School starts back for most Arkansans this week, and that means a whole new routine for kids and parents alike. As some of you know, Arkansas Frontier was founded by teachers. We’re passionate about seeing children learn and grow into the healthiest version of themselves. Whether your child attends an organized school or a homeschool program, part of their educational success depends on their fuel, so we’ve created a list of handy school lunch ideas to keep them performing at max capacity. Let’s talk food!
Ideal School Lunches
Some of you were blessed with that unicorn child that just eats whatever the cafeteria lady puts in front of them— no complaints, no fussing. You are the envy of millions. For the rest of the population, graced with picky eaters, or parents who just want a little more control over what goes down the guzzle, making school lunches is a challenge.
The ideal school lunch should be:
- nutrient-packed
- filling
- affordable
- easy to pack
- easy to prep
- fun to eat!
Do these meals actually exist though…and can you get your kids to eat them?
How to Create the Perfect Kid’s School Lunch
As a parent, you want your child to have healthy options, but also be fulfilled after lunch. There’s nothing more demoralizing than throwing away expensive food every night because they only ate the fruit gummies. A truly healthy school lunch is all about balance and realism.
Here are a few keys to helping your kiddos get the most out of their lunch:
- Pack at least one thing in their lunch box each day that you know they will eat! Vary the other items to give them healthy options.
- Rotate your snack items often. This week buy granola bars and chocolate-covered raisins. Next week, stock up on dried fruit, real-fruit gummies, and yogurt-covered nuts. Variety is the spice of life.
- Gradually incorporate healthier versions of their favorite foods. For instance, try honey wheat bread instead of white, then move to a healthier wheat or sprouted bread as their taste buds evolve.
- Dipping sauces are your friend! Is ranch healthy? NO, but neither is carrots in the trash can. Find the healthiest versions you can afford, and squirt some in!
- Your food doesn’t need to be a work of art. Most parents don’t have time or energy for daily notes and cutesy animal-shaped pancakes. If you do, then go for it! The kid will love it, but if you don’t it’s not necessary. However, think about the presentation. Try to create plates that have some color, are fresh, and are easy to open and eat. Food that looks good is more likely to end up in their belly.
- Make it easy! Take the granola bar out of the wrapper and chop it into bite-size pieces. Pour the raisins out into their bento box. Cut off anything they won’t eat (crusts, strawberry tops, etc.) If they can see it, and pick it up easily, they’re more likely to throw at least one or two in their mouths.
- Ask them what they want, and then negotiate. It won’t work every time, but by getting your child involved and agreeing on a meal that incorporates what they want and what they need, you’ve got a better chance of success.
- Have fun with it! If you view the lunch-packing chore as a creative process, you’re more likely to stick with it for longer than the first month of school.
10 Fun and Healthy School Lunch Ideas
Clean eating is more difficult than ever these days. There’s tons of conflicting information out there. Our food comes laced with chemicals, and clean food is often unattainable due to exorbitant prices. Plus, every parent has their preferences and ideas about what is and isn’t healthy.
Taking all that into consideration, our lunch ideas utilize foods that are available to almost everyone and generally considered nutritious. Here are a few go-to lunch box ideas that tick most of the boxes; tweak them as needed to fit your personal preferences.
Note: Children go through several stages in their development where they shun certain foods. No child will eat everything on our suggested list, but it’s important to keep introducing new foods, even to older children, and to retry old failures. Taste buds change and evolve, so it’s worth trying again!
1. Vegetarian School Lunch: Watermelon Bowls
For the rare kiddo who loves fresh fruit and veg, create a colorful and fun bowl packed with vitamins and minerals. Watermelon is a summer staple, and it’s readily available in August. Pick one up from your local farmer’s market or grocer. Toss watermelon chunks with bits of avocado, cucumber slices, and feta or goat cheese.
Pair your vibrant salad with a cup of trail mix and a thermos of your favorite milk for added protein. If you need a nut-free school lunch, then toss in a cup of Greek yogurt topped with sunflower seeds and blueberries. We love this meal because it’s fresh, easy to create, and it looks beautiful. In addition, the sweetness of the watermelon helps mask the taste of those yucky vegetables!
2. The Deconstructed Sandwich
Sandwiches are a staple for kids’ school lunch, but a sandwich every day gets boring. Plus many elementary school kids don’t even like them. You might be better off deconstructing it! Get some cheap sectioned lunch containers and fill them with cheese cubes, chopped meat (used leftovers from last night’s dinner or your favorite chicken nuggets), sliced cucumbers, a boiled egg, baby tomatoes, etc.
A bento lunch box filled with finger foods is easier for preschoolers and young elementary kids. You can vary items more when you deconstruct the sandwich, and it allows you to stay away from overly processed sandwich meat. Plus, these meals are very easy to prep. You can chop and pack a full week of food in just a few minutes.
3. Scrambled Egg Bowl
As long as your kiddo doesn’t mind cold scrambled eggs, a breakfast bowl is an awesome high-protein lunch idea. Scrambled eggs are easily made in a large batch, and you can vary the additives to make a couple of different lunches. Try ham or chopped Italian sausage, cheese, avocado, peppers and onions, potatoes, and cherry tomatoes. If your child prefers, wrap all these fillings in a tortilla for a hearty breakfast burrito.
4. Unexpected Salads
When it comes to effective meal planning, “salads” are your friend! Think tuna salad, egg salad, pasta salad, quinoa salad. These can be prepped quickly and in large amounts. A salad is not only an easy school lunch that’s packed with healthy nutrients, but it’s a great way to clean out the fridge. Serve them on bread or crackers, in a tortilla, or as a stand-alone meal.
To get the veggie quota in, include chopped pickles, celery, cucumbers, avocado, tomatoes, thinly sliced carrots, or green peas in your salads. You can even toss all your veggies into the blender for a minute and hide them in the sauce if your kiddo refuses to eat chopped veggies. Downshiftology has a fabulous list of creative salads for some inspiration!
Note: You will obviously need an insulated lunch box if you’re using mayo-based sauce in your salads. If you want to avoid the fake ingredients in most store-bought mayos, choose olive oil with a squirt of lemon, salt, and pepper instead.
5. Veggie Pizza
We all love pizza, and there’s nothing wrong with tossing a leftover piece or two in your child’s lunch box! However, for a fun alternative, consider a fruit or veggie pizza! Start with a base of homemade or Pillsbury crescent roll dough. Coat with a layer of cream cheese or your choice of soft, spreadable alternative. Top with their favorite fruit or veggies!
Tip: If your kiddo is on a veggie strike, this is another easy lunch box idea for sneaking in the goodness. Just drop them in the blender with your cream cheese and whip it all up before spreading! Then, chop that one vegetable they will tolerate at the moment as a topping.
6. Overnight Oats
The online sensation, overnight oats, is just as successful for children as it is for adults, especially when there’s peanut butter and jelly involved! You can put just about anything into oats and hide nutritious ingredients easily. Overnight oats are easy to prep in advance, and you can make a different one for every day of the week. While they’re hearty enough to count as a full lunch, you can also pass them off as a dessert!
Prepare by combining dry oats, your favorite milk, and any ingredients you like, then refrigerate overnight. It will be runny when you put it in the fridge, but by morning, the oats will have absorbed the milk and be ready for eating, and yes they are quite tasty served cold!
Some popular ingredients include:
- Peanut, almond, or cashew butter (or alternative seed butter)
- Honey or maple syrup
- Chia or flax seeds
- Blueberries or trail mix on top
- Protein powder
- Cinnamon
- Finely chopped apples
- Greek Yogurt
7. Enchilada Cups
Put your muffin pan to good use for this clean-out-the-fridge kinda lunch. These enchilada cups are a great option for getting rid of leftovers. Stuff your muffin pan with tortillas. Fill with ground beef, black beans, cheese, diced tomatoes, and corn. Bake for a few minutes, and you’re good to go. Pair with tortilla chips (or cucumber slices) and guacamole or red pepper hummus.
You can use this technique for several other recipes as well, such as taco salad cups, lasagna cups, or chili cheese cups. They’re a bit messy, but older kids can usually manage.
8. Bite-Sized Quiche Cups
While you’ve got the muffin pan out, make a few simple quiches for the kids too. Fill each slot with eggs, herbs, some finely diced veggies, and cheese. Quiches are not only filled with protein and vitamins, but they’re easy for small children to consume, they travel well, and they’re quick to make! Check out this bacon and veggie option from Kidgredients!
This primary item pairs well with fresh fruit salad, a granola bar, or even beef jerky.
9. Protein-Packed Pancake Stack
Pancakes are a go-to for many kiddos. Swap out the regular flour for Kodiak pancakes, and stack them up with your favorite nut or seed butter in between. Fill the rest of their lunch box with a mix of berries, some flavored yogurt, and dark chocolate-covered raisins. Remember to keep your pancakes on the small side to fit into your lunch tray!
10. Veggie and Chicken Rice Balls
If you routinely eat Asian dishes for dinner, you can use the leftovers for a quick and fun kids lunch idea. Take short-grain rice mixed with finely chopped veggies, chicken, and cheese and roll into sticky balls with the addition of a little sesame oil. They’re easy to eat, immensely tasty, and good for hiding nutrients like seaweed.
Fill the rest of the box with a favorite Asian dipping sauce, sliced avocado, chicken nuggets, and a banana muffin for dessert!
Handy Foods to Keep on Hand
The key to successful lunch packing over the long run is making it easy. By having foods on hand that are quick to make, nutritious, and versatile, you can get creative without making constant grocery store runs or getting burned out. Here are just a few items to add to the shopping list. Remember, you don’t need them all every week, you can put them on rotation!
Fruit and Veg
- Cherry tomatoes
- Grapes
- Mini cucumbers
- Apples (Want local Arkansas Black Apples? Check out this list of the best orchards in AR!)
- Bananas
- Blueberries or strawberries
- Carrot sticks
- Avocado
- Raisins
- Watermelon
- Fruit cups of choice (water or juice, not syrup)
Dairy or Dairy-Free Alternatives
- Yogurt packets
- Greek Yogurt (for hiding)
- Cottage cheese
- Cheese cubes or sticks
- A spreadable cheese of choice
- Milk or your favorite alternative
- Sprinkle cheese
Snacks
- Coated raisins or cranberries
- Applesauce cups
- Fruit gummies or rolls
- Dates (non-pitted)
- Granola bars
- Fruit or Nutrigrain bars
- Chocolate-covered nuts
- Mini-muffins
- Dark chocolate pieces
- Peanut butter cups
Protein
- Beef or turkey jerky
- Canned chicken or tuna
- Chicken nuggets
- Eggs
- Chia, flax, pumpkin, or sunflower seeds
- PB2 Powder or nut butter of choice
- Bacon bits (preferably the real ones)
- Lentils, beans, or Quinoa
Carbohydrates
- Tortillas
- Bread (the healthiest they will tolerate)
- Rice
- Crackers
- Goldfish
- Flavored rice cakes
Happy Lunch Packing Ya’ll!
We hope this list has given you some new school lunch ideas and a little motivation! Going back to school is exciting, and while you reintroduce structure, it’s the perfect time to institute some new healthy habits. Every family situation is different—from time available for meal prepping to finances, but no matter what your situation entails, we encourage you to put a little extra effort into your lunch this year!
Meal prepping can double as a fun family activity, time for teaching basic life skills, or important conversational moments. Bring the kiddos to the kitchen and get them involved in the process. Not only is it time well spent with your littles, but preparing their own food adds an element of pride, making them more likely to actually eat it!
Cheers to a new and healthier version of us all. You got this!
Have a great school year guys!