School Lunch Ideas (Printable Cheat Sheet!)

Coming up with school lunch ideas can be overwhelming when the back-to-school season rolls around. So, let me take the guesswork out of it for you!

Below you’ll find a “cheat sheet” and kid-friendly recipes to help you pack healthy school lunches that your kids will want to eat.

You can mix & match from this list to come up with hundreds of combinations to keep your child’s packed lunches interesting all year long. (Feel free to use these ideas for yourself, too!)

How Do You Pack a Healthy School Lunch?

The hardest thing about packing a school lunch is figuring out which foods will still be appealing after sitting in a lunch box for 4+ hours.

I love using a bento-style lunchbox (affiliate link) for my kids, because it keeps each item separate, allows for more variety, and keeps them from feeling overwhelmed by large portions.

Just make sure you include an ice pack in your zippered lunch box to keep fresh food lasting well until lunch.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend too much time packing lunches every day.

Instead, I keep the list below handy so I can pick one thing from each category to easily fill the compartments in my kids’ lunchboxes. This method takes some pressure off you while giving your kids plenty of variety!

In each lunch they’ll get:

• a serving of fruit
• a serving of veggies
• protein & healthy fats
• something you know they will eat and love

I’ve divided my school lunch ideas into 5 categories because that’s how my brain compartmentalizes them, but you don’t have to include all 5 options into each lunch if it doesn’t make sense for your kids.

For example, I don’t always include a main course or a crunchy item in every lunch. If I fill up the compartments with 1-2 servings of fruits, vegetables, and a few options with protein and healthy fats, I know they will feel full, even if they didn’t necessarily get a sandwich, a slice of pizza, or something else that we would usually consider to be a main entree.

A homemade Larabar can be just as satisfying as a peanut butter sandwich, but the bar is more fun for kids to eat, so sometimes I’ll give them that option, instead.

Bite-sized finger foods tend to be more kid-friendly, so I’ve tried to include plenty of those ideas in my list!

Here’s Your Printable Cheat Sheet:

Click on the image below to get the full-size PDF, which you can download or print!

Nut-Free Lunch Alternatives

Many schools are moving to a nut-free or nut “safer” lunch room. In our case, we are in a nut-safer school, so the classrooms are 100% nut-free for snacks, but it’s okay to have peanut and tree nut products in the lunch room.

I’m excited to have the option of almond butter sandwiches this year because last year our preschool was 100% nut-free.

If your kids are attending a nut-free school, keep in mind that you can almost always swap sunflower seed butter or tahini (a butter made of ground sesame seeds) for almost any recipe that calls for peanut butter, or any other nut butter.

What are Some Good Cold Lunch Ideas?

When it comes to packing a healthy lunch, it’s important to include variety and to choose foods that will still look appealing after they’ve been sitting in a lunch box for hours.

I don’t ever include sliced apples or bananas for this reason, because my kids won’t eat them if they look brown. (Lemon juice can prevent this, but it also affects the flavor.) You can pack a whole apple or banana, in its peel, if your child wants one, but we usually save those two options for before or after school instead.

Choose fresh produce options that are sturdy enough to be packed in a lunch box, like baby carrots, blueberries, or grapes, along with something heartier that you know your kids will eat, like their favorite muffins, a granola bar, or a couple of date balls.

I also like to try something new now and then, just to see if they’ll eat it when they are around their peers! (You never know unless you try, right?)

20+ Kid-Friendly Recipes

These are the recipes I find myself using most often for my kids. You can click on the links below to be taken directly to the recipes.

• Spinach Muffins
• Banana Oatmeal Muffins
• Sweet Potato Muffins
• Protein Pancakes
• No-Bake Protein Balls
• Oatmeal Pancakes
• Instant Pot Applesauce (or slow cooker applesauce)
• Date Energy Balls
• Peanut Butter Granola Bars (use sunflower seed butter for nut-free schools)
• Zucchini Hummus
• Vegan Mac and Cheese (or try Hidden Cauliflower Mac n’ Cheese for an extra sneaky veggie!)
• Black Bean Burgers (try the Speedy Black Bean Burgers in No Excuses Detox)
• Yogurt Ranch Dressing
• Vegan Ranch Dressing
• Homemade Guacamole
• Healthy Granola
• Coconut Milk Yogurt
• 5-Minute Homemade Ketchup (sweetened with dates)
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats
• Instant Pot Egg Bites (You can bake these in the oven, too)
• Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins
• Almond Flour Muffins
• 3-Ingredient Energy Bites (nut-free)

If your child is more adventurous, feel free to check out my entire recipe index for more healthy ideas!

Which Lunchbox is Best for School?

We have used Yumbox bento boxes for my kids (this purple/pink one and blue one) since they were 3 years old. They are about to turn 11 and 8 this year, and we still use the same ones… so they last a while!

We tried a stainless steel lunch box in the past, but I prefer this one because it’s easier to clean. The clear sectioned insert pops out, so you can place it on the top shelf of your dishwasher without taking up as much space as the whole opened box would.

This box is more compact than some stainless steel boxes I’ve tried in the past, so it easily fits into most zippered lunch boxes, and it doesn’t take up a ton of room on the lunch table, either.

I hope these school lunch ideas & printable cheat sheet will help make your school year a little easier! If you try one of these ideas or have some more that you would like to share, please leave a comment below.

We can all benefit from each other’s experiences!