Quick and Easy Lunch Box Ideas for Kids

Let’s face it, we all want to give our children a healthy packed school lunch all the time. We want to mix it up a bit, so they don’t get bored of the same ham sandwiches every day. Also, we don’t want to spend squillions on food each week. But when you work a full-time job, the last thing you want to do is spend hours preparing a colourful healthy lunch box for your child, especially if they are unlikely to eat it. What you want are quick and easy lunch box ideas that you can throw together in 5 minutes.

So here is our guide on how to create quick and easy lunches every day for your child.

The Basic Food Groups

Ideally, your child should have the following in their lunch box every day:

Protein
Fruit & Vegetables
Healthy Fats
Calcium Rich Products
Grains

The good news is that a lot of dishes include more than one of the basic food groups. For instance, a ham and cheese sandwich on multigrain bread includes protein, calcium, and grains. If you add a healthy butter spread, then your child also has healthy fat in the sandwich as well. Bingo! The Earl of Sandwich was a clever chap when he invented the perfect takeaway snack.

Planning Quick and Easy Lunch Boxes

The best way to create quick and easy lunches for the week is to plan them in advance. On Thursdays, I plan the meals for the following week and create a shopping list. I also plan what I am going to put in Sophia’s lunch box and my lunch box for work. I take into consideration what the meal is the night before, and if I am able to make a bigger batch so we can have leftovers in our packed lunch all the better. This works brilliantly with pasta and tacos.

In addition, prep everything on Sundays, i.e cut up peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers, etc. Separate popcorn and pretzels into plastic zip-up bags. Make a batch of hummus, if you intend to use it in the week. Encourage your child to help prepare their lunches with you. It may seem like a bit of a chore every Sunday, but you’ll be thankful you did it beforehand, so by midweek, it is easy to pack your child’s lunch box when it’s the last thing you want to do.

Read on for 15 lunch box ideas plus some ideas for special occasions

Best Lunch Box Designs

When I was a child I had a beautiful plastic lunch box with a refillable drinks bottle. It had metal clips and was pretty damned smart. I dropped a brick on it, (don’t ask) and as a consequence, my mum packed my lunch in plastic bags from then on. A bit like poor Ron Weasley.

I learned a valuable lesson that day about taking care of my stuff and not dropping bricks on my lunch box.

I don’t think lunch boxes have become brick resilient yet, but they have certainly evolved over the years. Here are my top recommendations for lunch boxes that are versatile and highly practical.

Bento Lunch Box

This is a fantastic lunch box. It is so versatile. It includes two boxes that fit into each other. One box is split into 3 compartments to separate food. The Bento lunch box also comes with its own cutlery. It is BPA free. It has four secure fasteners to ensure your food won’t drip everywhere in your bag. In addition, the inner box is Microwave, freezer, and dishwasher safe. It is also very reasonably priced. This box would suit both adults and children who need to take a packed lunch to work or school.

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Binoster

This lunch box is the posh sister to the Bento lunch box. Like the Bento box, it has two boxes. The interior box is microwave, freezer, and dishwasher safe. It also comes with an elastic strap to strap the two boxes together. The box comes in a smart Japanese style and includes cutlery. Your child will look proper posh taking this stylish box to school each day.

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Sistema Lunch Box

I love these boxes. It’s so easy to clean them as all the compartments can be taken out. You can mix up the boxes depending on what food you pack. One day you may use the yogurt pot container and add a large sandwich. Another day you may leave out the pot and add a separate compartment for fruit instead. The locks are effective, but easy to open, which is great for little fingers trying to prise open their lunch box.

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Personalised Lunch Bag

Perhaps your child would prefer a lunch bag instead of a box. Sops and I think this one looks great fun. Your child can choose the design they want on their own lunch bag. It is heavily insulated with a non-toxic aluminum lining keeping your food hot or cold depending on how it is served. It is also easy to wipe clean. As you can personalise this bag you can make it easy for your child to identify it in a sea of lunch boxes and bags in the cloak room.

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Proworks Stainless Steel Water Bottle

When it comes to water bottles these stainless steel ones are the only bottles Sops and I would recommend. I have bought many water and juice bottles for Sops over the years and they either leak or go mouldy in parts that I cannot clean. These bottles constantly keep the temperature of the drink, whether it is a red hot cup of coffee or a cooling ice tea. They are super easy to clean with no hard-to-reach places. If your child struggled to drink from a bottle offer them a reusable straw. See below or pack a reusable cup for them to pour their drink.

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Reusable Straws

Plastic straws are out and reuseable straws are in. Nobody wants to destroy the environment by filling up landfills with one-use straws anymore. There are loads of options for reusable straws. Sops and I recommend these metal ones that have a silicone tip for children. It will help protect their teeth from the hard metal top and make it easy to drink hot or cold drinks without such a shock to the palette. The kit comes with 5 different straws with various designs and thicknesses and a handy cleaning brush as well as a smart carrying case. Your child will never have to use those awful paper straws ever again.

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Lunch Box Ideas

Here are 15 Quick and Easy Lunch Box ideas for you to try.

Top Tip: Use empty little jam jars for dipping sauces. You can buy the jams from your local supermarket or pick up an extra jar or two next time you stay in a hotel.

Just for Fun: Add little messages to your child’s lunch box to inspire and amuse them in school. I create a page of Pinterest pins and pictures each week and then cut out the pictures to place in Sops’ lunch box every day.

NB. I have been packing some of the lunches for Sops since she started school last week. We haven’t got pictures of them all just yet, but we are working on it. Sops is looking forward to all the delicious new lunches I am offering her this term. No more boring ham sandwiches every day!

Day 1
Chicken Nuggets & BBQ Dips
Broccoli or carrot sticks
Yogurt with dried fruit & seeds

Day 2
Tuna and sweetcorn pasta with mayonnaise
Probiotic Yogurt drink
Strawberries & blueberries

Day 3
Pitta Bread Pizza
Mixed fruit and nuts
Pineapples
Milkshake

Day 4
Soft bread tacos
Probiotic yogurt
Tortilla Chips
Grapes

Day 5
Chicken and Waldolf salad
Cheese & Crackers
Peaches

Day 6
Pitta bread and Hummus dip
Grated carrot and raisin salad
Pretzels
Yogurt & Seeds

Day 7
Fajitas with salsa sauce
Taco Crips
Peaches
Milkshake

Day 8
Cheese & Chive Dip with Snap Peas & Tomatoes
Pretzels
Fruit salad
Probiotic yogurt

Day 9
Hummus & Carrot dippers
Taco Chips
Cheese & grapes on cocktail sticks
Breakfast bar

Day 10
Turkey & Cranberry wrap
Cheese & Crackers
Fruit Sticks with Hazelnut chocolate dip

Day 11
Blueberry pancakes
Ham & Cheese kebabs
Granola Bar
Milkshake

Day 12
Tuna Fish Sandwich
Cheese & Grape on cocktail sticks
Bag of Twiglets
Fruit & Nut mix

Day 13
Cobb salad
Cheese & Biscuits
Yogurt with fruit & oats

Day 14
Chicken Drumsticks with BBQ sauce
Vegetable dippers (carrots, cucumber, broccoli)
Fruit salad & cold custard

Day 15
Egg salad & mayonnaise
Pretzels
Yoghurt-covered rice cakes

Themed Lunch Box Ideas

To add a little extra fun to your child’s school day why don’t you make a themed lunch box on occasion. Here are some ideas to try this autumn term:

Halloween
Chicken Fajita
Sponge fingers dipped in strawberry jam
Peeled grapes in jelly
Red Grape Juice

Bonfire Night
Wood-fired-based pizza slice
Chilli-flavoured taco chips
Chestnut and cashew nut mix
Marshmallows on sticks with hazelnut chocolate dip

Thanksgiving
Turkey Roll sandwich with cranberry sauce
Sweet potato wedges
Pumpkin Muffin

Christmas
Turkey breast with Cranberry sauce dip
Honey-dipped carrot sticks
Cocktail sausages
Mince pie

For more advice on supporting your child at school, check out our Returning to School post. It covers from Reception to Year 11, plus advice on supporting students who are high achievers or have SEND needs.

Comments

We hope you liked our lunch box ideas. Have you got any go-to quick and easy lunch box ideas? If so, please do share your thoughts in the comments box below. If you try any of our ideas let us know what your child thought of them. Did they scoff it all down and ask for more?

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