Easy School Lunches That are Perfect for Back to School
It’s back-to-school season! Some schools are already back in session, and other kids are going back next month. Which means its time to start planning what you’ll give your kids for lunch! Whether they’ll be taking lunch with them to school, or eating at home during the homeschool day, you’ll want to pick something quick, easy, but filling. You get bonus points if it’s also fun to look at! For some great ideas, check out these 20 Easy Back to School Lunches!
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A good homemade school lunch should be filling (to allow your kids to stay focused throughout the school day), should keep well in a backpack or locker for a couple hours (nothing that has to be refrigerated), and should be tasty at room temperature (no microwave required). Of course, all schools are different, and if your kids’ school does provide a fridge and/or microwave, take advantage of that! But in general, you’ll want the lunch you choose to be low maintenance, which is what the following 20 school lunches are! On top of being easy for kids to enjoy at school, these school lunch recipes are also simple enough for you to make them the morning or night before easily.
Also, why keep these only for school days? These simple lunch ideas would also work well on weekends or during school breaks too!
20 Easy Back to School Lunches
- Pack what your child likes. Don’t make school lunch the time to try new things or feed kids the things they don’t like! Your child’s teacher is busy watching 20 other students and making sure they get fed and fueled up for the rest of the day.
- Easy to eat. Pick things that are easy to open, eat, and clean up! Students don’t get a lot of time to eat, and they don’t need to waste their time trying to open items or clean up a big mess.
- Practice a school lunch before the first day. Lunchtime is loud, short, and overwhelming for kids, so have a trial run at home. Make sure they can open all their containers or food items, practice eating in the time span that they will have at school, and then practice cleaning up their area. Show them the items you want them to bring home and things that can be trashed.
1. Baked Ravioli
Laura Fuentes’ tasty baked raviolis work well as a room-temperature school lunch, or a fresh, hot weekend lunch!
2. Owl Bento Lunch
This is such a cute owl bento lunch created by Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons! Just put this together in a colorful bento lunch box, and your kids will be ready to go.
3. Tuna Salad Masonable
Soup Spice Everything Nice created this ingenious tuna salad “masonable” (like a Lunchable, but homemade and in a Mason jar).
4. Mini Taco Hand Pies
Finger food like Lemons for Lulu’s taco hand pies are perfect school lunches!
5. Mini Pumpkin Pancakes
Breakfast foods don’t just have to be eaten in the morning. Check out Momables’ mini pumpkin pancakes school lunch idea!
6. Cream Cheese and Ham Pinwheels
For a quick, cold school lunch that isn’t a sandwich, try Following in My Shoes’ cream cheese and ham pinwheels!
7. Savory Waffle Sticks
Your kids definitely won’t be hungry if they have some of Paging Fun Mums’ savory waffle sticks for lunch!
8. Grilled Cheese Roll-ups
These grilled cheese roll-ups from Cincy Shopper are such a fun variation on the traditional grilled cheese sandwich!
9. Sandwich Kabobs
A fun take on the traditional school lunch sandwich is these sandwich kabobs! I Wash You Dry explains how to put them together!
10. Soccer-themed Lunch
Create a healthy lunch for your kids with a fun soccer-theme! The Soccer Mom Blog has all the ideas that your children will love.
11. Bento Box Lunch Ideas
Sarah Hearts has 4 bento box recipes that are healthy and will power your little learners through the day!
12. Halloween Lunch Box Ideas
Your kids will LOVE these Halloween-inspired lunch box ideas from A Pumpkin & A Princess.
13. Lunch Box Mini Pizzas
Kiddos love pizzas, and this will make your morning routine simpler and keep those littles fed through the day. A Pumpkin & A Princess has all the details for these mini pizzas.
14. Flatbread Pinwheels
These look so yummy and definitely something I want to eat, too! Make these flatbread sandwich wrap bites from Lil Luna.
15. Flatout Monster Sandwiches
Your kiddo will love opening their lunch box when they see a monster sandwich from Lil Luna
16. Pac-Man Bento Lunch Box
Check out this fun Pac-Man Bento Lunch Box idea complete with PB&J Pac-Man, cheese ghosts, rounded out with fruit, veggies, and nuts by Happiness Is Homemade.
17. Practical School Lunch Ideas
Natasha’s Kitchen inspires school lunch with her Practical School Lunch Ideas like this chicken slider, salad with ranch, trail mix, banana.
18. Tortellini, Tomato, and Mozzarella Skewers
This Tortellini, Tomato, and Mozzarella Skewers lunch creation is so simple your children will enjoy both making and eating it. You will find this recipe at Design Improvised.
19. Dinosaur Bento Lunch
Children love dinosaurs and will gobble up this Dinosaur Bento Lunch complete with dino-shaped cheese and apples, celery with peanut butter, pretzels and black olives. This recipe is found at Gluesticks and Gumdrops.
20. Peanut Butter and Strewberry Quesadilla
Got a picky eater? They may love this peanut butter and strawberry quesadilla! I think it would be great warm or chilled. Find the recipe here at Ambitious Kitchen.
What do your kids usually have for lunch on school days?
You might also be interested in: 10 Useful Back to School Organization Ideas
