School Lunch & Snack Ideas

We're off to a good start with a new school year and we're already finding new favorite foods to take to school.  My kids need a nut free snack for their classroom and then are allowed any kinds of nuts with their school lunches every day.  We're still using and loving our Yumboxes going on 7 years now.  I found a snack container that works really well for them.  I'll link our favorite things at the bottom of this post.

I like to think of their snacks and school lunches as a big HUG FROM HOME in the middle of their school days.  That means I grocery shop regularly and plan to have a rainbow of food options on hand all of the time for lunches.  This mindset helps me to pack lunches with a good attitude and not think of it as a chore.  I really am so thankful to have a crew of kids to pack lunches for.

I pack lunches right after I get dinner cleaned up.  I'm already in the kitchen and then I can kind of close down the kitchen for the night.  If I wait until the kids go to bed or in the morning to pack lunches, I feel grumpy or rushed.  It's so nice to have them ready to go the night before.

 

Now I'm going to go through and list some of our favorite foods to include in lunch boxes.

Gummy worms

fresh fruit

half a sandwich

turkey sausage links and turkey pepperoni

Fun size candy bars

berries

extra sharp white cheddar cheese cubes

Pretzel chips

Doritos

frozen peas

A mix of two different salty chips - Fritos and pretzel chips

baked goods

acai chocolate balls

Match stick carrots

cold pasta

pitted fresh cherries

pumpkin cookies

MIke and Ikes

bite size apples

cold  pasta

Chocolate zucchini bread

a little fruit salad

peanut M&Ms

I picked up these Sistema to go snack containers at Meijer before school started.  They are easy to open and I love that they have two big sections.  They don't seem to be leak proof so if you send something juicy, you might want to add in a paper towel on that side.  The kids - 2nd and 5th grade - both like them.

The apple slices were a little juicy so I would put a paper towel in with them next time.

It's been a yummy start to the school year.

Here are my Amazon links to our favorite lunch box supplies for

Yumbox Originals

Thin ice packs

Funtainer Thermos water bottles

and Sistema snack containers.