5 Easy Lunch Ideas For Your Kids

This post is also available in: Español

As a mom, I know how hard it is to find easy lunch ideas for your kids. Especially when we want them to be healthy lunch ideas they can enjoy.

If you’re reading this, in particular now the kids are going back to school, then you probably too are struggling to find the perfect balance between quick, healthy and easy but these easy lunch ideas are going to help you with that.

Need some easy breakfast for children? Check out his easy breakfast ideas.

Easy ideas to make a healthy lunch

This time I bring you five healthy lunch ideas, one school lunch recipe for each day of the week. These options to make healthy lunches for school, also can be prepared in advance to have them ready for the whole week. Now, that’s easy!

But to be sure our kids’ lunch is going to be healthy, it’s important we add the nutrients they need too.

What should I put in my child’s lunch?

Whenever we’re preparing our kids lunch, it is important to keep in mind a school lunch must contain these 4 elements:

• Protein (such as cheese, turkey ham, boiled eggs, tuna…)

• Carbohydrates (such as crackers, bread, tortilla wrap…)

• Vegetables (such as celery, carrot or jicama sticks)

• Fruits (such as strawberries, apples, pears, bananas)

Once you have lunch ideas that contain all of this, you can know it is going to be nutritious. To make it easy, definitely the key is to take the time one day to do the whole meal prep.

How to meal prep?

To meal prep for school lunch, first and foremost you have to wash and disinfect your fruits and vegetables to have them ready to cut.

One of the easiest and most effective ways is to add a cup of vinegar to a bowl of water. This will help you disinfect and, in addition to this, it will help you keep food for a longer period of time.

Last but not least, you can proceed with the main secret of the meal prep: to cut all the ingredients into the different shapes we will need. Finally, once we do this, we can just separate in different containers and have them ready to go.

How to preserve fruit and veggies?

Blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries particularly spoil really fast after washing them. So I recommend you to clean those until the very day you are going to use them.

A secret to keeping veggies fresh for longer after cutting is to add a paper towel to the base of the container where you want to save them. That will indeed prevent humidity to spoil the veggies faster.

Have you ever tasted jicama sticks? Jicama is a very popular veggie used for kids’ lunches in Mexico. Place the jicama cutted in sticks in a container, place half a lime and some chili powder next to it and you undoubtedly will see what a treat!

What are some good lunch ideas?

Now we know the elements we need to add on every healthy lunch for our kids and how to have them ready to be used. It’s time to start preparing everything. Also, as you will notice, some of the ingredients will be used in more than one lunch, that will keep it easy.

Monday easy lunch idea

We will start the week with an easy, yet delicious, tuna sandwich. Mondays are my favorite day! Clearly, this will make for my favorite lunch idea. The tuna sandwich is great for school lunch and is also a great lunch for the parent’s work!

Ingredients: This recipe is enough for 2 lunches

• 1 Tuna Can
• ¼ cup Pre cooked veggies
• 1 Tbsp Mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp Greek yogurt
• 1 Tbsp Lime juice
• Pepper to taste
• 2 Slices of Wholewheat bread
• Lettuce

To complement:

• Cucumber sticks
• Carrot sticks
• ¼ Lime
• Chili powder
• 1 Banana

Instructions

1. Drain the tuna and dump it into a bowl. Add the precooked veggies, the mayonnaise and greek yogurt, some lime juice, and pepper, and stir.
2. Add a little mayonnaise to the slices of bread, put the tuna mixture on the bottom slice, add some lettuce on top, and put it together.
3. To complete, we put the sandwich in a container and add cucumber and carrot sticks, ¼ lime, powder chili, and a banana.

Love tuna? Check out this Mexican Tuna souffle for dinner! Or tuna tacos?

Tuesday of Peanut Butter Rolls; an easy and delicious lunch idea!

This easy lunch for children is made with peanut butter and bread. I always use wholewheat bread at home. Some children like the edges cut, but that step is totally optional. Besides, you can also add some jelly to these rolls if your kids are into it!

Ingredients:

• 2 Slices of Wholewheat bread
• Peanut Butter
• Honey or Jelly (Optional)

To complement:

• Grapes
• Strawberry
• Jicama sticks
• Carrot sticks
• Chili powder
• ¼ Lime

Instructions:

1. We take two slices of bread, remove the bread edges, and then we flatten them with a roller.
2. When we have the two slices flattened, we add the peanut butter, some honey, or jelly and we roll them up.
3. To complete this lunch, we add to our container jicama and carrot sticks, grapes, strawberries, ¼ lime, and chili powder.

On Wednesday we eat Chicken Apple Salad

This easy chicken salad for school lunch is definitely so tasty that it’s also a great option to make for parents’ and children’s lunch!

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• ½ Tbsp Mayonnaise
• 1 Tsp Yogurt
• 1 Apple Chopped
• Celery Chopped
• Salt and pepper
• Jalapeno juice (Optional)
• Lettuce

To complement:

• Crackers
• Grapes
• Melon

Instructions:

1. We add chicken previously cooked and shredded in a bowl, ½ tablespoon mayonnaise, one tablespoon of yogurt, chopped apple, and chopped celery and we stir everything together.
2. Taste it and add salt and pepper if needed. Optionally you can add jalapeno juice to add more flavor.
3. On your container put fresh lettuce and then add the chicken salad.
4. We complete this lunch with crackers, grapes, and melon.

Buy what you need to make these recipes!

Easy Tomato Salad for Thursday’s lunch

This tomato salad is fresh and great for hot days. In addition, it’s full of nutrients and is a great option to make for the whole family as well. Children and adults can bring the same lunch on Thursdays!

Ingredients:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Mexican Queso Fresco, Mozzarella or Cottage
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• Pepper
• Basil Leaves

To complement:

• Crackers
• Melon
• Strawberries

Instructions:

1. Add the cherry tomatoes and the cheese to a bowl. Add a pinch of pepper, chopped basil leaves and olive oil. We stir everything together and it’s ready.
2. We complete it with crackers, melon and strawberries.

Ham Sandwich Friday

Friyaay! Finally, the easiest recipe goes for the last lunch of the week. On Friday school lunch we will have a ham lunch with some cucumber and carrot sticks.

Ingredients:

• 2 Slices of Wholewheat bread
• 1 Tbsp Mayonnaise
• Turkey Ham
• Cheese
• Lettuce

To complement:

• Cucumber Sticks
• Carrots Cut into sticks and shredded
• ¼ Lime
• Chili powder
• 1 Apple

Instructions:

1. We add mayonnaise to the bread slices and we build the sandwich with turkey ham, cheese and some lettuce.
2. We completethis lunch with cucumber and carrot sticks, some shredded carrots, lime and an apple.

5 Easy Lunch Ideas for your kids

3.79 from 47 votes

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Course: lunch, Snack

Keyword: easy lunch ideas

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Servings: 1 persona

Author: Laura Muller

Ingredients

TUNA SANDWICH

• 1 Can Tuna
• Precooked veggies
• 1 Tbsp Mayonnaise
• Lime juice
• Pepper
• 2 Slices Wholemeal bread
• Lettuce
• Cucumber sticks
• Carrot sticks
• ¼ Lime
• Chili powder
• 1 Banana

PEANUT BUTTER ROLLS

• 2 Slices Wholemeal bread
• Peanut Butter
• Honey Optional
• Grapes
• Strawberry
• Jicama sticks
• Carrot sticks
• Chili powder
• ¼ Lime

CHICKEN APPLE SALAD

• Chicken
• ½ Tbsp Mayonnaise
• 1 Tsp Yoghurt
• 1 Apple Chopped
• Celery Chopped
• Salt and pepper
• Jalapeno juice Optional
• Lettuce
• Crackers
• Grapes
• Melon

TOMATOE SALAD

• Cherry tomatoes
• Fresh Cheese
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• Pepper
• Basil Leaves
• Crackers
• Melon
• Strawberries

HAM SANDWICH

• 2 Slices Wholemeal bread
• 1 Tbsp Mayonnaise
• Turkey Ham
• Cheese
• Lettuce
• Cucumber Sticks
• Carrots Cut into sticks and shredded
• ¼ Lime
• Chili powder
• 1 Apple

Instructions

TUNA SANDWICH

• Drain the tuna and dump it into a bowl. Add the precooked veggies, the mayonnaise, some lime juice and pepper, and stir.
• Add a little mayonnaise to the slices of bread, put the tuna mixture on the bottom slice, some lettuce and put it together.
• To complete, we put the sandwich on a container and add cucumber and carrot sticks, ¼ lime, powder chili and a banana.

PEANUT BUTTER ROLLS

• We take two slices of bread, we remove the bread edges, and then we flatten them.
• When we have the two slices flattened, we add the peanut butter, some honey and we roll them up.
• To complete this lunch, we add jicama and carrot sticks, grapes, strawberries, ¼ lime and chili powder.

CHICKEN APPLE SALAD

• We add precooked shredded chicken on a bowl, ½ tablespoon mayonnaise, one tablespoon of yoghurt, apple, chopped celery and we stir everything together.
• Taste it and add salt and pepper if needed. Optionally you can add jalapeno juice to add more flavor.
• On your tupper put fresh lettuce and then add the chicken salad.
• We complete this lunch with crackers, grapes and melon.

TOMATOE SALAD

• Add cherry tomatoes, the fresh cheese to a bowl, we add pepper, chopped basil leaves and olive oil. We stir everything together and it's ready.
• We complete with crackers, melon and strawberries.

HAM SANDWICH

• We add mayonnaise to the bread slices and we build the sandwich with turkey ham, cheese and some lettuce.
• We complete with cucumber and carrot sticks, some shredded carrots, lime and an apple.

These five lunch ideas for the whole week will make your life easier. Besides all this easy and fast to make healthy kids’ lunch ideas including vegetable protein, fruits, and carbs to make sure that your children are having the proper nutrition in their school lunch box or bento.

Check out these other recipes that I’m sure will help you to meal prep for the week:

• Oatmeal ready from a day ahead
• Authentic Mexican Quesadillas for lunch
• 3 healthy breakfast ideas in less than 5 mins
• Carrot Quesadillas for lunch!

If you fell in love with my containers find them here

For more tips and inspiration to make this recipe, watch my video on Youtube (Spanish):

❤Laura

• Author
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Laura Muller

Laura Muller is a trilingual Mexican mom living in the city of Chicago. Laura started her YouTube channel Las Recetas de Laura more than 10 years ago to teach people how to cook Mexican food in a healthier way. Laura's recipes are specialized for people with diabetes and high cholesterol. Laura promotes healthy eating for every body size and talks about her own experience dealing with being overweight and how people of any size can have an active and healthy life.

Laura creates content in Spanish and English for a community of over 3 million followers and has been recognized as one of the most influential Latinas in the US, Latinos 40 under 40 in Chicago.

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