My kids are officially back to school which means I am officially back to packing lunches! I feel like at the beginning of the year we all have big dreams about packing cute lunches for our kids and as the year goes on it gets harder and harder to keep up with, so I thought I’d put all our lunch ideas, tips, and tricks in one spot here on the blog so we can all come back and reference it as we need inspo throughout the school year! 

The Lunchbox Drawer

We turned one drawer in our kitchen into a lunchbox drawer to keep everything in one place in hopes to make packing lunches easier! Some things we keep in there are:

• Bento boxes: These are so helpful so I’m not washing tons of plastic containers every night or spending tons of money on plastic bags. They fit perfectly with an ice pack in the kids’ lunchboxes too!
• Silicone dividers with animal toothpicks: I love these for separating the bento box sections to fit more things!
• Sandwich set with toothpicks: these make homemade uncrustables in fun shapes! The little cookie cutters are perfect for cutting cheese, fruit, etc into fun shapes. And the little picks are just a fun alternative to a fork but I swear they help my kids eat more!
• Joke cards: the girls love having these in their lunch boxes! I thought Harlyn would be too old for them this year but she asked to keep getting them because she and her friends and teacher love them!
• Superhero notes: I grabbed these to put in Pax’s lunch since isn’t old enough to read the joke cards yet.

Lunchbox Ideas

I try to pack balanced lunches every day full of things my kids like so that they will not be hungry at school! But also, let’s face it, sometimes I’m throwing in an Uncrustable & bag of Doritos and calling it a day!

• Protein: deli meat, peanut butter, hummus, yogurt, string cheese, protein muffins
• Fruit: berries, apple slices, grapes, pineapple, watermelon, applesauce
• Veggie: carrot sticks, mini bell peppers, sugar snap peas, cucumber, pickles
• Carb: sandwich (my kids are into turkey & cheese sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls), crackers, granola bar, popcorn, rice cakes, chips
• Treat: piece of chocolate, fruit snacks, cookie, Annie’s Rice Krispie treats