healthy lunch ideas for kids

[dglvrk2]

My kids need a revamp on lunch foods this year. DD2 would just eat junk food if she had her way.DD1 likes junk food and requested I buy much less of it than I currently do.

Please post any recommendations for HEALTHY lunch main dishes and snacks

TIA

PS: my kids do not like school lunches, so we're on our own

[186momx]

Do they have access to a microwave to heat things up?

-Tri-colored pasta salad with kids choice of veggies. DD doesn't add the dressing to it because it becomes soggy by lunch time. She normally has cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives as her veggie mix.
-Pizza if they will eat it cold or can heat it up
-pancakes/waffles without syrup and add in your choice of veggie
-leftovers if they can reheat at school

Snacks
Veggie straws
trail mix
Skippy peanut butter bars (Costco granola bar section)
fruit fresh and dehydrated (we dehydrate peaches, apples, and pears starting soon and DD takes them year round)
balance break cheese/cracker deals

[k3am]

I have PICKY kids. We still do a lot of PBJ, naan/pita and whatever meat we have (with ketchup 🫣), and fruits, cheese, yogurt. I’ve basically given up.

[campermom]

My kid hates sandwiches. It’s so hard! No microwave and he’s in before care for 2 hours before his late school begins so sending hot stuff in a thermos doesn’t really work great.

Apple slices w PB single serve
Mini bagel w flavored cream cheese
Wraps that are cut into pinwheels (totally not a sandwich!)
Crackers and PB
Single serve cups of guacamole w veggie
Graham crackers with an applesauce cup to dip
One container w crackers. Pepperoni, cheese slices, and a turkey stick

[mommyatty]

DS, who is beyond picky, loves to have rotisserie chicken with carrot sticks (not baby carrots… they’re slimy), and pita or naan. DD loves leftovers, especially if there’s rice involved. Both kids love “snacks for lunch”, which means carrot sticks, apples, pretzels, cheese crackers (Cheez-its or goldfish), pita, and some sort of candy/sweets for dessert. Both kids like leftover pizza and eat it cold.

I got new larger canteen things from Costco and we are excited to try those out since we were sending two of the funtainers last year for DD’s leftovers, and her friends (mainly boys) were giving her crap about her ability to eat more than three other kids combined and still be the skinniest kid in the group.

[sdlaura]

I don't give my kids a choice on whether to eat school lunches, but we have pretty great options here - four to five choices everyday plus salad bar that comes from the district's farm.

For camps and times I need to pack them, though, I often do sort of a homemade lunchable. Cheese, crackers, fruit, apples with peanut butter, yogurt, etc.

[librarychica]

Black beans & rice, red beans & rice, chickpea curry & rice … my pickier one is a big fan of legumes. Otherwise it’s sandwiches, fruit, plus some kind of granola bar/cracker/chip. They also like to make little lunchable things with cheese & crackers, pepperoni or salami, fruit, cherry tomatoes, pretzels. Pretzels & hummus is popular with the big one and they both like green yogurt tubes frozen because they defrost by lunch.

[mae0111]

For those that want to pack hot foods and no microwave, I bought 2 hydro flask thermos-type containers and they’re fantastic! I just usually put pasta in them, but I’m hopeful that DD2 will start taking protein pancakes in it once in a while.

My kids eat almost nothing and school discourages outside food since lunch is included in tuition.

[sandandsea]

My kids usually take Nutella and PB sandwiches or Pbj. Yogurt, cheese, milk or juice, goldfish, clif bars, and fruit snacks make up the rest of it. My older one has started taking protein shakes too instead of milk or juice. I’ve also given up. I try to send fruit but have given up on veggies.

[dglvrk2]

Thanks, everyone! I have some good suggestions here.
My girls are at camp this week. They both really liked the food at this camp last year, so I'm hoping they have some more ideas when they return from camp.

[campermom]

I just saw something on TikTok that made me think of this post-her name is Jasmine and her handle is thelunchboxseries

She shows all these awesome lunch boxes with hot and cold compartments. I’m really in awe and keep watching. Bc once you have the box, it looks very easy.

[supertrooper1]

Aug 7, 2024 17:48:36 GMT -5 campermom said:

I just saw something on TikTok that made me think of this post-her name is Jasmine and her handle is thelunchboxseries

She shows all these awesome lunch boxes with hot and cold compartments. I’m really in awe and keep watching. Bc once you have the box, it looks very easy.

I just checked out some of her posts and that's a pretty cool lunchbox. I just started following her, thanks for the rec.
 
I do something similar for DS, but not hot/cold compartments.  I do a bento box style lunch.  One compartment is always a fruit, another is a veggie, and I rotate 2-3 fruits and veggies for the week.  The main last year was usually a PB&J, but he'd sometimes switch up to a ham or turkey sandwich, or once a week would be a homemade pizza lunchable with mini-naan, sauce, cheese and pepperoni.  

[mae0111]

I wish my kids could take PB to school. They're once again in a nut-free school. Maybe DD1 can take nuts now since she's in high school? But it kind of stinks that I can't send a protein bar on game days because everything has nuts in it. DD2 is so freaking careful with this stuff... it would just be so much easier if I could do that...

[sandandsea]

Aug 8, 2024 11:28:19 GMT -5 mae0111 said:

I wish my kids could take PB to school. They're once again in a nut-free school. Maybe DD1 can take nuts now since she's in high school? But it kind of stinks that I can't send a protein bar on game days because everything has nuts in it. DD2 is so freaking careful with this stuff... it would just be so much easier if I could do that...

There are allergy sensitive/ nut free protein bars from a few brands. I think no nuts and quest have some but a quick google search lists many more.

[mae0111]

Aug 8, 2024 18:19:46 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

Aug 8, 2024 11:28:19 GMT -5 mae0111 said:

I wish my kids could take PB to school. They're once again in a nut-free school. Maybe DD1 can take nuts now since she's in high school? But it kind of stinks that I can't send a protein bar on game days because everything has nuts in it. DD2 is so freaking careful with this stuff... it would just be so much easier if I could do that...

There are allergy sensitive/ nut free protein bars from a few brands. I think no nuts and quest have some but a quick google search lists many more.

Thank you!! Every Quest bar I picked up at Target had nuts, so I will do some digging to try and find some that my super picky kids will eat!

[sillygoosegirl]

Typical lunch for my picky kid:
- Cream cheese on bread or plain pasta or rice.
- Plain tofu or a hardboiled egg.
- Cheese.
- Sliced red bell pepper or cucumber salad.
- Fruit (apple or orange typically).

[livinitup]

My favorite way to pack school lunches is to start with a bento box (there are loads of types). Somehow filling the compartments is super easy and inspires my creativity. It also keeps portions small so I don’t pack too much.

- If dinner is a hit, leftovers make a good lunch. Especially something like tacos where they can build one or when I stuff and roll up a tortilla. Then add shredded cheese, salsa and sour cream
- cheese tortellini, I cook a bunch and throw in a few with grape tomatoes
- I let the kids build their own bento, works great
- you can add a 1/2 sandwich or some cheese and crackers
- sometimes I re-created a healthy lunchable