People in America's hectic pace of life are reaching a point where they hardly have time to sleep. Naturally, with time at such a premium, we're necessarily looking for ways to get food on the table quickly. In many households, family members don't even eat at the same time, due to different obligations and activities. This is why quick is the name of the game when it comes to meal preparation.

Lunch can pose a particular problem. Kids are off to school and parents are working. You either have to have an efficient plan for distributing lunches in the morning, or buy ready to serve lunches at school or the office cafeteria. With everyone's food budget strained by high prices at the supermarket, more and more people are looking for quick lunch recipes they can prepare at home. The problem with lunch is the intensive amount of time spent preparing, bagging up and getting lunch in everyone's hand, in between your shower, dressing and getting off to work yourself. As with any task, efficient organization will cut the time you spend.

Here we give you a few ideas to build your own bag of speedy tricks, and a repertoire of a dozen quick lunch recipes that are nutritious, inexpensive and time saving. These ideas also address the issue of differing schedules.

1.Make a big stockpot full of soup. Let's say you've got 12 cups of clam chowder. Serve for dinner that evening, and freeze the remainder in single serving microwaveable containers. If you make four different soups in a month, you've got four dinners and many individual lunches. For just a couple hours of your intermittent attention, you've got a dozen quick lunch recipes. Nuke and eat! Family members can grab the soup of their choice and bag it up for lunch. You can do the same with batches of meatloaf, spaghetti, chili, stew or fried chicken. Granted, you'll need plenty of freezer containers, but these are relatively inexpensive and can be reused many times.

2.Subway style sandwiches are always a winner in the quick lunch recipe box, but prepping all the add-ons in the morning is not the way to go. Here's how you serve a perfectly lovely lunch quickly. Keep track of the deli sales on lunch meats and buy in quantity. When you get home, lay out small waxed paper sheets (you can buy these from the deli or in some supermarkets) and distribute sandwich portion sizes on each sheet. Some might be all roast beef, bologna or whatever, or you can layer a Dagwood combo. Fold the paper over each portion and freeze in a freezer bag or plastic container. The night before subway sandwich day, spend a few minutes in the evening slicing onions, tomatoes and other toppings. In the morning, set the mayo and mustard on the counter, along with the toppings. You can let everyone make their own, exactly to their taste.

3.If you or anyone is watching their waistline, this quick lunch recipe is lightning quick and nutritious. A box of bakery muffins, a half dozen containers of yogurt and a piece of fruit from the fruit bowl requires no prep time at all.

4.Each week, buy sufficient amounts of fruit your family likes and fill up your fruit bowl. Let your family know they can choose whatever, but you don't want anything left at the end of the week. One piece goes in each and every lunch. An excellent and effortless addition to your quick lunch recipe box.

5.Smoothies are another healthy and quick lunch recipe. This idea works best for those who are at home, come lunchtime. It takes but a couple of minutes and a blender. A granola bar or a muffin on the side and you've got lunch.

You can see that good planning and a tad of organization is all you need for quick lunch recipes galore!