Stay out of a lunch box rut this school year with these easy Lunch Box Ideas! With a variety of meats, grains, fruits, vegetables, and snacks the possibilities are endless!
After packing your kids’ lunch boxes, slip one of these FREE printable lunch box notes and jokes into their lunch box for a fun surprise that will brighten their day!
It’s That Time of Year!
Summertime is officially winding down. That means the kids are back to school and I’m back on lunch box duty. Our kids are old enough that we usually have them pack their own lunches, but I still have to provide the ingredients and fixings of course!
I like to change it up so the kids don’t get bored, as well as make sure there are tons of healthy items to keep them energized and happy through out the day. To ensure their meals are well rounded, I typically include at least one item from each category:
- meats
- grains
- fruits
- vegetables
- and sometimes a treat 😉
I compiled a list of ideas from each of those categories. As you can see, there are tons of ideas and hopefully even your pickiest eaters will like at least some of them!
Ideas For Healthy School Lunches
Like I said, I usually try to include at least one item from each category to make sure the kids’ school lunches are well rounded and provide healthy nutrients. You can easily mix and match by pairing different items together! But here is our list of healthy lunch box ideas:
Try These Lunch Box Examples!
Here are 4 examples of lunch boxes made from mixing and matching items on the list! You can see there’s so much variety and you can make so many different lunches from similar ingredients. It’s simpler than you think to cater to each kid’s preferences!
LUNCHBOX #1
- Ranch Dip Snack Pack
- Carrot slices
- Cucumber slices
- Sliced apple
- String cheese
- Peanut butter pretzels
LUNCHBOX #2
- Ranch Dip Snack Pack
- Carrots
- Raisins
- Cubed Colby Jack cheese
- Peanut butter banana roll ups
LUNCHBOX #3
- Ranch Dip Snack Pack
- Carrot sticks
- Celery sticks
- Blueberries
- Strawberries
- Ham and swiss cheese sandwich
LUNCHBOX #4
- Ranch Dip Snack Pack
- Cherry tomatoes
- Bell pepper sticks
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- 1 mini bagel pizza
Tips for Packing Lunch Boxes
When you’re like me and have 6 kids, any tips, tricks and hacks for making lunch box packing easier are widely accepted!
Food Safety
- Use an insulated lunch box to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold!
- Pack food while it’s cold.
- Use an ice pack inside your insulated lunch box to keep food cold. (Extra hack: freeze items like juice boxes, grapes, or yogurt packs – they will thaw by lunch time but double as an ice pack!)
- Make sure your kids empty any leftovers in their lunch boxes at the end of the day so spoiled items don’t find their way back.
Simplifying the Packing Process
- Prep any items you can at the beginning of the week—wash and cut fruits and veggies and keep them in storage containers in the fridge for easy grabbing throughout the entire week.
- Pack the night before. This is great to do if there are leftover dinner items that can be thrown into the lunch boxes. Plus, this will ensure you’re not packing in a rush the following morning.
- Have your kids get involved! My kids are mostly old enough that they can pack their own lunches. I’ll provide all the items and keep bins in the pantry stocked with snacks and other items prepared in the fridge so they just have to grab what they like.
Once my kids’ lunches are packed, I usually like to slip a note or joke into their lunch box. I have a whole bunch of FREE printable lunch box notes and jokes that you can use, too!
Happy lunch box packing!!
Love the lunch box ideas.
Thanks so much!
What kind of containers do you use? What brand? Where did you get them?
With ranch
I agree!! Thank you!
I love to take some veggies and dip along with me to work so I can have something to munch on during my break.
Yes, I agree!! Got to have snacks at work 🙂 Thank you!
I love dipping my carrots
Agreed 🙂 Thank you!
With veggies
That’s what we like!! Thank you!
We pack the dips for softball weekends! We love them.
Perfect!! Thank you!
I love Marzetti Dios with celery sticks!
Agreed!
With carrots or pretzels!
YUMMY! Love pretzels with dip!
My daughter enjoys a healthy snack and so do I with her so we enjoy carrots and Ranch and she also enjoys mini pizzas and so do I.
That’s good that likes carrots! Thanks for stopping by!
Excellent
Thank you!
Iam always looking for Healthier snakes and lunch ideas. Thank you
You are so welcome!! So, am I!
I’m wondering as a Canadian mom! We’re not allowed peanut products or buts of any kind at school? And no but butter substitute? So my ideas run thin! Could you give me some inspiration?
Thanks
Meghan
You could do lots of fruits & veggies, ham & cheese sandwiches/rolls, cheese sticks. Hopefully, those help. It can get tricky, trying to come up with different things, but I just rotate different things.
My kids like honey and cream cheese or strawberry cream cheese in their banana roll ups. We also use Flatout bread and granola in with the bananas.
Perfect!! Thanks for sharing!
Just curious how do you keep the bananas and apples from turning?
I like to keep the apples together, once sliced…keeping it whole looking. Bananas will turn brown, but if you add a little lemon or lime juice on them, that helps 🙂
Yummy!! I’LL try out with recipes found in my country.
Thank you!! Good luck!
How do you keep the bananas from browniNg Before lunch?
I’ve tried a little lemon juice on it which does help, but there are more ideas online 🙂
Thank you! This article was very useful. I’ve printed out the chart to hang in my kitchen.
You’re welcome!! So glad to hear you’re being able to use it!
Ideas on how to keep fresh apple slices from turning brown when storing and prepping lunchboxes for the week?
Yes! So most important thing I’d say is to keep the sliced apples in an air-tight container. Then there are actually a handful of methods to try to keep them from browning, including – water and salt, lemon juice, pineapple juice, etc. There are lots of methods on how to do it.
Love these ideas for my picky eater!
Love to try thesr
Hopefully they are helpful!
I am a grandma and I love love love all your ideas. I pass them on to my daughters so that they can use them when packing my grandkids’ lunch’s. Keep up the good work. You have a special talent.