Packing your child’s school lunch can be a handful at times. You want to make sure they continue to eat healthy even when they’re away, but you also want to make sure they have something fun and exciting to eat, all while balancing a busy schedule at home. Too often, we just slap together another peanut butter sandwich and call it a day.
If you’re looking to add some variety to your kid’s lunches, and don’t have all day to craft some of the stuff you find on fancy food blogs, we’re here to help. Here are five fun and tasty quick ideas that’ll makes your kid’s lunch the talk of the cafeteria.
Mini Bagels
Bagels make a fun alternative to plain white bread. You can just make a standard sandwich with the bagel replacing the bread slices – ham and Swiss is a personal favorite of mine – or you can introduce cream cheese to the party.
Cream cheese goes great with jelly or cucumbers, making a fun and healthy alternative to the typical sandwich. They’re small enough that you can make two or three in one lunch – it’s a fun idea to have different kinds in the same lunch for variety!
Sandwich Kabob
Getting tired of the same old sandwich every day? You can use the same ingredients to make a fun twist by just adding a wooden skewer!
Take your turkey, cubed string cheese and squares of bread and thread them onto skewer, alternating between them. Voila! A fun and trendy alternative to your boring, everyday turkey sandwich. You can add vegetables your child likes as well – lettuce, tomatoes and a hunk of pickle work well on these kabobs in my experience.
Tortilla Pinwheels
Pinwheels are a fun way to get a balanced meal into bite-sized chunks.
Take a small tortilla, and layer cream cheese, deli meat, thinly-sliced tomatoes, and a green vegetable – I normally use shredded lettuce, but I know those who swear by spinach – to create a filling. Roll it up tightly in the tortilla, and then slice the entire thing into small rounds. It’s almost a sandwich-sushi type look, which is always a big hit.
Chicken Sliders
Sliders – or mini hamburgers – are a fun treat, though I prefer not packing burgers in my kids’ lunches! Instead, I use chicken on mini slider buns for a treat.
Drain some canned chicken, and then mix it well with mayo and black pepper to create the filling. Place it between some lettuce and some cheese to keep it from getting too soggy, and sandwich it all in the slider bun.
DIY Lunchables
I know as a kid, I always found it a treat to get a Lunchable as a lunch, but the idea of sending your kid to school every day with an overly-processed snack pack filled with fat, salt and sugar isn’t always the best idea.
You can make the same sort of idea from home, however – crackers, sliced cheese and your child’s favorite deli meat (salami, turkey, roast beef, ham…whatever you know they’ll eat!) makes a quick and healthy lunch, and your kid will enjoy putting together their own mini-sandwiches at lunch time, without all the preservatives from pre-packaged food.
Combine any of these with some healthy fruit and veggies and a light snack, and you have a lunch that your kid will be happy to show off!