50 Packable School Lunch Ideas

Don’t sweat school lunch! Get fresh ideas from our huge list of healthy, simple, and packable lunches. Get the free printable at the bottom of the post.

Also check out our huge school lunch photo gallery with 90+ complete kid lunches.

Packing a school lunch: how hard can it be? Slap together a sandwich, add a piece of fruit and some baby carrots, and you’re done. Easy, right? At least in September, it’s that easy.

But a month or two into the school year, packing lunches starts to feel like a slog. The food starts to come back uneaten. Your kids are complaining about their umpteenth turkey sandwich on wheat. And most troubling of all, there’s no end in sight.

Don’t sweat it. And avoid the lunch-packing burnout with our huge list of packable school lunch ideas to keep you ticking all year long.

Before we get to the list, we’ve got two tips for packing lunches:

First, do your best to include a fruit and a veggie with every packed lunch. Consistency wins!

Second, try packing lunches the night before school. This is SUCH a sanity-saver. The lunches stay fresh in the fridge overnight, and you don’t have to scramble around in the morning to get lunch packed before everybody has to rush out the door.

Now, to the lunches!

50 Packable School Lunch Ideas

1. Cream cheese and deli meat pinwheels.
2. Tomato soup in a thermos with grilled cheese
3. Kid-friendly green salad topped with chopped eggs and/or deli meat
4. Veggie-packed Pizza Rolls
5. Muffins with a cheese stick
6. Waffle sandwiches with cream cheese and raisins, or PB and J
7. “Finger Food” lunch: trail mix, cheese cubes, and raw veggies
8. Egg salad sandwich
9. Lemony Quinoa with Spinach, Feta, and Beans
10. Bean and cheese burritos
11. Tuna and crackers
12. Homemade “Lunchables” with crackers, meat, cheese, a fruit, and veggie
13. Quick pita pizza
14. Egg and cheese sandwich on a whole wheat roll
15. Pasta salad
16. Peanut butter and jelly on leftover pancakes
17. Egg cups
18. Chicken nuggets
19. Cold bean salad with vinaigrette and tortilla chips
20. Pasta and meat sauce in a thermos
21. Leftover Butternut Squash Soup in a thermos.
22. Almond butter and honey sandwich
23. Cheese quesadillas with guacamole
24. Pizza kebabs 
25. Homemade “Uncrustables” 
26. Ham and cheese inside leftover crepes
27. Meatballs on toothpicks
28. Cold sesame noodles and veggies
29. Black bean and turkey salad
30. Chicken salad wrap
31. Veggie Lunch Wrap
32. Yogurt and granola
33. Turkey, cheese, and spinach on a bagel
34. Banana bread with a hard-boiled egg
35. Quick Mac and Cheese in a thermos
36. Pita filled with hummus and shredded cheese
37. Rice cakes with nut or seed butter
38. Spring rolls
39. BLT
40. A thermos of chili
41. “Bistro Box” with fruit, veggies, cheese, crackers, and hummus
42. Buffalo Chicken Wrap
43. English muffin pizzas
44. Lunchbox Taco Salad
45. A thermos of Homemade Spaghettios
46. Apple and cheddar grilled cheese
47. Tuna salad in a whole wheat hot dog bun
48. Brown rice balls
49. Cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches
50. The easiest packed lunch of all: leftovers from dinner

Free Printable!