Struggling with lunch ideas for your little ones at School? Here are 5 school lunch ideas you can make that are fast and easy. This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience.
Our kids eat a wide variety of fruits and veggies but I don’t necessary like to fill their lunches with just fruit and veggies. We are currently homeschooling but when our kids have gone out to school, I have spent so much time trying to come up with creative lunch ideas for them. My kids are not sandwich people but the girls will eat just a plain peanut butter or Nutella sandwich. Nothing more. I can’t blame them though; I’m not much of a sandwich gal either so I don’t make them at home. Note: I do enjoy an occasional one from a restaurant, though:)
Creating Kids Lunches for School
- Choose foods they already enjoy – Things will be much easier if you save yourself the hassle and just make lunches the kids enjoy. Why have them try something new at school that they may not like? If you want to have them try something new, do that at home first. My kids didn’t enjoy many of the foods from the cafeteria (except pizza) so I made their own and I use ingredients I know they’ll eat.
- Choose foods that are easy to prepare – School mornings are usually busy, you’ll want to make lunches that can be done in a few minutes. You can always prep ahead or make certain lunches that can stay in the fridge.
- Choose foods that include the five food groups – Including healthy options from the five food groups will help your child or children get the proper nutrients they need to build them up.
Top five food groups to include
- Dairy (Milk, cheese, yogurt)
- Protein (some kind of meat or poultry like chicken, fish, ham, pepperoni, etc. or even beans)
- Whole Grains – Things like Whole wheat bread, Whole Wheat Crackers)
- Vegetables – Corn, Peas, Broccoli, Peppers, etc.
- Fruits – Any fruit that would last (Berries, grapes, apples, chopped cantaloupe, etc.)
Learn more about these food groups here. I don’t always include them all but this will give you the base of how you can go about creating lunches for your little ones. If you’d rather your kids eat lunches made at home, here are some ideas.
5 School Lunch Ideas
For these five ideas, you’ll see blueberries and a lot of cuties (oranges), it’s what I had mostly that week since I didn’t do a proper grocery shopping. I just happened to have a ton of cuties on hand. Other fruits like strawberries, chopped grapes, chopped peaches, etc., are great for adding to kids lunches. Also, I share some of the snacks I add to their lunch boxes. They got two snacks, one in their lunch box and another for snack time at school. If your kids are eating the snacks more than the food, then consider removing that snack in the lunch box. Replace it with another fruit or veggie or something healthier.
Idea 1 – Blueberries and Pepperoni (Mainly for my Kindergartener/1st Grader – he is usually content with just one or two foods on his plate). You can see how I show a few different ways to do this one meal. You can add yogurt for dairy.
- Pepperoni
- Blueberries
- Yogurt (optional)
- Snack
Idea 2 – Nut Butter Sandwich and Fruit (My girls don’t like PB & J – but they’ll do just peanut butter or just Nutella on a Whole Wheat bread). One of them don’t eat blueberries so she cuties while the other had blueberries. I found these Bento Lunch Boxes on Amazon, here and here.
- Nut-butter Sandwich
- Buttered Pretzels
- Fruit
Idea 3 – Crunch Chicken/Fruit (mainly for my Kindergartener/1st Grader). I added a small pringles to his lunchbox.
- Crunchy Chicken
- Cuties
Idea 4 – Crunch Chicken, Fruit, Hawaiian Rolls (For the girls in 3rd & 5th). These Bento Lunch Boxes here and here on Amazon, were really great for separating the food.
- Crunchy Chicken
- Hawaiian Rolls
- Fruit
Idea 5 – Pasta, Broccoli, Fruit (Pasta could be cooked the night before and heated up with some sauce the next morning. Or it doesn’t take that long to cook – just throw it in the post the morning off, add butter or sauce or whatever your kids eat). A granola bar that isn’t too sweet seems fitting with savory pasta lunch.
- Pasta With Sauce
- Broccoli
- Fruit
Hopefully, this post have you’ve gotten a few ideas of how to prepare your kids school lunches.
Pin This Post
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness (Proverbs 31:27).
