120 Easy Kid Friendly Lunch Ideas For School

It’s officially back to school time and it’s about to get a whole lot more hectic! These easy back to school lunch ideas for your kids will make packing lunches a breeze. Now you’ll have just one less thing to worry about during the school year.

No more running around in the morning unsure of what to pack. With 120 items on this list, you won’t have to listen to your kids complain or boredom. The variations are endless!

Also, don’t forget to download your FREE School Lunch Ideas PDF Printable here!!

Print the list out and put it in a place where you see it often. If you put this list where you can easily access it, you will never run out of ideas for packing your child’s lunch!

Go through and highlight things your child would like. You guys can even sit down and do this together. There is also space at the end to add in all your child’s favorites as well.

Before I get to all the school lunch ideas, I wanted to share with you a few helpful tips for packing lunches and using this list.

Table of Contents show

School Lunch Ideas: Prep Tips

If possible try to pack lunches the night before, or even pick one or two nights a week to do all your prep for the week. This will help you out so much because you are already busy scrambling around in the morning trying to get you and your little one ready.
If your kids are old enough, enlist their help. Let them bag snacks or wash fruit. This will not only help you out, but teach them valuable life skills.
Buy in bulk at discount stores and be on the look out for sales. If you plan everything ahead of time and shop smart, you can save a lot of money on lunches.
Mix and match everything. By varying up the lunches, your child won’t get sick of the same old thing. Maybe you repeat a main course, but having a different snack makes it a little less boring.
Customize everything to your child. Maybe your child needs extra veggies or can’t eat nuts (or they’re not aloud at their school), be sure to take this as a general guideline and tweak it as you see fit. Maybe you don’t give your child juice or some other foods on the list and that’s okay, just customize it to fit their dietary needs.

Kid Friendly Lunch Ideas For School

Main Course (Choose 1)

Sandwiches

Italian Sandwich: Pepperoni, Salami & Mozzarella Cheese
Peanut Butter (or nut/seed butter of their liking) and Jelly
Ham and Cheese
Turkey, Avocado & Sprouts
Tuna Plain or With Celery
Egg Salad
Salami & Cheese
Peanut Butter and Banana
Cucumber & Cream Cheese
Turkey & Cheese
Pita Pizza Pocket: Spread pizza sauce inside pita bread and stuff with mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and their favorite pizza toppings.
Roast Beef & Cheese
Club: Turkey, Ham, Cheese, Lettuce & Regular or Turkey Bacon

Wraps

Hummus & Veggie
BLT
Chicken Cesar Salad
Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey Roll-up
Chicken Ranch
Lettuce Wraps (Use lettuce instead of a tortilla)
Hummus, Meat & Veggie
Veggies & Cream Cheese
Any of the sandwiches listed above can be made into wraps.

Other

Cold Pizza
Burritos
Chicken Nuggets
Lunch Meat, Cheese & Crackers
Leftovers
Nachos: Healthy Baked Kid Nacho Recipe from Thriving Home
Pasta Salad
Chili & Cornbread
Bagel with cream cheese, avocado and sprouts
Steak or Chicken Quesadilla
Shredded chicken and barbecue dipping sauce
Rice and Beans
Baked egg cups: Check out my post 10 Egg Muffin Recipes for ideas!
Mac ‘n Cheese
Mini Corn Dogs
Taco Salad: Kid Friendly Taco Salad Recipe from Food Network’s Healthy Eats
Sloppy Joe’s (These are still tasty cold.)

Snacks & Sweet Treats (Choose 1-2)

Snacks

Trail Mix
Granola Bars
Jerky or Beef Sticks
Pretzels
Veggie Chips
String Cheese
Yogurt & Granola
Popcorn
Hummus (Eat with veggies or crackers)
Salami & Cream Cheese
Hard Boiled Egg or Deviled Eggs
Laughing Cow or Babybel Cheese
Individually Packed Guacamole (Wholly Guacamole brand is great) & Tortilla Chips
Crackers: Saltines, Goldfish, Annie’s brand etc.
Cold Cuts & Cheese
Kind Bars
Pirate’s Booty Rice or Corn Puffs (Yes, the name is hilarious!)
Celery or Apple and Nut Butter (SunButter made from sunflower seeds is a great alternative to peanut butter if your child is allergic.)
Chex Mix or Cheerios (dry)
Pita Chips
Graham Crackers
Roasted Crunchy Chickpeas (They come repackaged in all different flavors or you can make your own. Ranch is yummy!)
Sun Chips
Raisins
Pickles
Pumpkin Seeds
Pepperoni and Mozzarella Cheese
Rice Cakes
Banana and Peanut Butter
Homemade Baked Chips or Store Bought: Here’s a Baked Chip Recipe from Super Healthy Kids.

Sweet Treats

Cookies
Rice Krispie Treats
Fruit Snacks
Oreos
Handful of chocolate chips alone or with nuts
Pudding or Jello
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Fun Size Candy
Fruit Roll-up/Fruit Leather
Apple slices with peanut butter & marshmallows
Yogurt Covered Raisins

Fruits & Veggies (Choose 2)

Note: Some of these veggies are technically fruit (like tomatoes) or in another food group, but for the sake of making it easy, I’m going go with what people generally consider as veggies.

Fruit

Apples
Pears
Bananas
Grapes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Rasberries
Peaches
Watermelon
Cantalope
Honeydew
Oranges
Mandarins: Cuties, Halos
Clementines
Plums
Applesauce: Plain, Cinnamon, Strawberry, etc.
Cherries
Kiwis
Pineapple
Mangos
Nectarines
Dried Fruit
Freeze Dried Fruit

Vegetables

Cherry Tomatos
Baby Carrots
Sliced Cucumber
Sliced Bellpepper Strips
Peas
Edamame
Snap Peas
Winter Squash
Baby Corn
Beets
Roasted Veggies & Ranch

Drinks (Choose 1)

Water
Juice (100%)*
Plain or Chocolate Milk
Sparkling Water Plain or With Lime/Lemon Wedges (This one is hit or miss, some kids do not like this.)
Lemonade*
Water Diffused With Fruit (Lemon, strawberries, etc.)

* Please note if you are packing your own lemonade or fruit juice in a thermos, you can always dilute it down with water to reduce the sugar content.

Hope these kid friendly lunch ideas for school made your week a little easier! Comment below and tell me your favorite lunch you pack your child!