My top ten tips for packing a healthy and balanced lunchbox for your kids, plus one week’s worth of school lunchbox ideas.
Kids are usually so active at school, and their little bodies are growing at a rapid rate. It’s important to take care with what we pack in our kids lunch box and to be sure that it’s filled with nutritious snacks and food to keep them recharged for the afternoon. Packing a nutritious lunch can help them concentrate better in class and gives them more energy to get through the school day.
Packing school lunches can become rather tedious and I sometimes struggle to be creative every day. I remember I used to love lunch times at school and seeing what snacks my mum packed for me. Kids love variety and don’t like to be bored. Below I share some of my top tips for packing a healthy lunchbox for kids and I have also included one week of lunchbox ideas, with a printable to help you plan a week of healthy lunchboxes for your kids.
10 Tips for a Balanced Healthy Lunchbox
1. MAKE IT EASY – The key is to provide food that’s easy for them to eat and to provide it in lunchboxes that are easy for kids to open. For example, if their little fingers struggle to peel a mandarin, then peel it at home so it’s ready to go at lunchtime.
2. USE LEFT OVERS – Make a little extra for dinner, using the left overs as a lunch option. Fried rice, pasta, mac n’ cheese etc make great additions to the lunchbox.
3. FRUIT AND VEGETABLES – Include a mix of fruit and vegetables in lunchboxes to boost nutrition and make sure the kids are getting their essential vitamins and minerals. Add in some vegetable sticks with avocado or hummus for an element of crunch.
4. HEALTHY BALANCE – School lunches should have a balance of all of the food groups. When packing lunch use the guide below to help ensure your child is enjoying a healthy and balanced school lunch.
5. GO FOR WATER – It’s so important to teach your kids to stay hydrated! We need around 8 glasses of fluid each day and water is the best choice. Packing a water bottle with their lunch is the best way for them to develop the habit of staying hydrated and helps remind them to drink regularly.
6. IS IT ALLERGY FRIENDLY? – Food based allergies including peanuts, dairy, gluten, egg etc can be life-threatening. Many schools have food policies to reduce the risk of accidental exposure. We as parents play an important role by following these policies and packing food products that are safe. Keep up to date with your schools policy.
7. PREP AHEAD – Chop carrot sticks or dice fruit while you are prepping dinner, this will save you time!
8. PLAN A BAKING SESSION – Add homemade baked muffins, biscuits, etc to lunchboxes for a treat. Homemade snacks can be a healthier alternative to the ones you find in store (and yummier too!). I freeze all our baking and then place it into the kids’ school lunchboxes frozen – they’re always defrosted by morning tea time. For HEAPS of freezable recipe ideas perfect for school, check out my Lunch Box Recipe Cookbook.
9. PACK THE NIGHT BEFORE – If you find you’re rushed in the school mornings, consider packing the lunches the night before. This will give you enough time to make a balanced and healthy lunchbox. Get the kids to help you, if they do they will be more inclined to eat it all too! Read more: How to create Chaos Free School Mornings.
10. KEEP IT COOL – It’s important to pack foods and snacks that will stay fresh for the duration of a school day. Food spoilage can result in illness and can make your children hesitant to eat. A great idea to keep the lunchbox cool is to add a freezer block in their lunch bag to keep the food fresh all day.
Make a Plan: Before you do your weekly shop, create a plan of what you want to pack in the lunchbox for the week and add the items to your grocery list. To have all the food on hand will ensure that the kids have a healthy lunch for each day at school and won’t be reaching for sweet food at the back of the pantry, or into your pocket for tuck-shop money.
A Week Of School Lunchbox Ideas
Are you stuck for lunchbox ideas? Want to make the lunchbox nutritionally balanced, but also fun and appealing for the kids? I’m here to help with these five daily lunchbox ideas below.
DAY 1 – MONDAY
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cucumber slices
- Peach
- Saladas
- Snap peas
- Cheese cubes
- Cheesy Bacon and Vegetable Muffins
DAY 2 – TUESDAY
- Cherry tomatoes
- Baby cucumber slices
- Popcorn
- Crackers and cheese
- Lunch-punched Vegemite sandwich
DAY 3 – WEDNESDAY
- Kiwi fruit and raspberries
- Cheese cubes
- Mini Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
- Mac and Cheese with Ham (could also use a store-bought version)
DAY 4 – THURSDAY
- Mandarin pieces
- Crackers
- Chicken and salad wrap
- Bliss balls – I used this Almond and Pumpkin Seed Bliss Ball recipe, and replaced the almonds with a cup of rolled oats so that they were nut-free.
DAY 5 – FRIDAY
- Grapes
- Plum
- Cheese cubes
- Salad – lettuce, cherry tomato and cucumber
- Homemade Beef and Vegetable Sausage Rolls + tomato sauce
A BONUS IDEA!
- Blueberries and raspberries with white chocolate chips
- Wholegrain mini rice cakes with mashed avocado
- Carrot sticks
- Ham, cheese and lettuce sandwich
24 comments
You have read my mind, I am struggling already with ideas and it’s only week 3. This is a huge help, I love all these ideas, especially the avocado dip for the crackers, haven’t thought of doing that. Thank you.
This is one task I don’t like doing every single day, I must admit last year I wasn’t very creative with my 2 kids lunchboxes it was a standard sandwich, fruit, muesli bar, popper. Now they are older I need to fill it with more and I do think they are a little bored. I’ll take some of these ideas on board, thanks.
Love the idea of pushing a little choc chip into a raspberry, it gives the kids a little sweet treat and something healthy! I have discovered little pots of hummus dip at my local Woolies, and put that the kids lunches with some rice crackers instead of a sandwich. Thanks!
The lunchbox photos look great. Wondering if you could do some pics of them once the kids have dumped them in their school bags, thrown the bags in the back of the car, chucked them on the ground to run off to play before school and then opened again at recess for their first snack on a 30+ degree day? My problem is getting food to travel and stay intact enough for them to actually want to eat when it’s time!
So what I was thinking… surely avocado mash would be brown 4 hours later. I am desperate for my kids to eat like this… their evening meals are healthy but lunch… they won’t touch a thing. They don’t eat cheese sushi raw veg or salad, any meat, any dips and i am stuck with jam sandwiches and a muesli bar and want to scream every day i pack it. Daughter on the hand eats everything and her lunch box is sugar free and packed with veg,dips, cheese, sushi, pasta… anything I want. I do not know how to tackle it. Boys are 6 and 7. Daughter 4.
Exactly the same in my house…healthy dinners and not great lunches. Daughter (9), like yours, eats everything, but boys (both 11) nothing! My daughter’s lunch box looks beautiful. I purchased colourful ‘Smash’ thermoses from Coles and they will now take things like leftover fried rice, spag bol, etc so that has been a great help. The thermos’ have a wide opening so sometimes they get little skinless franks (not great, but at least they eat) or dumplings. Aldi has similar small thermos’ at the moment for about $9. Apparently it gets worse at high school when it’s not cool to even eat in front of your friends let alone take a lunch box!
Exactly my thoughts too!
I wonder why it has a 4.5 star health rating??
Because they pay for the ratings… Because someone from the sugar industry wrote the ratings system.
Who calculates the Health Star Ratings?
The number of stars is determined using a calculator designed to assess positive and risk nutrients in food (The Health Star Rating Calculator). The algorithm that drives the calculator was developed in consultation with Food Standards Australia New Zealand and other technical and nutrition experts.
Food manufacturers and retailers are responsible for the correct and accurate use of the Health Star Rating system. This includess correctly calculating the Health Star Rating, accurately displaying nutrient information, ensuring consistency of information between the Health Star Rating and the Nutrition Information Panel, and complying with all relevant legislation and regulations.
Thanks for these ideas! I have just discovered GLAD sandwich bags for wraps and this makes them so much easier for the kids to handle!
Correct, Milo to Go has 17.6 grams of sugar per serve (200ml), this equates to 4.5 teaspoons of sugar in each popper (granted 2/3rds of this sugar is natural and comes from the lactose in milk, but sugar is sugar).
Imagine physically getting a teaspoon out and placing four and half sugars into any drink for a child, that is crazy! Especially if you expect them to sit down after lunch and concentrate on taking direction and learning in the classroom.
(this is not factoring in the other items in the lunch box that also have sugar in it, natural or not).
The sugar recommendation for children is 5 teaspoons per day, you’ve hit your daily limit with just this meal.
I appreciate you need to make a living and understand that it makes sense for you financially to take on a client with this type of product in their range.
As an ex-obese person, I wish my parents had of provided me with a range of healthy eating options as a child as opposed to convenient options, it would have meant that my teens, twenties and thirties would not have been fraught with the constant battle against obesity, that I only recently overcame with a tonne of effort and personal and financial cost.
I appreciate you have also had your battles in this space, hence me commenting on this post.
I so agree with all of you ?
I know it is a bit disappointing… hopefully this won’t last too long after realising most of us following the blog are against this drink choice
My 6yo has taken the same lunch for his first two weeks of school and I am already bored of it, but his lunchbox is empty every day. He has had a ham and lettuce sandwich/wrap (using different breads depending what is fresh), some grapes, an apple or banana and a yoghurt. Found a great yoghurt container you can freeze the middle overnight as it is lined with gel, then place the yoghurt in in the morning with lid on and it keeps it cool. I also place a drinkable brick from Smash in his lunch (iced overnight half full and topped up with water in the morning so it keeps lunch cool and is melted enough to drink by lunch at 1100am). He won’t eat cheese, capsicum or tomatos, but loves broccoli, corn and carrots so I will try them this week as his crunch and sip break.
Today my girls have: ham, cheese and salad sandwiches, homemade ginger cake, plums and strawberries, crackers with meat & a homemade muesli bar. I know it’ll all be eaten and enjoyed. They only drink water at school, and have a fruit smoothie when they get home from school. 🙂
Thank you for your helpful ideas for lunchbox packing 😀
My daughter just started kindy and her lunchboxes have been successful:
Lunchbox 1
Tuna/mayo sandwich on grainy bread
Brown rice crackers and a cheese triangle
Apple cut up with grapes
2 slices Anzac slice (home made)
Lunchbox 2
Ham and cheese sandwich on grainy bread
4 vita weets with Vegemite & cheese triangle
2 slices banana bread (home made)
1 apple cut up and somecarrot sticks
No matter how pretty you make a lunchbox look at end of the day they only eat what they want to each day. I’ve learnt to limit choices in the lunchbox, the more options the more overwhelming it is. 1 fruit, 1 vege, 1 sweet or savoury and a main, like a wrap, sandwich, muffin, mini pizza.
thanks for sharing the diet plan for kids!
You’re very welcome!
Shop for lunch boxes hyperlinks are not working
Thanks for letting us know, Kevin! We’ve updated the links. Some of the products shown may no longer be in stock, but you can follow the links to see our latest lunchboxes and insulated food jars.
I love these ideas and sharing plans. It helps when you have over schedule lifestyles, shift works and catching up with your kids routines.
So glad it’s helpful Jahna! I understand how tough the juggle can be.