Cold Lunch Ideas for School

Tired of the daily PB&J? Give these lunch options a try.

By: Amanda Mushro

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Switch Up Your Kid's School Lunch

It doesn’t take long for packing school lunches to get boring. If it feels like you're always putting the same items into your kid’s lunchbox, and they’re telling you that it’s time for a change. Give the PB&J (or sun butter!) a break and offer up a few new cold lunch ideas that are yummy, easy to make, and don’t require heating or a thermos to keep it warm. From pasta salads to kebabs, these lunch ideas will quickly become your child’s favorites!

Build-Your-Own Taco

No need to wait until Taco Tuesday for this favorite meal. Create a build-your-own taco kit inside their lunch box. By adding each ingredient to a different container — cheese, salsa, guacamole, and precooked chicken — kids will be able to personalize each bite inside a taco shell or tortilla. Take some inspiration from this recipe.

Pasta Salad

If you want a lunch that will keep kids full and is packed full of their favorite veggies, whip up a pasta salad. Wagon wheel pasta is a great choice for the base, as this recipe suggests, and will soak up any sauce or dressing added. Plus, you can make this pasta salad over the weekend and dish it out all week long.

Pizza Lunch Kit

Give pizza a lunchtime spin by creating a pizza kit in your kid’s lunchbox. You’ll need a bento box or several small containers for this lunch. Start with sauce, lots of cheese, mini pepperoni, and any other toppings your kids like. Then, add a few mini pitas, crackers, or mini pizza dough for the base of the pizza. Then, kids can build their own personal pizza!

Turkey Salad Sandwich

Take all of their favorite lunch ingredients and mix them up to make a yummy sandwich. This turkey salad has turkey chunks, provolone cheese, and grapes mixed together to give the regular turkey sandwich a break.

Lunch Kebab

Sometimes, all you need to do is change up the presentation to make lunch more interesting. Start by taking their favorite sandwich and cutting it up into small cubes. Then grab a food skewer and some fruit and start stacking. Kids will love nibbling each bite of their lunch kebab.

Lunch Muffins

Whip up delicious muffins that are packed with protein and fiber. Then, put them in the freezer and add them to your kid’s lunchbox for a quick and yummy lunch. These chocolate-chip sunflower-butter muffins will be a lunch favorite for your kids and for you.

Wraps

If your kids love chicken ceasar salads, then pour some into a wrap for lunch. Or give their PB&J a wrap upgrade by adding a banana into a whole wheat wrap. Wraps are easy to make and even easier to eat.

Apple Sandwich

Skip the bread and give kids slices of apples to build their own sandwich at lunch. Pack plenty of deli meat, cheese, and veggies so your kids can stack up a sandwich at lunchtime.

Yogurt Parfaits

Start with a small plastic mason jar. Then add a layer of greek yogurt, then a layer or fruit, and a layer of granola. Repeat until the jar is full. Pop the container in the fridge and when it’s time to pack lunch, add these DIY parfaits to the lunchbox.

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