School Lunch Ideas That Won’t Blow Your Budget

Any one else need help with school lunch ideas other than me?! I usually pack my kids’ lunch because paying for it every day through school is outrageous! Not only that, I believe the lunches we pack our kids are better and more nutritious than what they get at school anyway! 

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School Lunch Ideas That Your Kids Will Love

It’s the hardest thing to find school lunch ideas that kids will love, especially if you have more than one, like I do, and they don’t always agree on food choices! I’m going to give you some ideas that my kids have absolutely loved and hopefully, you will find some that your kids like, too!

Peanut Butter and Jelly. I mean come on, what kid doesn’t like peanut butter and jelly! You can even use these cute little sandwich cutters to make them into cute shapes if you want. Trim off the excess bread and use that in a French Toast bake! 

Turkey, Ham, Chicken, or Roast Beef and cheese: This one is a go-to for my kids. We buy the nitrate-free meat from the deli and get different types of cheese so it seems like a “new” sandwich each time. My kids love provolone and cheddar the best! They even like pepperjack to a point. They are definitely their mama’s kids 😊

Egg Salad Sandwich: when I first told my kids that we were going to have egg salad, they sort of cringed. Then when I served it to them, they were like, “where is the salad?”. LOL. Turns out I didn’t explain it very well that “salad” can mean different things in the food world. My kids prefer to eat this on a burger bun or hoagie because it gets a little too “wobbly” with regular bread. 

Lunch Ideas to Cook at Home

Fried egg sandwiches: Another favorite around my home! Plus these are so versatile, we literally can have them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. As a matter of fact, we just made these tonight!

Butter Noodles: So easy and so easily paired with anything else you might be having for lunch. My kids especially love it when I put fresh parmesan on it. Sometimes I will try and sneak a veggie I know they’ll love in this, too. Lately they really like edamame, so this one is easy to add!

Try these versatile lunch boxes that keep food warm for your kids!

School Lunch Ideas From Leftovers 

In my house, we LOVE leftovers, so this one is pretty easy to pass on to the kiddos as well. If you need to get rid of leftovers, this is a great way to do it.

Burrito Bowls: We love our tacos/burritos in my house, so we often have plenty to work into some kind of different dish. Most of the time for us, it will be a burrito bowl because it is so simple and easy! I find this is easier for my youngest to eat anyway, she’s not quite there on how to hold a taco or burrito. Jazz it up and put more veggies on there to get them some extra throughout the day.

Soup: Perfect for a cold day, and from my experience, soup tastes better the next day anyway because it gives it time for all the flavors to meld together. YUM!❤️

Shredded Pork/Chicken: We make this in the crock pot so we have a lot for leftovers usually. We typically do barbecue or Verde for the sauce. It goes perfectly by itself or over rice and makes for a filling lunch for the kiddos!

Plus use these lunchboxes to keep them warm!

You might be asking why I didn’t include snacks in this list above. Well, if you have enough food in their lunch, they aren’t usually hungry until they get home… in my humble experience! We’ve also been pretty blessed that the school provides an afternoon snack. I have an awesome blog post on kids’ snacks here.

Let me know what other types of school lunch ideas you have! I would love to hear more that I could add to my list for my kids, too! ❤️