The lunch packing struggle is REAL! I have a picky eater in the house, and we are often victims of lunchbox ruts. I flat out run out of ideas to keep school lunches healthy, yummy, and interesting! This year, I turned to the wise parent communities of Facebook and found some crazy good new ideas! I also had a few laughs and felt way better about my lunchbox inadequacies…we are all just parents fighting the good fight, doing our best! If you are looking for some new tricks to add to the weekly rotation in your house, here are a bunch of great ones, from super creative to just plain super easy to get you and your kiddos off to an awesome start to school lunch!
- Leftover meatloaf (yes, mine actually like cold meatloaf). Pasta salad. I do tricolor pasta with cubes of chicken or pork, cubes of cheese, peas, shredded carrots, and salad dressing. Leftover quesadillas are popular as well with my kiddos.
- Fruit & veggies with sandwiches. And my son loves yogurt!
- We do a lot of bento boxes with fruit, veggies/dip, cheese cubes, pretzels. I tried meat/cheese roll ups but she won’t eat them . Yogurt tubes, apples with almond or peanut butter. I’ve also done leftover tacos – mix meat/cheese in a soup container and send tortillas to make at school. Also, won’t lie, we have a pretty steady diet of uncrustables .
- Deli meat roll ups & string cheese We made a pasta salad and a Mediterranean salad. Kids will have that in lunches or as after school snacks. The pre cooked and peeled hard boiled eggs are great in lunches, so are chobani squeeze yogurts. Teeter has the single serve hummus pretzel cups on sale for $1 each so those are easy. Carrots or pepper strips for veg and then berries for fruit. When it gets cooler we do tortellini or pizza rolls in thermos.
- Macaroni salad and potato salad is also an idea for cold items.
- I pack juice boxes or mini water bottles. I always open the water bottle in advance then re-close so I know they won’t be struggling with that at school. Used to do thermoses of water but have had leaks and they are heavier.
- I pack those CapriSun Roaring Waters things and tell myself they are better than the regular ones. #dontjudgeme
- I just ordered a bunch of new small lunch food thermoses for my kids school lunches. The older kids love pasta or meatballs in them, and all three like chicken nuggets in there (sometimes homemade, sometimes not). They say they like soup but it takes too long to eat. I might do chili this year though since it’s thicker and I think a bit easier. I always warm the thermos with boiling water for a few min before drying it and adding the warmed food. They also like quesadillas, which I sometimes fill with chicken or pork from dinner the night before. I wrap them in foil and they seem to stay warm enough. Muffins are also a big hit. I say all this but 50% of the days my middle son brings home a totally uneaten lunch with the explanation that the cafeteria was just too gross to eat in that day!
- Mine love cucumber and ranch. Also ham and cheese sandwiches on the Hawaiian rolls.
- My kids always take a reusable water bottle to school, like Nalgene, so they have water throughout the day and at lunch/on bus, etc. Better than all that sugar in juice, cheaper, and better for the environment not to use all those plastic water bottles. My daughter prefers hot lunches also, so heat up a lot of stuff to put in a thermos- pasta, sliced Aidell’s chicken and apple sausage or taco seasoned meat and cheese with a side of tortilla chips along with fruit, yogurt or string cheese.
- I don’t know if your kids like Nutella but I took bread and flattened it and spread Nutella on it and rolled it like a jelly roll and cut it up. All the kids wanted one at the lunch table. Lol
- I feel like it really depends on how picky your children are. I usually prep the night before by putting snacks and juice boxes in the evening and depending on what they want, I make it in the AM. Kid 1 typically wants something warm like leftovers or soup. Kid 2 is picky and usually wants a cheese sandwich or leftover pizza. Costco sells cream cheese is little packets so you could always pack them a bagel and cream cheese. They also like guacamole and chips.
- My youngest loves to buy lunch.
- I swear by this method, 4 lunches packed on Sunday night! We use Bentgo Kids boxes, but there are lots of good kids bentos. I always pack 2 types of fruit, 1 veg, a “main” and a small extra/dessert. For the main, it’s a usually a sandwich (we rotate bread, wraps and rolls) – turkey or ham and cheese, sunbutter and jelly, cream cheese or hummus. The extra/dessert is usually yogurt raisins, cashews, craisins or something similar. Sometimes I mix it up and do a Garden Lites muffin and yogurt tube for the main. I’ve been doing the frozen juice box (honest kids) to act as an ice pack and she said it’s been working and is thawed by lunchtime. Love FB for ideas like that! I kind of like packing lunches now that we’re in the rhythm of it. I also got these cute little reusable bags for snacks, called Itzy Ritzy!
Need new easy, quick, kid-approved, delicious, healthy, perfect-for-a-crazy-weeknight family dinner ideas too? Are you a member of the River Run Recipe Club yet? Open to ALL! We’d love to hear about your family’s tried and true favorites…and share a bunch of ours with you! Find us on Facebook or email [email protected].
