasta

For adults

This is where leftovers can do a little more work. Add a fresh element and yesterday's dinner quickly becomes a proper work lunch:

• roast chicken + couscous + feta
• steak + salad + chimichurri
• roast vegetables + chickpeas + tahini
• meatballs + wrap + yoghurt dressing
• leftover salmon + rice + cucumber + edamame
• taco filling + salad bowl + avocado

You don't need another recipe. Usually, if you don't like eating the same meal twice in a row, you just need one fresh ingredient and a different format.

GOOD TO KNOW: Refrigerate perishable leftovers promptly. FSANZ advises that cooked or perishable food left at room temperature for less than two hours can go back into the fridge; between two and four hours it should be eaten straight away, and after four hours it should be discarded. Reheat cold leftovers quickly until piping hot.

Pack tomorrow's lunch before you finish tonight's dinner

This might be the most useful tip in the entire article. Don't put all the leftovers into one big container and tell yourself you'll deal with lunch in the morning. Put tomorrow's portion straight into its lunch container.

Cold tomorrow?
Put it in the Bento, then in the fridge.

Needs reheating?
Portion it into a fridge container so it's ready to heat in the morning to go into the pre-heated Food Jar.

Needs transforming?
Set aside the leftover chicken/mince/vegetables with whatever you'll need—wrap, couscous, cheese, pesto. You've already got the kitchen messy, so prep tomorrow's lunches right after dinner and buy yourself 15 minutes tomorrow morning.

Which EcoCocoon setup works best?

Food Jar
Pasta, curry, rice, soup, meatballs, noodles and other hot leftovers.

Bento 2
Larger servings of pasta, wraps, salads and adult lunches.

Bento 3
Similar to Bento 2 but for a bigger main portion and two smaller sides.

Bento 5
Best when leftovers become part of a snack-style lunch rather than the whole meal.

Stacker
Larger adult/teen lunches, salads, leftovers and meals that need more flexible space.

You certainly don't need to cook a week's worth of lunches on Sunday to make meal prep useful. Sometimes meal prep is simply making six or even 16 portions of dinner instead of four. Cook once. Pack twice. Move on.