Packing a Lunch: Healthy Food To Go

I feel like I’m always looking for more easy lunch packing ideas for my kids!

I don’t want to make special lunch recipes – I just want those boxes packed up and ready for school in the morning, without stress. Amen?

My history with both observing and packing school lunches is pretty extensive (as is this list of tips for healthy lunches on the go that I hope will help you stick to your budget, follow all the food allergy rules, and avoid wasting food).

You see, when I was a teacher (in 3rd grade, before we started our cooking classes for kids online), our lunch situation was, I think, rather unique. The children ate in the rooms, and the classroom teacher was the one in charge.

I don’t think many teachers actually spend lunchtimes with their students since most schools have lunchrooms or lunch aides of some sort. I had to eat my healthy lunch on the go, but I didn’t mind it.

It was actually quite a treat to:

(a) see my kids interact with each other more spontaneously,
(b) observe what kind of foods for lunch they brought and how much they ate, and
(c) get a chance to read books to them and/or chat with them while they ate.

Unlike much of the staff, I truly enjoyed the opportunity to be with my students at lunch.

I remember my in-head comments about kids’ lunches:

“too much white bread,” “everything on the desk is in a package,” “single dad uses whole grain bread – way to go!”

There was a wide range of lunches as far as nutrition goes, from Lunchables to carefully packed, very healthy sack lunches.

As I began packing school lunches for my own kids five years later, I knew they had to be healthy, easy and budget-friendly. Over 1,000 lunches later and counting, I have lots of tips to share!

I think it’s of the utmost importance that children have a healthy lunch, and it is definitely a real challenge to think of portable, nourishing foods that don’t have to be heated and that kids will enjoy.

Healthy Lunch Packing Ideas, Tips and Tricks

I compiled all my best stuff into an eBook so you can have the kid-friendly lunch recipes and packing strategies all in one place – The Healthy Lunch Box has been a guide for many KS readers for years, and I refer to it myself as well – especially because we rarely have bread in the house:

More Healthy Lunch Ideas Than I can Count!

Ok, maybe there’s about 70 in the whole post. Here goes with the list!

Packable Fruits and Veggies

• Frozen peas
• Fresh fruit, whole or cut depending on the child
  • Bananas, oranges, apples, pears, plums, melon, grapes, cherries, strawberries, peaches, nectarines…try to stick with what is more or less in season and watch the Dirty Dozen list.
• Raw cut veggies with a great dip: cucumbers, carrots, cherry tomatoes, tomato wedges if in season, pea pods, cauliflower, broccoli if they’ll eat it, red peppers, kohlrabi, etc.
• Dips might include this easy hummus, homemade ranch dressing, or guacamole (if made the day before; longer than that and it gets too brown).
• Dried fruit or homemade fruit rolls (video)
• Homemade Veggie Chips

Unique Sandwiches to Experiment With at Lunch

• Pancake sandwiches! Spread natural peanut butter or yogurt cheese and honey on leftover pancakes, like these orange vegetable Paleo pancakes (above with yogurt cheese) or grain-free almond pancakes for a new twist on the old sandwich.
• Natural peanut butter or nut butter
  • PB and raw honey
  • PB and jelly (I made honey-sweetened freezer jam (no longer available) this year; just be sure to watch the ingredients for high-fructose corn syrup if you buy it)
  • PB and banana
  • PB and pickle
• Leftover roast chicken or turkey
• Homemade lunchmeat
• Egg salad, chicken salad, or tuna salad (even try canned salmon like tuna if the kids like it)
  Be sure not to serve tuna more than once a week or so because of chemical build-up.
• Cream cheese and jelly
• PB and cream cheese
• Cream cheese with strawberry slices and raw honey (peaches are good too!)
• I actually use yogurt cheese instead of cream cheese in all of the above sandwiches
• BLT (low- or no-nitrite bacon is best, regular stuff is a compromise food)
• Bean spreads (the black bean dip in Real Food, Real Easy is a new family favorite!)
• Make all these on 100% whole grain bread or homemade or bread-free
• Try making a wrap to switch it up, but watch the tortilla ingredients for trans fats. I make my own homemade tortillas or grain-free crepes, recipe in The Healthy Lunch Box. Or easier yet, use the meat as a wrap and put cheese and vegs inside (my kids love a pickle in there)!

Other Protein-Rich “Main” Options:

• Cheese and whole grain crackers or homemade wheat thin crackers
• Cold burrito or refried beans with guacamole or salsa on a tortilla. (I used to think cold refried beans were gross, but then I realized that people don’t even question eating cold refried beans in so many tex-mex dips with tortilla chips.)
• Homemade “lunchables” – stack crackers (or cukes and peppers for a grain-free version like below), cheese slices, and meat slices for the child to assemble with apple slices and cream cheese dip.
• Hard-boiled egg with salt and pepper (cut in half is easier to handle)
• Nuts – Apples and nut butter, ants on a log, nut butter and crackers, trail mix

Leftovers that can handle the “thermos” treatment:

• Homemade soups (like the kid-friendly three bean soup shown above)
• Homemade mac-n-cheese
• Many casseroles
• Spaghetti and other pasta dishes
• Stir fry with brown rice
• Of course, heat on the stove before packing in the thermos. Not that I would use the microwave anyway, but mic’d food just doesn’t hold the heat long enough, no matter what.

Leftovers that are great eaten cold:

• Leftover homemade pizza
• BBQ chicken and rice (shown above)
• Any roasted or slow cooker/Instant Pot meat
• Any grilled meat
• Leftover taco meat or refried beans
• Homemade chicken nuggets (these can be frozen for an emergency lunch!)
• Pasta – think about pasta salad – we do eat it cold! This one is really yummy…

Kid-friendly Salads that work for Lunch:

• Homemade potato salad (pictured above)
• Cold grain salads (like this spelt salad which is in both the Healthy Snacks to Go eBook AND the Family Camping Handbook)
• Cold bean salad (like this black bean and avocado salad – you know me and beans!)

Nourishing Sides that will Satiate

• Homemade yogurt (with frozen fruit and/or granola in it) – add some food-grade probiotics made just for kids for that extra boost to the immune system. WellBelly disappears right in. 🙂 We eat yogurt every day with lunch in these perfect containers, and it is packable! 
• Cottage cheese with various mix-ins
• Rice pudding
• Homemade jerky (recipe can be found in the newly expanded Healthy Snacks to Go eBook along with over 45 real food snack recipes – click HERE to learn more.)

Snacky Stuff that Makes a Great Side

• Homemade whole grain muffins/quick breads or the gluten-free version (also grain-free muffins in Healthy Snacks to Go)
• Homemade granola bars
• Quinoa oat snack bars,
• Homemade granola and a bottle of milk
• Homemade applesauce or storebought natural (no sugar) applesauce. Add cinnamon for your kids to sweeten it up a little without adding a sweetener. My kids also like cinnamon-applesauce stirred into their yogurt.

What to Drink for Lunch on the Go?

Water. Period. Send a reusable water bottle like one of these or anything made of stainless steel (not aluminum!) that you can find. (Why not juice?)

What to Pack School Lunch IN?

I use either the EcoLunchbox or Lunchbot Quad every day and LOVE both of them. I really love not having waste, too. Check out my reviews of many brands of bento boxes (more to come each year!) and a ton of reusable sandwich and snack bags too.

Packing Lunch for School – How Much Food to Send?

Who knows how much (and what foods) kids will eat at lunch? School lunches go mighty fast, and hitting the right quantity is not always easy. Part of the story is who packs the lunch. Which philosophy are you?

1. Let kids help so that they have some agency, some choice in the process. That will encourage them to eat what has been packed, and Mom is more informed about what they like.
2. Pack kids’ lunches yourself. Then you are in charge not only of what is packed, but portion sizes. Sometimes this is important, but I would tend toward the first philosophy unless you have a strong reason to go with number 2.

Many parents find great success in making a list of foods with the child(ren), organizing it by category (main dish, vegetables, fruits, snacks, fun foods, etc) and allowing the child(ren) to choose an item from each list for the day’s lunch.

If this is too complicated for you (for example, the more kids you have, the less they probably get to choose because you must streamline the packing process!), may I highly recommend this policy:

Whatever goes to school comes back home,
unless you have eaten it.

I always told my students to take home whatever they didn’t eat, “So that moms and dads know what you like, what you don’t like, and how hungry you were today.” (Broken record teacher line right there, were you feelin’ it?)

I explained that taking home the half sandwich you didn’t like because it had mustard on it and you hate mustard is a very effective way of communicating, almost like writing a note. Sometimes I even told kids to write notes about dislikes and put them into the lunchboxes!

Do explain this concept to your kids; it’s a great way to stay in control even when you’re out of control because you’re not there. 🙂 More on how to interpret the “notes” kids bring home as you read this post…

If you’ve been struck with “lunch-packing block” in the past (you know, like writers’ block, except you can’t think of anything creative to pack instead), it is my fervent hope that you will find some new ideas on these lists that get you packin’ once again.

And now to make it all very doable so you don’t go insane with real food!!

Healthy Ideas for Packing School Lunches – Tip #1: Make Lists Now to Fill the Squares

Planning lunches makes all the difference! These lists will help you grocery shop better and have less stress at lunch packing time.

Before you’re rushing around in the morning, wondering what to pack for lunch, take 5-10 minutes and think ahead:

What are some healthy, whole foods that you can easily pack in a lunch? Even better yet if you always or often (or could regularly) have them on hand in the house…

Make a list now that might look something like this (slightly shorter than the massive list above):

• Fresh fruits: cut melon, grapes, apples, bananas, kiwi (cut in half or peeled and sliced), berries of all kinds, oranges in season (peeled, or your child will spend half their lunch trying to get into the orange, or just skip it), peaches or nectarines, sliced, whole plums, etc. – whatever you might occasionally have on hand
• OR just write “fresh fruit” and then make it a point to consider good lunchtime fruits when you’re grocery shopping.
• Raw cut veggies with a great dip: cucumbers, carrots, cherry tomatoes, tomato wedges if in season, pea pods, cauliflower, broccoli if they’ll eat it, red peppers, kohlrabi, etc.
• Dips might include this easy hummus, homemade ranch dressing, or guacamole (if made the day before; longer than that and it gets too brown).
• Cold meats: leftover grilled or roasted chicken, roast beef, homemade chicken nuggets, nitrate-free lunchmeat rolls or sausages
• Egg salad or hard-boiled eggs (cut in half for ease of eating and safety)
• Nut-based “main” courses: apples and nut butter, ants on a log, nut butter and crackers, trail mix
• Cheese: slices or cubes
• Great leftovers: cold homemade pizza, pasta dishes, BBQ chicken or taco meat, soups (can be frozen for “uh oh” days) – anything that either your kids will eat cold or that will travel well in a thermos.
• Homemade yogurt – our staple in every lunch!
• Healthy grains if you eat them: homemade whole wheat crackers, healthy pumpkin muffins (or the GF version), KS classic granola bars, homemade tortillas stuffed with delicious things inside, even cold oatmeal (or in a thermos) or rice pudding goes over well with my kids.
• Here’s my whole school lunch gallery of photos on Facebook for visual inspiration, and for a more extensive list, check out this massive list of healthy food to pack for lunches.

If you keep this list on your fridge, you can save on brain power for lunch packing and also have some ideas of what you might want to keep on hand, either purchased or homemade.

Plenty more ideas and recipes in my eBook! The Healthy Lunch Box: Sandwich-free Secrets to Packing a Real Food Lunch is loaded with strategies to streamline your packing process, stock your pantry with emergency backups for your backups, and send healthy, delicious food in the lunch box, no matter how old your eater is. Read more and start packing healthier, processed-free lunches today.

Healthy Lunch on the Go Tip #2: Plan Ahead by Stocking the Freezer

Whether you take half a Saturday every month or just make double batches whenever you can or whenever you run out of something, having certain lunch foods in the freezer will help your packing efforts immensely.

Here are a few key items I try to always keep stocked in the freezer throughout the school year:

• Muffins: either the pumpkin muffins or these grain-free coconut muffins — both come out of the freezer super moist and will thaw in a few hours.
• Soups: I make big batches of soup anyway, and I’ve learned that my kids don’t go through more than 1/2-1 cup in a lunch. There’s just too little time, too much to look at and talk about. In August and September, then, I’ll take out little portions of soup in small jars, one per serving. Then I can grab two the night before and thaw a bit on the counter and also in the fridge.
• Homemade chicken nuggets: last September I made five pounds in one night, froze most of them, and would only tap into my “emergency stash” when I seriously had no food to send with my kids. Chicken nuggets days were their favorite, and my 5 pounds lasted almost exactly to the end of the school year.
• Granola bars: just another easy, grabble snack or official lunch item.
• Green smoothies: If there’s ever a bit of smoothie left, I freeze it in a plastic container, Squooshi, or silicone ice pop mold (found on Amazon). They are great “convenience foods” to grab quickly and thaw to “icy yummy” by lunchtime.
• Frozen peas: Your kids eat these cold, right? My kids treat them like candy! One of my favorite simple, ready-to-eat real foods for lunch…

It doesn’t take dozens of items to be prepared for lunch, as long as you have some staples on hand.

Organizing Tip #3: Choose Strategic Lunch Packing Times

Let’s just start by agreeing that in the morning during the breakfast rush is a bad time to pack lunches. Whenever I don’t follow my own advice and leave lunch packing until morning, I always regret it! That’s when I’m more likely to dip into my “Uh oh” stash of chicken nuggets in the freezer, but I can’t do that every day.

When I am wise and strategic, I pack lunches throughout the day before.

I might spread some peanut butter on leftover pancakes in the morning after the bus leaves and put them directly into lunchboxes for the next day’s lunch (check out my favorite lunch containers here).

When the yogurt is out for my own lunch, if I’m smart, I’ll dole out a few more yogurts with frozen fruit in these stainless steel containers for those school lunches.

And at dinner, when we’re cleaning up the table, I’ll grab some of the cut veggies we always offer and a dollop of ranch dressing while the spoon is already in the jar, add it to the pancake sandwiches, and voila! I only have to find one or two more items and the lunches are 100% packed, without my even having to get out anything that wasn’t already out.

Trust me, you’ll love yourself and real food lunches will feel so doable if you can get in some of these habits!

Lunch Packing Tip #4: Involve the Kids

I’m a big believer in kids having responsibility and helping out around the house, both inside the kitchen and out.

With each year that passes, each child receives a bit more of his or her own “unpacking the lunch” responsibility, starting with just getting the lunchbox to the kitchen counter in kindergarten.

By second or third grade, they should be unpacking the lunch completely: ice pack in the freezer, dishes in the dishwasher or sink, leftover food checked with mom and pitched or refrigerated, and any trash (we usually don’t have any) in the garbage.

The lunchbox must be put away before they can play.

It helps you have a more sane kitchen, teaches kids routine, and it’s a great first step into encouraging the kids to help more in the kitchen.

Hopefully they can start packing their own lunch eventually too!

Time-Saving Tip #5: Double Duty Lunch Prep

This is another easy “just have to think about it” tip like number three.

When you’re packing something, do it twice.

This means that if I’m going to portion out yogurts with frozen fruit for Monday, I might as well do four of them and have Monday and Tuesday knocked out.

It also means that I might pack a “double lunch” like this:

1. Child comes home from school with empty lunchbox.
2. Mom grabs box immediately. If it’s still a bit cold, Mom packs the exact same lunch, in the exact same squares (for the same kid) for the next day.
3. Put it into the fridge and you’re done for the following day!

Food safety wise, you should only use this tip on two consecutive days, no more, but if you would allow your child (or yourself) to put an unfinished dinner plate or yogurt cup into the fridge and eat it the following day, how is this any different?

It cuts down on brain power needed because you don’t have to think about what you pack on day two, and, my favorite, cuts down on dishes because you use everything twice. You do need to use a few ice packs or a Pack-It lunchbox to keep things nice and cold.

When it comes to snacks, I’ll put a granola bar or muffin into a reusable bag 3-5 times in a row, depending on the item and condition of the bag when it comes home.

Come to think of it, this would be a great way to give the kids some more responsibility, since the choices are already made and they can just fill in the blanks. Thanks for helping me think that one through! ap

Ideas for Kids with Food Allergies

Packing a lunch gets even trickier if your food choices are more limited. MANY of the ideas on this list are safe for common allergies, but we have a few specific posts to help you dial in on what your children might need:

• Best Real Food Allergy-Friendly Lunches to Pack: Our contributing writer Mary juggles multiple food allergies in all of her children, but she does it with such style and grace that you’ll be sure to be inspired by her massive list of ideas and tips.
• Comprehensive list of Gluten-free Lunch Ideas that work for any kid, along with this super fun visual of 10 Bread-free Packable Alternatives to Sandwiches for a Healthy Lunch on the Go.

Note for ALL parents to help keep other kids safe:

Please remember that peanut allergies are very, very serious. The peanut allergen goes airborne, so many who suffer from a peanut allergy cannot even be in the same room as a peanut product. There is a list of substitutes and peanut-free ideas in the comments. If someone in your child’s classroom has an allergy, be sure to protect their health by abstaining from peanuts at school.

In a Massive Hurry? Compromise Foods for “Sometimes” Lunches

I hate to spend too much on school lunches, so I default to homemade whenever I can – but there ARE quite a few convenience foods that are pretty healthy nowadays, if you know what to look for. This list is for when you have more money than time:

• Natural applesauce single cups
• Packaged Popcorn, IF there aren’t any nasty additives. Costco sells big bags of popcorn with decent ingredients.
• Blue Diamond Nut Thins and some other brands of crackers are “okay” on ingredients – again, Costco comes through with great gluten-free crackers
• Canned fruit cups (if no sugar added and no artificial sweeteners)
• Organic yogurt cups
• Lunchmeat, as an occasional thing unless you get nitrate-free meats
• String cheese and pre-sliced real cheese slices
• Larabars and KIND bars
• Fruit strips or chews that are 100% fruit or fruit juice – not so nourishing or very filling, but a quick fix for “sometimes”
• I used to include Goldfish crackers, only the “Made with Whole Grain” version and pretzels on this list, but I now know that those Goldfish have MSGs…so…I won’t touch ’em with a 10-foot pole. And white flour just isn’t worth the slippery slope it opens up. It’s all about baby steps, and cutting these out was one of mine.

Unacceptable items (or: This Counts as Dessert if you Pack It!)

Junk food has no place in a child’s lunchbox, where every bite counts because there is so little time to eat! The following are super common in packed lunches, but don’t be ordinary. Rise above!

• Potato chips (unless you splurge on Jackson’s Honest brand from Thrive Market – grab 1 lb. of free almond butter while you’re shopping; just add $50 to your cart to unlock the offer!)
• Lunchables
• HFCS-laden yogurt cups and Gogurts (sorry, I know kids love these, but they’re not worth it!)
• “Fruit Snacks” (this stuff is candy!!!)
• Fruit Roll-ups and similar (see above)
• Little Debbie anything
• Pudding cups (is there any “real food” in pudding cups?)
• Jello cups (ditto)
• Processed cheese slices or cheese and cracker packages
• Processed beef jerky
• Storebought cookies
• Pop-tarts
• Pastries, crescent rolls, biscuits from a can (trans fat alert!!)

I’ve been away from school lunches long enough that I’ve forgotten some of the atrocities passed off as “food” that don’t fit into any food groups. What else should be banned from healthy school lunches?

Remember the Goal

The purpose of lunch is to provide the person with brain food and energy for the rest of the day. Learning happens all day long at school, and it’s so important that kids don’t have a “brain drain” between the hours of 1-3:00 because their lunch didn’t provide them the fuel they needed.

Many kids also need energy for after-school sports or playtime. It’s okay to constantly remind your kids that good food makes you feel good, think better and get stronger. Someday they’ll thank you for it, and for now, you’ve been charged with your family’s nutrition. What a blessing and a responsibility! (Check out these high protein snack ideas for working out.)

More Lunch Packing Thoughts from KS:

• My eBook: The Healthy Lunch Box
• 10 Tips to Pack Brilliant School Lunches and Avoid Wasting Food
• My reviews of many brands of bento lunch boxes
• Huge review of reusable sandwich and snack bags
• Easy Mason Jar Lunches Kids can Make
• 10 Easy Tips to Packing a Healthy Lunch (including how my oldest finally started packing his own)
• Gluten-free lunch ideas
• 10 Bread-free Packable Alternatives to Sandwiches for a Healthy Lunch on the Go
• On-the Go Kid Food Made Healthy
• Are the new natural lunchmeats too good to be true???
• a great idea for an incentive to get your kids to unpack their own lunches at the end of the day
• philosophies on hot lunch and classroom-wide snack policies

Other posts that may interest you as you head Back to School:

• Does Your School Use Antibacterial Soap and Sanitizer?
• Top 10 Back-to-School Issues that Might not be on your LIST
• Healthy School Treat Ideas when You’re Not Allowed to Make “Homemade”
• No Sugar Healthy Halloween Classroom Party
• Hand Sanitizers in the Home
• Plastic Bag Debacle – We Use Too Many!