Family,  home,  Preschoolers,  Uncategorized

Healthy and Simple School Lunches for Young Children

Making school lunches can be stressful. We specifically choose our boys’ classes based on being able to have lunch at home to avoid packing school lunches. I honestly love eating lunch with my boys and it is a lot simpler to just make them a meal at home than to pack a lunch within the allergy parameters at school.

I am pretty sure the whole “you make a plan, and God laughs” applies to this year’s school lunch situation. Our school only had one option for Reid’s age group, which meant he had to eat lunch at school. I was stressed about packing a school lunch for the first time AND then I got an email the night before the first day explaining that a child in his class has a severe allergy to 5 different items (which ruled out a few of my go to healthy foods for Reid), which meant I got a little overwhelmed! I totally feel for anyone that has food allergies and the stress it puts them under, but with the number of allergies present in his class it made for a much harder time to pack school lunch.

In order to simplify school lunches, I make sure that I pack ONE thing in each category: protein, vegetable, fruit and grain. I usually pack a little treat too, like fruit snacks or a cookie! It has made packing lunches so much easier and streamlined the process by checking off my four things. I use bento boxes to separate the items, I have one larger section bento box and one heavier, smaller section bento box depending on what I pack. Additionally, I will use a thermos for chicken nuggets (see my Instagram for a hack of keeping them hot) and silicone cupcake holders to help separate food. Below I break down a few of our favorites in each category to make it even easier, simply mix and match!

Protein: lunch meat (usually on sandwich, my boys love salami), cheese stick or shredded cheese, yogurt stick, Danimals yogurt (we call them smoothie monkeys), leftover chunks of grilled chicken or pork, chicken nuggets (my hack is on Instagram), hummus (for Walker), almonds, cashews

Grain: tortilla (deconstructed tacos), crackers (think lunchable), whole wheat bread (for sandwiches), potato roll for salami sandwiches, pretzels

Vegetable: carrots, pepper slices, broccoli, pea snaps (an easy “healthy-ish” chip alternative)

Fruit: apple sauce pouch, apple slices (soak in sprite or lime juice to keep from browning), clementines (prepeeled), sliced strawberries, cantaloupe, dried bananas, half of a banana

Treat: chips, cookies, fruit snacks, Nature Valley almond butter biscuits (these are great for “snack time” and peanut free!)

Breaking it down into four manageable pieces makes it a lot simpler to plan. My boys love peanut butter, so we typically have a pb&j after school a couple times a week! I also add notes to the boys’ lunches everyday. My friend growing up always had notes from her parents and I thought it was the sweetest thing, I remember my mom doing it a couple times too. It really is the little things that count and Reid loves getting a little encouraging note or funny joke (I usually draw a picture for Walker). It doesn’t have to be perfect, but a simple post-it note may make a difference in your child’s day 🙂

healthy, simple, school lunches, young children, toddlers

What are some of your favorite things to pack in your kids’ lunches?

Hope you enjoy and this helps make school lunches a little bit simpler and more fun!