Healthy Kids Lunch Recipes & Tips

Featured Recipes

Thermos-Ready Smoothie

A protein and fiber-rich drink to go.

Cinnamon Oranges

This simple dessert works any time of the year, but its flavors will be the best and brightest in the winter when oranges are at their peak.

» Cinnamon Oranges

BBQ Chicken Sandwich

Toss leftover cooked chicken with barbecue sauce and crunchy carrots for a quick and healthy lunch.

» BBQ Chicken Sandwich

Strawberry & Cream Cheese Sandwich

Sliced strawberries and reduced-fat cream cheese come together in a sandwich for this quick and healthy lunchbox treat.

» Strawberry & Cream Cheese Sandwich

Mini Greek Pizza Muffins

All the flavors of a Greek pizza make these savory muffins bite-size treats for adults and kids alike.

» Mini Greek Pizza Muffins

Cynthia Farr-Weinfeld, a hypnotherapist and writer, started improving the nutritional profile of a friend's mother's ginger cookie recipe by substituting whole-wheat pastry flour for all-purpose flour and canola oil for shortening. “Experiment with these cookies,” she advises, “as they taste great either slightly underdone or crispy.” She calls them “the quickest cookies you'll ever bake.”

» Ginger Crinkle Cookies

Pizza Roll-Up Bento Lunch

This easy pizza-inspired roll-up is a kid-pleaser. Make crunchy vegetables more appealing by selecting colorful varieties like orange and purple cauliflower—and don't forget the dip! Keep 'em smiling with watermelon cut into fun shapes with cookie cutters.

» Pizza Roll-Up Bento Lunch

Easy, packable solutions for lunchboxes.

Give your kids the energy they need to make it through the day with a healthy lunch. Studies have shown that if you equip your children with healthy food to eat at school, they will be better prepared to study and learn. Although there are lots of convenience products available to make packing your kid’s lunchbox a snap, those products are often loaded with saturated fat, calories and sodium. Our collection of kid-friendly ideas take little time to prepare and will help keep lunches enjoyable and healthy. Fruits and vegetables add color and crunch while providing beneficial vitamins and minerals. Foods like wraps, smoothies and dips are fun to eat. Give your kids something to look forward to at lunch every day with a variety of options they won’t trade away!

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COMMENTS	POSTED
Suggestions: -simple on hand ingredients -before-the-bus-gets-here prep time -5 of us moms read this on our friends iphone and laughed because you listed a "peanut" recipe. Most schools these days allow NO PEANUTS. Momof4, Southern Pines, NC — Anonymous	09/01/2009 - 3:00pm
Looks like healthy eating. Marvin LePage, Duluth, MN — Anonymous	09/01/2009 - 3:00pm
send them off with some freeze-dried fruit in snacks packages-super healthy, doesn't spoil, easy to eat and carry. What could be better? Healthy Munchy, Los Angeles, CA — Anonymous	09/01/2009 - 3:01pm
great suggestions...thanks! appreciative, Marietta, GA — Anonymous	09/01/2009 - 3:01pm
Seriously, a buffalo chicken wrap? A bit spicy for a kids suggestion. Love the wrap idea but would need something else inside it. — Anonymous	12/31/2009 - 2:10pm
All good ideas! Our school has PB and J as a lunch choice and my kids practically bathe chicken in hot sauce. I am lucky to have all options and welcome them! — Anonymous	02/03/2010 - 11:33pm
Great suggestions! I gave my kid the wrap and she loved it! Thank you so much for the help! — Anonymous	05/09/2010 - 9:55pm
Just a comment about the no peanuts. I don't know of any schools that say no peanut butter in a school lunch. Most say none for snacks that are eaten in the classroom. I don't know how a school district can ban an ingredient like peanut butter which most kids enjoy and most are not allergic to. — Anonymous	05/22/2010 - 5:37pm
I used to live in Toronto, Ontario. Every school in the city (maybe whole province) was peanut-free. People griped at first, but got used to it. My didn't like peanut butter until they were teens: go figure! — Anonymous	06/03/2010 - 3:44pm
Another comment on the nuts. In Canada most elementary schools are completely nut free. Nothing with nuts is allowed in snacks or lunches. This may relax a bit in jr. high and high school but is still often the stated policy. — Anonymous	08/04/2010 - 7:33pm