Creative School Lunch Ideas

Lately I’ve been on the hunt for creative school lunch ideas.

Starting next week, Ayva will be joining the ranks of legions of preschoolers before her.

In addition to moving up to the afternoon class at her school, she’ll also be eligible to participate in Lunch Bunch!

She had a sneak peek during summer camp, where she was able to stay for an extra hour at the camp and eat lunch with her friends. During the school year, she’ll have lunch before class starts, twice per week.

As I discovered during our Lunch Bunch trial run, coming up with lunches day after day is not easy.

Yeah, I know Pinterest has a ton of ideas, but who has time to make a sandwich that looks like a blooming flower in a garden when I can barely remember to make the lunch in the first place?

I learned a lot about lunches this summer, though, and feel totally prepared to amaze Ayva with my packed lunch skills. It’s really simple, even if you’re not one of those super crafty, “how in the world did you come up with that???” type of Mamas.

Think Outside the Sandwich

Sandwiches are cool, but our school doesn’t allow peanut butter.

I’ve heard there are other kinds of sandwiches besides PB&J and turkey, but I have no idea what they are. Like I said, I need some creative school lunch ideas.

Not wanting to bore Ayva with a turkey sandwich every day during our Lunch Bunch test drive, I thought about what else she likes to eat.

The answer was simple.

Snacks.

Fortunately, every preschooler I know loves snacks, so I packed a healthy lunch with bite sized nibbles.

Whole grain crackers with cheddar cheese and turkey pepperoni was one of Ayva’s favorite lunches. I added a yogurt tube, a few apple slices, and her water bottle. “Snack lunch” completely satisfied her, and held her until her afternoon snack of raisins or applesauce.

Other non-sandwich ideas you might consider include boiled eggs, kid-friendly salad, and pasta with pesto.

Just make sure you get a lunch box with an ice pack, and you’ll be good to go!

Cool and creative school lunch ideas

Okay, so one of my life goals is to master a few bento box lunches so that I can surprise Ayva when she goes to kindergarten next year.

Until then, I’ll just have to stick with my creative hacks to make her lunch special.

One of the things that I did this summer was purchase a sandwich cutter and cut her sandwiches into fun shapes.

The sandwich cutter only cost $1 at Target, but cookie cutters work just as well. The day that I sent a star shaped sandwich for Ayva’s lunch was her favorite lunch. When I picked her up after Lunch Bunch was over, she couldn’t wait to talk about how cool her lunch was!

She was super excited, and it only took me an extra minute.

Seriously, anybody can cut a sandwich!

Ayva also loved the little notes that I’d put in her lunchbox.

She’d ask her teachers to read them to her, and they reported to me that she would beam after they were finished. You know, children are so easy to please sometimes, it’s definitely worth a few extra minutes to make their lunch special.

It’s All About the Bag

A cool lunch is super important. Even if you have a creative school lunch and the inside of the bag is your basic protein/dairy/fruit & veggie, a cute lunch bag can make the middle meal memorable.

You definitely want to let your little one participate in choosing the bag that they like.

I’ll admit, I didn’t do that this summer, and while Ayva totally appreciated her Minnie Mouse lunch bag, she never let me forget that she would have LOVED a Hello Kitty bag.

Having a couple of different lunch bags that your child can switch out as they please is such an easy way to get them excited about lunchtime.

I know that we’re busy and all, but school is hard, even for preschoolers.

Between being challenged to learn new things, to social pressures (that I TOTALLY had no idea started so early! Aaah!), children are being pushed to their limits every day they go to school.

Why not take a few minutes to do something to remind them that no matter what, Mama loves them and they are special and worth the effort? It’s a tiny thing that means so much.

Other posts you might enjoy:

How to Dress Up a School Uniform

The First Thing to Do When You Pick Your Kids Up From School

Tips for Parents of Picky Eater Preschoolers