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Learn the shortcuts to making this epic cobb salad quickly and the tips for keeping it fresh until high school lunch!
High School Lunch Idea: Cobb Salad
With this delicious recipe, you can cook once and eat twice! Make this Cobb Salad for dinner and reserve one serving for a future high-protein teen lunch. Since warming up the chicken is unnecessary, teens can enjoy it cold or at room temperature right from the lunchbox!
It’s also a terrific meal prep idea: many of the ingredients, like the hard-boiled egg, cooked bacon, and chicken, can be prepped ahead and then assembled into this terrific salad quickly inside a lunch container.
You can prep this lunch for teens with grilled chicken leftovers from dinner or these epic blackened chicken breasts! Have chicken tenders on hand? They make a tasty swap too!
Since this salad has a lot of toppings, a simple dressing goes great, such as cilantro lime sauce, red wine vinaigrette, classic Ranch, or maple dijon dressing.
What is in Cobb Salad
Simple ingredients come together to deliver an epic mix of flavors and textures with deliciousness in every bite! You’ll find the measurements in the recipe card below. What you need for this Cobb Salad is:
- Lettuce: chopped Romaine or other kind of lettuce.
- Hard-boiled egg: a great protein addition. Check this post to see how to make easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs every time.
- Avocado: creamy and nutritious!
- Cucumber: makes this salad super fresh and crunchy.
- Cherry tomatoes: or any other tomato in season (ripe).
- Blue cheese crumbles: adds an irresistible cheesy, salty flavor.
- Bacon: always a tasty addition! Add it cooked and crumbled.
- Cooked chicken: use any grilled chicken leftovers from dinner or these epic blackened chicken breasts. You can also make epic lunch salads with canned chicken.
- Creamy vinaigrette: your favorite. Simple salad dressings such as this Red Wine Vinaigrette, Cilantro Lime Sauce, or this Maple Dijon Dressing pair amazingly with this salad.
Pack this one next: Roasted Veggie Winter Salad
How to Pack Cobb Salad for Lunch
Keeping this high-protein salad fresh until lunchtime is possible if you pack it properly. Follow these steps, and you can’t go wrong! Here’s how to meal prep Cobb Salad:
- Make a lettuce base
Inside a meal prep or salad container, make a base for the salad with the Romaine lettuce. - Add the toppings
Top with the hard-boiled egg, avocado, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, crumbled blue cheese, bacon, and cooked chicken. - Pack the dressing and refrigerate
Pack the salad dressing inside a small lidded container. Refrigerate the salad until packing it in the lunch bag with an ice pack. - Drizzle and enjoy!
Drizzle salad dressing right before eating.
Tips for packing Cobb Salad for Teens Lunch
Check these tips on how to meal prep Cobb salad, and this high school lunch will remain appealing for hours:
Keep it chilled
Pack this salad inside an insulated lunch bag and use an ice pack to keep the temperature inside the lunch bag cool.
Keep avocados from browning
While you can’t prevent avocados from browning, you’ll hardly notice them once mixed with the lettuce in the salad. Make sure to slice them in the morning or swap it for a guacamole single.
Maximize crispness
Slicing cherry tomatoes won’t affect the texture of the lettuce leaves too much, but keep them whole to maximize the crispness of the lettuce if you’re making this salad for a few days.
Pack the dressing separately
Drizzling the dressing over the salad when you pack this lunch can lead to soggy lettuce. It’s best to drizzle it over the salad before serving, so pack your favorite dressing in a small leak-proof container in the lunch bag along with the salad.
Make it a side
If you’re out of toppings but still want to send a salad for your teen’s lunch, try sending a tomato avocado side salad with their sandwich lunch.
Meal prep
Having a batch of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge for protein snacks or making this high school lunch is always a great idea that saves you time. Cooked bacon and chicken are also superb meal prep ingredients to assemble this Cobb Salad quicker.
Cobb Salad for Teens’ Lunch
Watch How It’s Packed:
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped Romaine lettuce
- 1 hard-boiled egg, sliced
- ¼ avocado, sliced
- ¼ cup cucumber slices
- ¼ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tablespoon blue cheese crumbles
- 1 slice of bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 3 oz grilled chicken breast, sliced
- 2 tablespoons creamy vinaigrette
Instructions
- Inside a meal prep or salad container, make a base for the salad with the Romaine lettuce.
- Top with the hard-boiled egg, avocado, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, crumbled blue cheese, bacon, and cooked chicken.
- Pack the salad dressing inside a small lidded container. Refrigerate the salad until packing it in the lunch bag with an ice pack.
- Drizzle salad dressing right before eating.
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