School Lunch Box Ideas for Busy Parents

It’s an everyday dilemma for busy parents: what to pack in the kids’ lunch boxes. Something tasty and well-balanced, but also quick and easy to put together in the morning chaos. So, we’ve created this collection of tasty lunch box ideas for the year ahead.

When packing your child’s lunch box, it’s all about clever ideas to keep it interesting and appealing.

How to pack the perfect lunch box

The key to keeping children alert and active throughout the afternoon at school is through a balanced lunch. There are various components to include in your child’s lunch box:

Lean protein such as meat, chicken, fish or eggs.
Dairy such as yoghurt or cheese.
Healthy carbohydrates, including wholemeal or wholegrain bread, wraps, crackers, pasta, rice or other grains.
Fresh fruit and vegies, packed as whole pieces (apples, carrots, cherry tomatoes and mini cucumbers, for example). Alternatively, cut them up and place in small containers.

As well as recess and lunch, many schools will break for ‘crunch and sip’ during the mid-morning. Fruit or vegetable sticks and a drink of water are usually good ‘crunch and sip’ options.

Plan & prepare

To make your mornings easier, think about what will go in your child’s lunch box with these ideas:

Choose foods that can be prepared either the day before or even on the weekend, and then frozen or refrigerated.
Cut a week’s worth of vegetable sticks on Sunday; they’ll keep all week, portioned in containers.
Bake double batches of muffins, cakes, scones, pastries etc, and freeze.

Another great tip is to use the leftovers from your dinner. A roast chicken makes great sandwiches. A piece of quiche or zucchini slice can be saved. Or put a little pasta aside and turn it into a pasta salad.

Fresh fruit is nature’s ‘no preparation required’ individually packaged snack food. It’s high in fibre, vitamins and minerals and ideal for the lunch box. If you do want to give your child cut-up fruit, however, you can do this the night before and store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

Food safety

Once a lunch box is packed and on its way to school, keeping the contents cool is the key to food safety. There are some great and affordable lunch box and refrigerated bag options out there with frozen ice packs. If you don’t have one, freezing a plastic bottle of water or juice will do the same thing, and will go down a treat on a hot summer’s day once thawed. Yoghurt can also be frozen overnight and will be thawed and ready to eat by recess. Packing sandwiches straight from the freezer will also keep things chilled for just that extra bit longer.

The lowest risk foods for spoilage are vegies and fruit, dried foods (crackers, biscuits etc) and items such as muesli bars, dried fruits and popcorn.

For hot food, a thermos flask will hold foods at the right temperature for hours. It can keep soups, casseroles, rice dishes, pasta etc. hot for up to six hours. Consider pre-heating the thermos by carefully filling with hot water from the kettle for a few minutes, then draining, wiping dry and immediately filling and sealing.