20 Creative Ideas for Healthy School Lunches
While some kids are perfectly content and maybe even comforted by eating the same lunch day after day, other children prefer more variety. Below is a list of some of our favorite healthy homemade school lunch ideas:
1. Turkey, ham or salami, Swiss cheese and lettuce on whole wheat bread.
2. Turkey or ham, red bell pepper strips, and Cheddar cheese wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla, with mayonnaise, spicy mustard or salsa.
3. Tuna, chicken or egg salad with whole grain crackers or on a bagel with cucumbers or lettuce.
4. Cheddar or Muenster cheese and sliced tomato sandwich (put the tomato between the slices of cheese so the bread doesn’t get soggy) with a little mayonnaise or mustard.
5. Peanut or other nut butter with jelly, sliced bananas, honey, raisins or apples.
6. Leftovers like pasta, tortellini with tomato sauce, pizza, chicken, turkey sausage or steak (kids don’t seem to mind eating them cold). Save little condiment packages from takeout food to use as dips.
7. Black beans and rice or other rice salad.
8. Healthy soup or chili in a thermos.
9. Whole grain bagel or rice cakes with natural peanut butter or cream cheese.
10. Trail mix made with raisins, peanuts, and chocolate chips (or your kids’ favorite healthy items).
11. Healthy dried cereals (milk is optional).
12. Baby carrots, celery, sliced cucumbers, red bell peppers and pita chips with hummus or other dip.
13. All varieties of fresh fruit (cut apples, mango, oranges and other hard to eat fruit, if needed).
14. Popcorn (a kid-friendly whole grain), alone or mixed with raisins and nuts.
15. Whole grain tortilla chips and salsa (look for a brand without added sugar) or black bean dip.
16. Low fat yogurt or cottage cheese with fresh fruit and granola or other cereal (keep them separate and let your child combine them at lunch).
17. Drinkable, spoon-able, or squeezable yogurt or kefir.
18. Cheese and whole grain crackers, or cheese and apple slices.
19. Proteins like cheese sticks or cubes, hard-boiled eggs, nuts and chickpeas or other beans.
20. Diced tofu drizzled with teriyaki sauce.
P.S. To reduce environmental waste, pack everything in reusable containers and wash all the used plastic utensils by hand, so they don’t degrade and scratch in the dishwasher. We also love to use Lunch Skins, the reusable sandwich and snack wrappers from 3 Green Moms, bamboo flatware from Bambu, and the Japanese-style bento boxes for kids from Laptop Lunches.
Aviva Goldfarb is the author and founder of The Six O’Clock Scramble®, an online weekly menu planner and cookbook to help busy families put easy, healthy and delicious meals on the table each and every night.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy Child.
