We’re coming in hot to another school year, and I don’t know about you, but I have all the feelings about this. I’m sad that summer is coming to an end, but I always appreciate getting back into routine and schedules. I’m also not mad about the fact that I won’t hear both of my kids telling me they’re “HUNGRY AGAIN, MOM” 48 times a day.
As I think about going back to school…and hungry kids…I realize that packing lunches can be a tedious task, especially when you’re wanting to ensure that your kids are eating a nutrient-dense lunch. I know that packing a healthy school lunch can mean:
- Expensive
- Messy and hard to pack
- Things get wasted
- They get made fun of
But, here’s the good and bad news:
The bad news…if none of the above has happened yet, it will.
And the good news…I have some helpful solutions to minimize your frustrations of packing a healthy lunch and to maximize the benefits for your kids and your wallet!
Here are 5 tips to keep lunches inexpensive:
- Shop for produce in season.
- Order snacks in bulk on Thrive or Amazon.
- At the beginning of the week, make a roast or whole chicken. Then, use that for lunch meat.
- Instead of buying it, make your own granola, trail mix, crackers and gummy snacks.
- Don’t purchase pre-cut or packaged produce or dressings. At the beginning of the week, clean, cut and peel veggies and make a dressing or dip your kids will love. You can also freeze the excess. Here is our favorite ranch dip!
Here are 4 tips to keep lunches easy to pack with minimal mess:
- Use a stainless-steel lunch container that’s easy to clean and organize. Here’s one of our favorites, and here’s a great selection from PlanetBox.
- Mainly pack finger foods instead of fork and spoon meals.
- Use a thermos for any soups, sauces, yogurts, etc. Here’s one of our favorites.
- Save their favorite messy foods and snacks for an after-school snack.
Here are 5 tips to keep lunches from being wasted:
- Involve your kids in packing their lunch so they’ll have a say.
- Make the lunch look fun. For example, if it’s a holiday month or a theme month at school, get creative with their napkins, stickers or snacks.
- Less is more! They’re usually only at school for 7 hours, and unfortunately, most schools only allow about 30 minutes to eat. So, remember to pack foods that are high in fat. This will fill them up and keep them satiated rather than empty calories coming from packaged carbohydrates.
- Use a cookie cutter for veggies and some of the less appealing snacks/foods to make them look more fun.
- If you know your child doesn’t like a certain food, don’t pack it. You can try and encourage them to eat those foods at home in front of you rather than taking a chance of them throwing it away and wasting it.
Here are 4 tips to keep your kids from being made fun of for their lunch:
- Avoid packing stinky foods like eggs, fish and sauerkraut.
- Always include a special treat. It doesn’t have to be candy, but something like these homemade chocolate chip cookies, these almond joy cookies or these gummies.
- Educate your kids daily about making healthy choices and help them to learn why they should or shouldn’t eat certain foods.
- Decorate their lunch box with fun magnets or stickers.
It’s so important to remember the food you feed your children will either contribute to fighting or feeding disease. So, even though it would be easier and more convenient to throw a lunchable into their backpack, it certainly isn’t the life-giving choice.
For more recipes and ideas on healthy school lunches, you can read this post!
Kelsey Guerra
It’s hard to find fresh stuff that stays fresh by the time she eats it so keeping lunches cold is an art ? But I love cubing raw cheese from a local dairy farm to boost her immune system, and fresh fruit for some natural energy!
Season
Yes, it can be a challenge, and love that idea too. Thanks for sharing.
Jenni
Our favorite things to pack for lunches are hard boiled eggs and hummus with carrot sticks. These planet boxes look amazing!!!
Season
Love these! Thanks for sharing.
Amy Burns
My lil guy loves raw cheese and berries!
Season
🙂 Yum!
Ashley ayala
Favorite lunch box go to is salami & cheese with Simple Mills almond crackers! My little eats it every time. We are adding cut-outs this year too…hearts & dinos are a hit!
Season
Love it! Thanks so much for sharing.
Mente natural Pau
Hi, lovely ideas. My son loves fruit, so I put bananas withouth peeling so it avoid to look awful when it is time to lunch. I wanna buy some cutter for veggies, thank you for this incredible tips.
Season
Thanks so much for sharing.
Bree
I love doing my own “lunchables ” for my kiddo! Plus when it is broken down like that I feel like he eats more! I also include grapes because he loves them and YumEarth gummies are a sweet treat that I feel good about!
Season
Oh man, the home lunchables are for sure a winner. 🙂
Beth
We love to send rice cakes with hummus!
Season
Thanks so much for sharing.
May Price
For my 7 year old daughter she loves to eat everything healthy. We do cut up apples with soy butter since shes allergic to peanuts. Carrots with hummus, raspberry and blueberries. As a drink we only give her water or pediasure.
Season
Thanks so much for sharing.
Sami
Peanut butter Protein balls are a fave lunch or snack in our house!!! Healthy and filling 🙂
Season
Yumminess…and I love how you can make them with any combination of ingredients too. 🙂
Dani
Bone broth! Just starting solids with my little 🙂
Season
Love this! Thanks for sharing.
Danielle T
My favorite thing to pack for lunches are hummus with lots of veggies and fun things to dip in it! You can get really creative and know they’re getting all the good stuff they need!
Season
I completely agree…the combinations are endless, right?! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Nattalia
Homemade cookies and homemade banana and chocolate chip muffins.
Season
So delicious! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Sarah tapia
Local organic bunny carrots, my boys love them!
Season
Oh how fun! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Megan Petkov
Peanut butter stuffed dates!
Season
Yummy!!!! 🙂
Jen
Love all these tips! I remember getting made fun of for bologna and ketchup sandwiches when I was little ? my kids would love these lunchboxes and the magnets are adorable!!
Season
So glad you found this helpful, and I’m sorry about being made fun of…regardless of the food!
Gena kroshus
My kids love carrots with hummus in their lunches!!
Season
YES!! So good. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Colleen Luevano
Love this ! I wasn’t aware of such great containers for lunches ! I’m tired of the constant wasteful baggies & plastic containers.
My kids love sandwiches so I tend to do that for lunch. Some days we do simple peanut butter & fresh sliced banana sandwiches.
You can fresh blueberries for “jam” Fresh fruit cut up and coconut water. Some days good quality lunch meat- on toasted tortillas with cream cheese and cucumbers. They do have snack time and I make zucchini chocolate muffins. Apple & oat muffins are great too. Anyways, hope these ideas sound good !
Season
Oh, so many good ideas! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Divanyw
I learned from you how to make our own trail mix and it’s still a winner for lunches with us!!
Season
Love this!! I’m so glad that you guys enjoy it as much as we do. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Shannon
My daughter loves to help pack her lunch. It really does help them eat it if she gets to help pack it. And they LOVE when there is a dip!
Shannon Dunn
My daughter loves to help pack her lunch. It really does help them eat it if she gets to help pack it. And they LOVE when there is a dip! Thanks for the tips
Season
I love that you have her help you pack it. I think that makes a difference too! And yes, there’s something about getting to dip things that helps. 🙂
Diane
I love to pack Hawaiian bread rolls with Peanut Butter Crunch from Trader Joe’s. I also include cherry tomatoes for my daughter and carrots for my son. We include string cheese, go-gurts, and a granola bar as well.
Season
🙂 Thanks so much for sharing.
Jessica
My little one loves celery with sun butter and a few raisins on top!
Season
YES…love that. I think that’s officially called “Ants on a log.” 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Stephanie
My daughter will always eat all her cucumbers if I cut them into little cookie cutter shapes. She also loves turkey wrapped around string cheese (since we don’t usually do bread).
Season
Isn’t funny how presentation can make a difference. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Bobbie
My kids love nbj’s, cucumbers with dip, apple slices with nut butter, energy balls, and water for a beverage.
Bobbie
My kids love nbj’s, cucumbers with dip, cheese, energy balls, and water.
Season
Love it! Thanks for sharing.
Jennie
Two favorites that my girls love; Granny Smith apples with a little bit of sunbutter and sprouted sunflower and pumpkin seeds
Season
Oh my…YES!! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Jayme O.
My girl loves homemade chicken salad in bib lettuce, raw cheese, berries, watermelon, celery + cucumber, simple mills rosemary crackers, just to mention a few 😉 OH and we LOVE your ranch recipe!
Season
Yum…that sounds delicious. And I’m glad you love it…it’s one of our favorites too. 🙂
Megan
Do you have a amazon page or list of your top purchases on thrive? I would love to be able to access this information 🙂
Season
Have you checked the “Resources” tab at the top of the website? There’s a lot of Amazon products listed there. I haven’t done a Thrive list, but I did do a video of me opening my Thrive order a while back…you can search for it on my FB page under the videos. Thanks!
Michelle
Homemade hummus with carrots or cucumber, cheese stick, beef stick, and some kind of fruit
Season
Thanks so much for sharing.
CYNTHIA
My kiddos love California rolls, they also love wheat bread with cream cheese turkey and avocado!
Season
Thanks so much for sharing.
Cari
Salami, cheese and an apple.
Season
🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Laura
Do they sell a 2 sandwich stainless lunch box?
Season
Hmmm…I’m not sure. I would just check their website to see.