Mama,
Are your kiddos back to school yet? I was talking with the mamas in my Facebook group, Busy Mom Simple Nutrition about the back-to-school season and a lot of them had already sent their kids back to school and were already frustrated with packing lunches again. I used to hate packing lunches too, but then I came up with a 4-step healthy lunch system packing lunches and now packing lunches is a breeze!
I don’t want you to keep struggling with packing healthy lunches for your kids, so I’m giving you my entire 4 step system to make packing lunches easy for you too!
But before we dive into what should go in the lunch box, I want to share another helpful tip that saves me time and energy every single day.
I don’t pack my kids’ lunches - they do! Yes, my kids pack their lunches! It’s my favorite thing. Each night before bed, my kids make a healthy lunch for themselves. My daughter even did it as a first grader! (She would have done it in kindergarten, but she was a Covid kindergartener.)
I should be 100% honest with you, they pack healthy lunches most of the time. There have been a few occasions where they’ve tried to sneak a few extra treats into their lunch boxes, but they’re kids and they’re learning boundaries so I don’t dwell on it too much. The important thing to me is that they know how and why they need to pack a healthy lunch.
Before they start school, we go over the 4-step system for healthy lunches that I’m about to teach you. And we talk about how food fuels their minds and bodies to perform their best at school, at sports, and at home. Helping your kids understand the importance of their food will help them so much in their lives! Don’t be afraid to explain why you want them to eat healthy, nutritious food!
Step 1: Protein
Protein is the most satiating macronutrient, so it keeps you fuller longer, which is exactly what kids need for a busy day at school! My family uses Bentgo lunch boxes and I always have them put their protein in the biggest section of the box.
Protein is used by almost every system in the body, so kids must get enough of it! Here are a few protein options to include in their lunch!
Hard-boiled eggs
Tuna fish
Yogurt (look for low sugar options so they don’t have a sugar crash!)
Cheese
Lunch meats (turkey, chicken and ham are excellent options)
Chicken breast (shred it up and add cheese and a tortilla for a DIY taco!)
Beef jerky
Protein mac ‘n cheese
Breakfast burritos with eggs and meat
Turkey roll-ups
Power protein muffin
If you are a vegetarian, you can still make sure your kids get protein in! Here are a few vegetarian protein options that your kids will love!
Nut butters
Tofu
Quinoa
Lentils and beans
Edamame
Step 2: Veggies
After protein, I want my kids to eat veggies! I tell my kids that they have to pack at least one veggie in their lunch.
One of the hard things about school is that we aren’t there to make sure they eat all the food they pack. Our family has a one-bite rule. We tell our kids we need them to eat at least one bite of everything and I try to set this expectation up for school too. I ask them to at least eat one bite of everything they packed.
I know that one bite of veggies isn’t going to drastically improve their nutrition, but I want them to get in the habit of eating veggies!
You can slice, dice or even spiralize these veggies to make eating them more fun for your kids!
Carrots
Sugar snap peas
Green beans
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cherry tomatoes
Bell peppers
Celery
Edamame
Salads (my middle schooler loves having salad for lunch!)
Cucumber
Pro tip: throw in a dipping sauce like hummus, or ranch made with greek yogurt, or guacamole to make eating veggies more fun and for a little more protein and healthy fats!
Step 3: Carbs
Carbs are a vital part of a healthy diet! Please, don’t restrict your kids’ carbs! Carbohydrates are the brain’s first source of energy! If you want your kids to be sharp and ready to learn, they need carbohydrates!
Obviously, I’d love my kids to choose healthy carbs, but this is where I give them more freedom to have some fun. A lot of times the healthier carbs will be part of the protein portion of their lunch (a whole grain bread for a sandwich, or protein+ noodles in their mac and cheese) plus, they have that veggie in there, so it’s ok to give them free rein on a fun carb here.
I have my kids put carbs in one of the smaller sections of the Bentgo lunch so they don’t get carried away with it!
Chips
Berries
Rice cakes
Grapes
Bagels
Waffles/Pancakes (I love Kodiak Cake’s frozen waffles!)
Oranges/Cuties
Popcorn
Pretzels
Goldfish
Veggie straws
Granola
Apple slices
Step 4: Sweet treat or sweet drink
Finally, I let my kids pack either a sweet treat or a sweet drink. I want my kids to know that food can be fun and healthy! I don’t want them to develop a bad relationship with food, so we talk about how it’s ok to have sweets, but we don’t eat a ton of sweets because they don’t help our bodies as much as other types of foods.
If they choose to have a sweet treat, then they take water for lunch. If they choose to have a sweet drink they don’t take a treat. I want them to see that they don’t always have to have dessert, that it’s about making choices and choosing what’s important to them.
Sweet drinks look like:
Capri Sun
Gatorade
Juice
Crystal Light (or other mix-in drinks)
KoolAid
Sweet treats can include:
A piece of candy
Fruit snacks
Cookies
Pudding
Mini muffins
Granola bars
Chocolate covered nuts
Nutella dippers
With kids more is caught than taught, so even if you’re the one packing lunches and your kids continually see that you give them more protein than you do chips, they’ll learn the lesson.
One of my favorite things about helping moms understand nutrition and lose weight is that they get to pass these healthy habits down to their kids. Mamas impact generations and I hope that having an easy system for packing healthy lunches helps you, your kids, your grandkids and many more generations!
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