Making kids school lunches is just one of those great joys in life, right? Our checklist goes something like:
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Something they will actually eat
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Something they haven’t already eaten like 4 times this week
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Reasonably healthy
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Can be thrown together in the time between making coffee and finding the car keys
Here are 7 tips we hope will make packing those back to school lunches a little less stressful, and healthier for your kids!
1. Make an almond butter and celery snack pack
Use an empty applesauce container or Cuppow with a standard mason jar to hold Lindsay Almond Butter & celery sticks. It’s easy. It’s healthy. It’s kid-friendly. We’re in.
Didn’t know we make almond butter? Creamy, crunchy and — whoa now — honey cinnamon are coming your way.
2. Prep No-Bake Cinnamon Crunch Bars for protein-packed snacking
We love this tip from our friend Shannon of Clean Eats and Treats! Make no-bake snack bars from whole foods like oats, pretzels, unsweetened coconut, honey, coconut oil and our Honey Cinnamon Almond Butter. They’re great to throw in lunchboxes or keep as an after school snack. These bars are also super easy to prepare gluten free.
Get the recipe for No-Bake Cinnamon Crunch Bars.
3. Prep your snacks in bulk
Whether you’re the kind of parent who is whipping up a double Cinnamon Crunch bar recipe or packaging up healthy snacks into baggies — prepping snacks in bulk is one of our favorite timesavers. Morgan Manages Mommyhood always makes time to prep snacks in advance to help cut down on that daily time throwing a lunch together. Calm mornings = Happy mornings :)
Dont have time to prep? Look to pre-packaged snacks already in convenient serving sizes like fruit cups or our Snack and Go! cups.
4. Create healthy DIY pizza lunchables
Grab your bento box and make a healthy version of the lunchables your kids want. All you need is flatbread rounds, pepperoni, Sliced Black Olives, shredded mozzarella and pizza sauce in a mini to-go cup! Piece of fruit optional.
5. Prep homemade, peanut-free freeze sandwiches
Another great tip from Morgan Manages Mommyhood — homemade freezer AB&J’s! If your kid’s school is peanut free, it can feel impossible to make a simple lunch. Morgan preps these freezer AB&J’s in advance so she can quickly toss them into lunchboxes the morning of.
Get her walkthrough of how to make Almond Butter & Jelly Freeze sandwiches.
6. Make hard-boiled eggs in an instant pot and put them in everything
Prep hard boiled eggs in your Instant Pot and add them to kid lunches! Adult lunches! Family dinners!? Hello Niçoise Salad! Our favorite thing about this hack is that the eggs come out much easier to peel — a win for everyone. Learn how to do this hack here.
7. Write a sweet note
We love this hack because it just makes us feel good. Morgan at Morgan Manages Mommyhood showed us how she leaves sweet notes for her kids to find. She likes to write notes on plastic baggies, cheese stick packaging or fruit like bananas and oranges. Kiddos too young to read? Use stickers!
