Healthy School Lunches in Ten Minutes a Day

I recently read about a 2014 study that found home packed school lunches, as a whole, included more sugar, calories and unhealthy fats had lower nutritional value than school lunches. Wow! If this is true, we have some serious work to do, fellow lunch packing parents! I’ll admit packing school lunches is not my favorite activity. But it’s really important to me to feed my family foods that nourish their bodies and minds and we also have multiple food allergies, so its a necessity for us.

Our school lunches aren’t fancy, but they are filled with real whole foods that I feel good about feeding my kids. I’ve given you a quick reference list of the things on the rotation for my kids’ lunches. Read on below for my tips for getting this done quickly and easily. With a little planning ahead it really is possible to pack healthy, real food lunches in ten minutes a day!

I make most of our school lunches the night before. If I’m packing leftovers, I make lunches while I’m cleaning up from dinner so I only have to put food away once and I’m getting lunches packed at the same time. Then in the morning all I have to do is put the lunch containers in insulated lunch bags with a few ice packs. The biggest exception to this is soup–I heat it up and put it in thermoses in the morning while the kids are eating breakfast and it is still warm at lunch time.

I might have a bit of a problem with lunchbox containers. We have so many! But it helps keep the lunch packing process a bit more fun for me and I hope it keeps the kids from getting bored with their lunch options, too. We use the three compartment plastic EasyLunchBoxes and our Pottery Barn Kids bento boxes the most, but I also have several different Sistema containers. I really like their Lunch Cubes and Salad to Go containers and we use the Small Split for their morning snack.

I generally follow the same basic formula: Main course (meat or another healthy protein/fat/whole grain), at least one fruit and at least one vegetable. Then I may add another side or two, depending on which lunch containers I’m using and whether I feel like they need more food.

I stock my freezer with things I can easily pull out and pop in a lunch container and they are thawed and ready to eat by lunchtime the next day.

• When I make hamburgers, meatballs, or chicken for dinner I always make extra to freeze for lunches. I cut up chicken breasts into strips, grill them on a grill pan and freeze them for lunches. I always keep turkey meatballs and leftover hamburger patties in the freezer. My kids will happily eat any of these cold. I used to cut rounds of bread with a biscuit cutter and make cute little hamburger sliders with lettuce and cheese, but they prefer just the plain patty, which doesn’t seem quite as fun but I won’t complain because it makes my job easier. If possible, buy hormone and antibiotic free meat from grass fed/pastured animals. In addition to avoiding the hormones and antibiotics, pastured meat is much higher in omega-3 fatty acids and you get the benefit of the nutrition from all of the greens the animals eat. We buy our meat directly from Fischer Farms, a wonderful local family farm. I love knowing where my meat comes from and that it was raised humanely and healthfully.
• Protein Muffins — I love to freeze these super healthy and delicious Grain Free Banana Protein Muffins from One Lovely Life for breakfasts and lunches. I make the recipe exactly as written except that I make 18 standard size muffins. These Flourless Chocolate Muffins were also on my list this week. Like the banana muffins, they are high in protein, have no flour, sugar or refined oils and they are so good.  You will never know they are made of chickpeas. My kids think they’re getting a chocolate cupcake in their lunches.
• This week I also made and froze 24 Mini Pizzas. I use Food for Life sprouted grain hamburger buns or English muffins (for my gluten eaters) and for my gluten free kiddos either Food for Life gluten free English muffins or Udi’s whole grain gluten free hamburger buns. I lay the bun or muffin halves face up on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven, top with organic pasta sauce and cheese (or Diaya non-dairy cheese shreds for my dairy free kids), pop them back in the oven until the cheese melts, then let them cool and freeze them in a zip top bag. I’ll add a piece of fruit and a small salad or sprouts to their lunch and they will be set.

Other Main Courses — 

1. Tacos — We have tacos for dinner several times a month and I always make extra so we can have tacos for lunches at least one day. I make 3 extra tacos before I clean up from dinner, put each one in a snack size zip top baggie so the toppings don’t fall out, and then put them in their lunch container with a piece of fruit and another side or two (sometimes a few organic blue corn chips and salsa or guacamole). The tacos are cold and I’m pretty sure the shells are soggy by lunch time but my kids still love them.
2. Canned tuna — My daughter likes tuna plain straight from the can on a sandwich, on a salad or with whole grain crackers.
3. Almond butter or sunbutter sandwiches are quick and easy.  Make sure you buy 100% pure, no sugar added Almond butter and use sprouted, whole grain or gluten free bread with the fewest and best ingredients possible.
4. Lettuce and cheese sandwiches — I use Diaya cheddar style slices for my dairy free kiddos and put lettuce and cheese on sprouted wheat, whole grain or gluten free bread. My daughter likes a slice of tomato too. Once in a great while I give them BLTs.
5. Chili or soup is good for variety in the fall and winter and makes a great, healthy lunch when paired with a real food muffin and a piece of fruit.
6. Hard boiled eggs  — Make a dozen hard boiled eggs at a time and have enough for several days lunches. Buy local, organic or omega-3 eggs from pastured chickens, if possible.
7. Organic yogurt — My preference is plain yogurt with just a bit of honey and some fruit or granola added, so I can control the amount of sugar.

Sides — Every lunch I pack has at least one vegetable and one fruit. I may add  a second fruit or one or two of the other options listed here:

1. Veggies with hummus or guacamole for dipping— carrots, celery, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, grape or cherry tomatoes, cucumber, or sugar snap peas, depending on which child and what they will eat.
2. Lettuce or spinach salad — this is really just a few bites of salad, sometimes it gets eaten and sometimes it doesn’t!
3. Pea, sunflower or radish sprouts — This is new for us this year. At our farmers market this summer we discovered Sprout Farms, a farmer who grows and sells micro greens and my kids love them! The amazing thing is that the sprouts really do taste just like the vegetable or seed they are grown from. The Pea Shoots really taste like peas and the Sunflower Shoots really taste like sunflower seeds. I’m thrilled to have another leafy green my crew will eat in their lunches. If you’re local, you can purchase them at the Downtown Evansville or Newburgh Farmer’s Markets or through their website. Or if you’re really ambitious you can grow sprouts in your own sprouting trays.
4. Fresh Fruit — apple slices, berries, bananas, clementines and grapes are the most common lunchbox fruits for us
5. Unsweetened applesauce — look for 100% applesauce with no added sugar (I’ve been known to pack apple slices and applesauce a few times when lunch supplies were very low.)
6. Individual size fruit cups in 100% juice — I always have a few on hand for emergencies when we are out of fresh fruit
7. Olives — My kiddos love olives and they are an easy and healthy fruit full of good healthy fats!  Our favorites are Castelvetrano Olives.
8. Nuts and dates — I often fill one space in their bento boxes with nuts or a mix of dates and nuts for a healthy treat
9. Cheese — buy organic where possible, local grass fed cheese is the best option if its available and fits your budget
10. Protein muffins — see above for two of my favorites for my freezer stash
11. Popcorn — a healthy whole grain treat as long as it isn’t popped in hydrogenated oils or loaded up with artificial flavoring
12. Pretzels or whole grain or gluten free crackers — not really real food, but make it into my kids’ lunches once in a while
13. Organic blue corn chips — also not really real food but I still use them once in a while on taco day

I hope this gives you some inspiration for your lunch boxes. It really is worth the effort to feed our kids real foods that nourish and heal their bodies and minds. I would love to hear if you have other real food lunch box ideas that your kids enjoy. Please share in the comments!