Back to School Lunch Ideas To Keep It Delicious, Healthy, and Fun Every Day!
B2S Lunchbox Ideas for the Entire School Year
Are you ready for back to school? Are you already stuck trying to come up with amazing healthy back to school lunch ideas? Maybe you’re looking for cute creative ways to fill that lunch box with love when you send your precious little angels out the door! I’ve totally got you covered!
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Amazing Lunch Box Ideas To Try Now!
Packing that school lunch can feel tough for everyone even two weeks into the school year! Sure, you can pack a sandwich and throw in some chips or goldfish and a brownie. But like Mini Wheat’s keep telling us on their commercials, keep them full, keep them focused!
I’ve done the digging for you! You don’t have to troll Google or Pinterest any more for gobs of viral school lunch ideas, they’re all here! But If you want even more ideas I have a whole board on my account dedicated to healthy lunches you might want to check out. It’s right here.
So sit back, read, pin, enjoy and make a list for amazing healthy and creative lunch ideas to pack in those cute little lunch boxes. AND if you’re itching for over 50 MORE wonderful lunchbox ideas be sure to stop by my 2 Months of Cold School Lunches sure to please even picky eaters!
**UPDATE** Just launched an extensive better back to school lunch ideas that you will love! Loaded with healthy tips, hundreds of ideas, and organization hacks so that you actually get to enjoy making school lunches!
How can I keep my school lunches organized?
Having these on handmakes school lunches, work lunches, and meal prep so much easier! This affordable set has enough boxes for the whole family!
And of course I added more crazy good roundups of school lunches for 2019
I’m going to share an except from Quick and Easy School Lunch Ideas with you that can really help keep all these delicious lunch ideas organized for you this year!
Because when your lunchmaking process is organized, the time it takes can be quartered and you might even… gulp… begin loving making lunches!
“How to Get Your Lunchbox Prep Really Organized… and Fast
Here are a few simple but life-changin tools that I use to organize my kitchen, pantry, and overall lunchbox making process.
1. Add color-coded bins to your pantry
When attempting to involve the kids in lunch packing (which realistically doesn’t happen every single day, but when it does it’s always nice) it is WAY easier to say, “Ok, now go pick a snack from the green bin.” than it is just pointing them toward the shelf.
By having colored bins set up for different types of snacks it’s very easy for kids, AND FOR YOU, to go grab a snack cracker or fruit from it’s designated bin. (We also use them in the fridge for a bit more organization.)
2. While we’re at it, you can color-code your kids’ lunch boxes.
There are a lot of really nice and affordable BPA free bento-style lunchboxes available on amazon. I like having color-coded lunchboxes for the kiddos for two reasons.
- It makes for a lot less confusion when you hit that rushed time of the morning and I can just holler out, “Jade grab the green box!”
- Once again, giving kids options makes them feel happy, involved, and important. So the days they are helping they get to pick their lid color.
3. Organize the rest of your pantry in clear plastic containers.
I like having my pantry crazy organized. We go through a lot of food in my house, and when I say a lot I’m sure if you saw the amount of food the 4 of us alone purchase and consume every month you’d be astounded!
With all that food quickly coming in and out everything needs to have a place or it gets lost in the shuffle. Behind my color-coded bins of snacks that the kids can pick, there are clear plastic bins that hold the staples in an easy to see and access place.
Having an organized pantry makes the whole cooking and preparation process exponentially easier.”
VIRAL ROUNDUP: School Lunch Ideas
1. 2 weeks of Gluten-free School Lunch Recipes
From: Gluten Free School Lunch Recipes from Cool Mom Picks
Stacie from Cool Mom Picks has put together two weeks of delicious looking school lunch ideas for you to try now! They are simple, creative, and completely healthy. I will definitely be making some of these for the kiddos and myself! Even if you love gluten you should give these all a try.
2. Ham and Mac n’ Cheese Lunchbox Muffins
From: Ham and Mac n’ Cheese Lunch Box Muffins from I Should be Mopping the Floor
What kid doesn’t love mac n’ cheese? I LOVE Kristi’s idea of making single serve mac n’ cheese bites in a muffin tin. They are super easy and fun plus totally unique and adorable.
RELATED: Better School Lunch Ideas Extensive 2018 Edition
3. 6 Epic Lunchbox Wrap Recipes
From: Lunch Box Wrap Recipes from Vigor it Out
This is an absolutely phenomenal resource of delicious ways to mix up your lunchbox. Wraps are even more versatile than sandwiches and this creative list of recipes will please kids and adults alike.
4. School Lunch Ideas For A Month
From: School Lunch Ideas for a Month from Mom Endeavors
A full MONTH of lunch box ideas? Yes please! Sara, has outdone herself with ideas that are completely cute and REALLY keep it fun even for the entire month! I LOVE the Frozen themed lunch. Who doesn’t want to pop open that bento box to see Olaf’s ridiculously captivating face staring at them?
5. 2 Weeks of Healthy School Lunch Ideas
From: 2 Weeks of Healthy School Lunch Ideas from Kristine’s Kitchen
Kristine as great healthy ideas all over her blog and I’m so glad she created 2 weeks of lunch box ideas for me to include in this roundup. They involve a lot of ingredients and take a little work to fill the whole box this way but I stand firm by eating a rainbow to include all the vitamins and nutrients in healthy natural foods and she definitely must live by that mantra as well.
6. Fresh Simple Unique Kid-Friedly Lunch Ideas
From: Quick and Easy Kid Approved School Lunches from Vigor it Out
These are fresh new ideas for 2019. This roundup is focused on fast, fresh, and unique ideas blending kid-friendly flavors. You are sure to find a new family favorite in this brand new post!
7. Back To School Lunch Ideas
From: Back to School Lunch Ideas from Belly Full
You can find 3 totally creative school lunch ideas here! PLUS the post has photos of her great ideas from the two previous years as well! My favorite is the sandwich kabobs which will definitely be happening this year in my home! It’s a ridiculously cute way to put together a sandwich especially for those kids (like mine) who will take it apart and eat each item separately anyways.
8. 50 Creative School Lunch Ideas
From: 50 Creative School Lunch Ideas from Vigor it Out
This list is packed with awesome ideas to keep your lunch box creative for months! There are tons of healthy Paleo lunches, yummy muffin tin recipes, DIY hot pockets, and so much more! You’re not going to want to miss this roundup which even features a beautiful and amazingly helpful free printable for great lunch ideas at the end.
9. Bento Lunch Ideas
From: Bento Lunch Ideas from Bloglovin’
Bento Boxes are so cool and really helpful for packing healthy lunches on the go! Everything is divided up, no zip locks needed. If you don’t have any you really should pick them up! (The link will take you to Amazon’s #1 best selling set that I know you can’t beat the price of!) The cute animal themes and cookie cutter sandwiches will make every child feel as special as they should!
10. Back To School Lunch List
From: Back to School Lunch List from Tastes Better From Scratch
I love when I find out that the stuff I’m promoting on my roundups comes from the same place. I know these gals have got it down with creative, healthy, and fun food ideas they love to share! Lauren at Taste’s Better From Scratch has laid out school lunches perfectly for you with an awesome list to help you mix and match for endless combinations of great lunch box ideas!
11. Back To School Lunch Box Ideas
From: Back to School Lunch Box Ideas from Vicky Barone
This blog may be archived but the ideas and advice still rock! Vicky has really simple but completely delicious ideas to keep the lunch ideas rolling! Adding cut up avocado in with some tasty quesadillas is simple genius.
I really hope I was able to provide you with months and months of great school lunch ideas!
Our kids deserve healthy, fun, food and we can make it happen (most days) with these great ideas from my fellow bloggers! I’ve got awesome tips you should definitely check out for healthy slow cooker meals for your busy days. (Though, what day is ever NOT busy!) And my most popular, slow cooker soups for you to try out this fall. Yum Yum Yum.
Pin this for me and for you! What roundup would you love to see? This one was requested by one of you! Thanks for the great idea! Next I’m planning on a slow cooker Thanksgiving roundup, so please check back for that. Join our mailing list now to stay up to date on delicious recipes, workouts, and crafts.
More Meal Planning Resources from Vigor it Out for YOU:
TOTALLY Free: Healthy Mom’s Snack Checklist:
Because you deserve to eat more than sandwich crusts and leftover goldfish, even in the busiest of days! With this free printable list of healthy snacks you will have more energy, more patience, a better mood, and a slimmer waistline!
Learn how to have your cake and eat it too! Learn to healthy up all your family favorites easily with this free printable guide!
Oh my! What an amazing list of back to school lunch ideas. I am definitely pinning this post to come back to. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the pin! Hope it helps keep it creative all year!
These are so cute!! I loved the caprese salad kabobs! Will definitely use some of these in the future!
So glad you like them! No boring lunches this year.
Love these ideas even though my baby is 9 months ill keep this in mind when she’s older
They grow so fast, you’ll be using these before you know it for those mommy and me playdates!
Thanks for creating such a great round up of lunch ideas. The gluten free options might work well for us. I’ll have to give them a try since my lunches have already gotten boring and uninspired.
Your not the only one! Glad I could provide some helpful delicious ideas.
Loved the bunnies and loved the skewers! Thanks for sharing- pinned too!
So glad you liked the ideas! And thanks for the repins. 😀
Great ideas. I don’t have children but I could use some of these for myself 😉
Completely! Grown ups deserve healthy and creative lunches too!
Hi! Thank you so much for your fabulous lunch ideas. As a former teacher, however, I wonder if I could suggest using non-disposable bento boxes? It is so depressing to see how much waste is generated by school lunch packaging. In fact, many schools are now moving toward a zero waste policy (or “pack in, pack out”). There are some fabulous reusable bento boxes online that are not very expensive and can be quickly rinsed out at the end of the day. Thank you!
Jessica, I couldn’t agree more! I felt the same way when I worked as a store manager watching all the waste created from shipments… it was nauseating really. So I understand your concern with the waste from school lunches. All the bento boxes, lunch boxes, and thermoses I link to are meant to be washed and reused for the long haul, definitely not disposed of! We don’t even use throw-away napkins in our house. Glad you liked the lunchbox ideas.