10 fast school lunches – make lunch in five minutes!

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

Woolworths Wholemeal bread

Macro Organic Mini Sultanas

Macro Air Popped Salted Popcorn

Woolworths Yoghurt pouches

Woolworths Tasty Cheese and Crackers

Woolworths Tasty Cheese sticks

Woolworths Popped Corn Chips

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.