School supply shopping, done. Clothes shopping, done. Meet the teacher night, done (well, at least for one kid).
So, what’s left? Gotta get my “what to pack for lunch” game plan in place. I’ll be honest, sometimes, dinner leftovers become lunch for the next day . . but when that doesn’t work out or you don’t actually have dinner leftovers you can pack, you gotta plan, prep and pack!
This year, I’m taking the Power Your Lunchbox Pledge to pack a healthier lunchbox for my kids and to start the school year off right. I guess I’ve been lucky in that my kids do actually love fruits and most veggies . . well, my oldest will only eat her raw veggies if she has a creamy ranch dressing to dip them in. But hey, I say if she’s going to eat those carrot sticks and celery, have all the creamy ranch dressing you want!
My kids like a lot of variety and get bored with food easily (and won’t do the dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets anymore) so I have to change things up a bit. They also love the bento-style lunch box containers and love their food to be in separate compartments.
Did we care about this as kids? I don’t remember being so picky. My food was in plastic baggies and in a brown paper sack most of the time.
But if it will help them actually EAT their lunch, I’m on board and will keep using these fabulous lunch containers.
One thing I don’t have time for is cutting their sandwiches into animal shapes. To all you moms and dads out there who do that, I applaud you. But I don’t have time for that. What I do have time for and what my kids love?
Little notes in their lunch! Or jokes or fun facts! My oldest daughter LOVES these. And she will tell her little sister these jokes and they laugh and laugh. Last year, they were all about knock knock jokes. It was too cute.
So, visit Power Your Lunchbox and take the pledge to pack our kids healthy lunches! Power Your Lunchbox will run through September 18 and encourages parents to pack healthy lunch boxes, while supporting children’s hunger relief efforts. For every pledge taken online, $1 will be donated by the sponsors to children’s nutrition programs through Feeding America.
After you sign up and take the pledge, you will have the chance to download those free printable lunchbox cards for your kids, as shown above! You will also find more lunchbox recipes and tips!
25 Healthy Back To School Lunch Ideas!
Here are some great lunchbox ideas to get you started! These are actual lunches I have made and packed for myself and my kids and some other great lunch ideas from some of my favorite bloggers! I hope you can find something here that you will want to make or something that will inspire you!
1) Tuna Veggie Rolls (above), using canned albacore tuna
2) Hummus & spinach sandwich, grape tomatoes, sliced figs with baked sweet potato fries from Super Healthy Kids
3) Zucchini Fritters from Just A Taste
4) Baked Fish Sticks with Homemade Tartar Sauce from The Lemon Bowl
5) Inside-Out Sandwiches with Apple Slices and Trail Mix from Very Culinary
6) Brown rice, tofu and soy sauce (above)
7) Baked Corn Dogs from The Baker Mama
8) Homemade Spaghetti-O’s from Fake Ginger
9) Zucchini Tater Tots from Cupcakes and Kale Chips
10) Vegetarian Spring Rolls from Weelicious
11) Easy Soba Noodles (above)
12) Fabulous Fish Tacos from Super Healthy Kids
13) Mashed Potato Waffles from Healthy Nibbles and Bits
14) Asian Pasta Salad from Eats Well With Others
15) Healthier Creamy Potato Leek Soup from Joyful Healthy Eats
16) Spinach Artichoke Mac and Cheese from Well Plated
17) Super Easy Pasta Salad (above)
18) Hummus Veggie Wraps from Weelicious
19) Asian Spring Rolls (above), all of the veggies can be prepped and cut the night before!
20) Carrot Fritters from Oh My Veggies
21) Baked Veggie Taquitos with Black Beans (above)
22) Chicken Parmesan Meatballs from Real Food by Dad
23) Cauliflower Pizza from Food Faith Fitness
24) Kale and Apple Soup from Floating Kitchen
25) Crunchy Egg Salad (recipe down below!)
Now I have cool, new freezable lunch bags to keep lunches like this egg salad, fresh and cool! *For the apple, we’ve used both Granny Smith and Gala apples.
- 3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise + more if needed
- 1/2 to 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 1/2 tablespoon red onion, finely diced (optional)
- 1/4 cup apple, diced*
- salt to taste
Using a medium sized mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix together. Spread on bread slices or enjoy with crackers.
Disclosure: This post was written in partnership with Produce for Kids. I was not paid for this post but did receive a gift card, the Bentology lunch box containers above and some coupons. I believe in this campaign and hope that you can help me spread the word about Power Your Lunchbox so we can raise more money for children’s nutrition programs through Feeding America.
I love this post! I don’t have little ones to make school lunches for anymore but I remember loving to get creative – though, I must admit – I was not this creative! Such a beautiful variety of options you have listed here…I’ll refer to this list for my own meals! But like you, when I was little – school lunches came in a paper bag, mostly pb&J, a baggie of chips, and a chocolate milk. Every once in a while I bought when it was fish sandwich (with extra tartar) and tater tot day. 🙂
Annie, it was the same for me!! I feel like with Pinterest now, people have become so creative! 😛 I’m just trying to keep things fresh! I loved buying my lunch as a kid and loved fish sandwich day!! 🙂
Oh, it’s that time again to start packing lunches. I love how good at it you clearly are. We are so bad. We rotate the same three lunches through the week. But then, I’m a creature of habit who eats the same thing every day. My kids need a mom who makes lunches like yours! I’m excited for them to get back to the grind, though! Lots of learning to do. 🙂
Mir, sometimes I wish I could rotate the same three lunches throughout the week! and when I’m tired, I absolutely let my oldest BUY her lunch! Please do not think I have it all together, because I don’t! I think my kids just have a mom who loves Asian foods and has pushed a lot of Asian foods on them so they eat a lot of different kinds of rolls etc .. I’m excited too! I love schedules and routines for the kids! Thank you Mir!!! have a great weekend!
So I don’t have any kids and I’m not going back to school, but I sure do love this post! I think I’m going to use some of these meal ideas for myself! Love how healthy and creative these are, Alice!
Thank you so much, Gayle!!! yes absolutely, I use and eat some of these lunches for myself too!!! and the other recipes from the other bloggers?! I would absolutely eat every one of those myself! thank you!!!
I mean, even I would definitely get more excited about my lunch if it were in one of these containers! So cute! Thanks for featuring my pasta salad!!
haha, right?!!! and now I have like 50 of these containers . . it’s not even funny . . LOVE your pasta salad, Joanne! going to try it soon!
What a great collection of lunch-snacks, Alice! We will soon be into the whole packing lunches thing, so I’ll have to keep this link handy. Oh, and I’m taking the pledge now! 🙂 P.S. Everything was in plastic baggies and paper bags back in the day. Good times remembering that!!
David, thank you so much for taking the Pledge!!!! and please share and pass the word!!! and yes! a big woot woot to our parents who packed our lunches in the brown paper sacks!! 🙂 my mom should get a kick out of this post! 😛
I love all of these ideas. Really amazing stuff here! I wish I was back in school for this!
SO many amazing ideas here Alice. Not just for back to school, but for my husband to take to work 😉 He takes some right junk, so I want to start making better lunches for him.
I wish I was going back to school just so that I could bring ALL of these awesome lunch ideas! Thanks for including my Cauliflower Pizza! Pinned!
Great post, Alice! I don’t have any children and I am not going back to school, but I’d happily devour ALL of these lunch options myself! I am jealous of kids these days and their fancy pants lunch containers… I had Ziploc and brown bags, like you. Womp Womp. The pledge is great- I would totally take it if I could. But I did share this via pin, tweet and FB! All for a good cause! Cheers, girlfriend- to a great weekend!
Separate compartments are KEY. I wouldn’t let any of my food touch other food when I was a kid. I was a big pain in the butt! Ha! Love all these healthy lunch ideas, Alice. Your girls are very lucky to have you as their mom! 🙂
What a great cause! I love it. Those lunch boxes – I need to get some.
I don’t have kids but I’m loving the ideas in this post. Many of which I could make for myself. And those containers are perfect! No soggy sandwiches or snacks.
Alice I ADORE these bento boxes! I need to find some for my daughter – she is 16, and while I used to pack her lunches – this year she started packing her own -she still keeps it healthy, but I ‘am thinking she is gonna tire off chicken/ham sandwiches and carrots soon – and that’s when one of these will come in handy! Love the variety – heck – I want these for my lunch!
Now I wish I was a kid again, with all these healthy lunch box ideas! And the containers are awesome! Definitely making some of the recipes you shared! Great job Alice!
Oh girl, you know how much I love all of this!! And thanks for the link love!
Well I’m not going back to school but these lunches will definitely be making an appearance in my work lunchbox! Thanks for sharing all of these great recipes, Alice! 🙂
Mannn…. I wish you packed my lunch when I was a kid (no offense mom – love you). These are not only balanced and nutritious, but delicious too! I especially love the tuna veggie rolls! You’re a good mom, Alice. Hope you and your family have a wonderful weekend 🙂
I love all these ideas Alice, I don’t have kids but I can pack this for hubby’s lunch!
Wow wow WOW your kids are so lucky! Those lunch boxes/lunch ideas all sound amazing! My 1.5 year old is so picky, I don’t see him ever eating olives let alone apple slices, but I am hoping he grows out of it!
Some serious great lunch ideas Alice! Impressed that your kiddos eat olives, Cason won’t touch them.. but he’ll eat balsamic reduction! haha! 🙂
Can’t wait to use a few of these tricks once school starts!
My girls LOVE olives!!! 🙂 Thank you, Krista!!
Oh my gosh, you are the coolest mom ever! 🙂 I love all these healthy lunch ideas! School starts in 3.5 weeks for my son so I’ve been running around trying to get everything ready for his first year and lunches were next on my list. These bento boxes are awesome – such a wonderful cause too! Love this post!
The start of school always brings so much more stress! These lunches look like they would eliminate a lot of it though!
Amazing lunch ideas Alice! It looks so balanced and nutritious!! 🙂
I love taking lunch from home to school or work. Happy meals come from happy home and I love this idea and movement! Thanks for sharing this, Alice. They all look so delicious.
I am SO not ready to pack lunches yet. I’ll definitely be referring back to this post when we’re in our usual PB&J rut. Love those boxes – I need to order some!
am always looking for lunchbox inspiration! Can be hard to be inspired sometimes but Misses7 and 9 love having new and exciting things each day. A great list!
I really need to figure out how to make GiGi-diet approved CORN DOGS. Never have I had one in my entire life, but I KNOW I would love them! ha ha!
Alice, this is such a great round-up! I didn’t even thank you for including my mashed potato waffles here yet! I can’t believe the girls are back at school already. They’re so lucky to have such lovely packed lunches every day!
Whoops, I just read your Texas Caviar post, and I just realized they don’t get back to school for another week!
What an awesome roundup of ideas Alice! And not just for KIDS – grown ups too! You rock!!
Hi
Is it ok if I use one of your photos on my blog?
Thanks
Linn
Hi there, which photo and for what? Thank you for checking with me first! I really appreciate that!
These ideas are awesome! No more PB&J lunches!
Thank you!!! and we can’t even do PB&J anymore at our school!
Your lunchbox ideas are adorable and healthy! I own a private preschool where lunch is provided from home. I am going to share your link with our 200+ families. Some healthy lunch ideas are always needed for busy parents with young children. Our school has children age infant through 6 years old and a school age summer camp with children up to age 8. So this post is perfect for 3 years and up but can you do a post specifically for Toddler healthy lunch/meal ideas? I would love to share that too.
Thank you!