School lunches can be a monotonous task. Five days a week, and often multiple lunches a day. There are lots of amazing lunch ideas, but sometimes you only have a few minutes and you need to pack lunch and get out the door asap.
This post in in collaboration with Woolworths
These 10 lunch ideas only take 5 minutes to pack. They are fast to make, easy to source from your kitchen and they don’t have any unusual ingredients. They are just made up of everyday food you most likely have in the fridge and cupboard.
Contents
Fast lunchbox tips
To get your lunch boxes packed in five minutes there are some easy ways to prep your food, so you don’t have to waste time chopping.
Prep containers of fruit and veg when you shop. Cut your school veggies and store them in containers in the fridge ready to go.
Pour your dry goods into storage containers. It makes it easier to grab and go.
Do a once a term baking day and make things that you can freeze. Some ideas are muffins, pikelets, scrolls and frittatas. You can even freeze some sandwiches. Here’s a list of what you can and can’t freeze when it comes to sandwich fillings.
Use dinner leftovers. Keep some chicken breast, cook extra pasta, whatever would make a good lunch box food.
Choosing a lunch box
There are so many lunch boxes available. I like a bento style, but everyone has their own preference. It also depends on your requirements, such as if your school wants separate crunch n sip boxes etc. I choose bento because my kids have always preferred a small amount of different things, rather than a lot of the same. I’ve used a bento lunch box I bought from Woolworths. I chose it because I like that it is bento style, that the lid is sectioned off as well so that you can keep things like watermelon in one compartment and the juice won’t spread to the other parts, and that it has a frozen disc you can put in the bottom section to keep the food cool all day. Get some more bento lunch box ideas here.
Lunch box Shopping List
It's ideal that all your lunch boxes are nutritionally balanced. If you aren't sure what your kids need to eat ever day here is some info from a nutritionist on the five things kids need. Some of the key ingredients I keep in my kitchen for lunches are:
Carrots
Corn
Cucumber
Capsicum
Mini tomatoes
Grapes
Blueberries
Strawberries
Eggs
Woolworths Soft Wholemeal Wraps
Macro Air Popped Salted Popcorn
Woolworths Tasty Cheese and Crackers
Woolworths Tasty Cheese sticks
Here are ten lunch box ideas that will only take you five minutes to throw together. I’ve got a variety of sandwich/wrap options, as well a bread free for those kids that aren’t fans of a sandwich.
Lunch box 1
Ham and cheese wraps
Woolworths Yoghurt Pouch
Grapes
Macro Air Popped Popcorn
Blueberries
Lunch box 2
Vegemite sandwich
Carrots
Celery
Woolworths Tasty Cheese Stick
Macro Mighty Bites
Lunch Box 3
Cream cheese and cucumber wrap
Strawberries
Boiled egg
Macro Air Popped Popcorn
Lunch box 4
Avocado dip
Carrot
Celery
Boiled egg
Woolworths Tasty Cheese and Crackers
Woolworths Cacao Toasted Coconut Chips
Lunch Box 5
Fruit Salad
Frittata
Popcorn
Macro Organic Sultanas
Snap peas
Mini tomatoes
(my frittata recipe here is 1 egg, a splash of milk, ham, corn, grated cheese – for one serve)
Lunch box 6
Cheese and lettuce sandwich
Avocado dip
Fruit salad
Carrots
Corn
Macro Organic Sultanas
Lunch Box 7
Corn
Cheese, ham and lettuce sandwich
Cucumber
Woolworths Choc Chip Minis
Woolworths Fruit salad
Lunch box 8
Pasta with cheese
Corn
Watermelon
Carrots
Lunch Box 9
Strawberries
Snap peas
Carrots
Macro Lightly Salted Popcorn
Woolworths Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lunch Box 10
Boiled eggs
Woolworths Banana Bread
Blueberries
Carrots
Tomatoes
Snap Peas
This is two weeks’ worth of school lunches that you can have packed and ready to go in five minutes flat. Let me know how you go!
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