I’ve been sharing my kids’ school lunches on facebook quite frequently this year, and in an effort to put all those pictures in one easy-to-reference place they have all been reposted below (2018 update: There are so many of these updates now that I’ve put them together on a School Lunch Roundup Series page). Also, I seem to get a lot of comments/questions/etc. when I share these on facebook so I’d like to start off by addressing a few of the more common ones…
- I’ve written a post that includes everything you could ever want to know about the colorful “freezie pop molds” that I use frequently to add smoothies to their lunches.
- All of the school lunch supplies we use including the divided lunchbox containers, thermos cups, and freezie pop molds are detailed on my kitchen essentials page. The lunchbox containers fit nicely (with a drink cup) in both Lands End and Old Navy cloth rectangular lunch boxes.
- Some readers ask if these lunches provide enough food for my children and while I am probably not spot-on with portion size 100% of the time, the short answer is “yes.” First of all, “real food” is a lot more filling than highly processed food (especially the refined grain stuff like white flour). Secondly, portion sizes are getting out of control in America and have unfortunately skewed the public’s view of what is appropriate. Thirdly, my children are children (ages 7 and almost 5), and my 1st grader has little more than 15 – 20 minutes to eat (and socialize of course!). Lastly, both my children eat after-school snacks, and my older daughter has oatmeal (in a thermos) for her morning snack everyday less than an hour and a half before lunch. Okay, got that off my chest. :)
- A few occasionally ask if these lunches have enough protein. First of all, part of eating a “real food” diet means you no longer have to count calories, fat grams, protein, carbs, etc. You simply eat a variety of whole foods (including lots of veggies) without “overeating” and the rest will just fall into place. It’s kind of nice not to have to worry about that stuff anymore. But, if you aren’t quite ready to forget about your daily protein intake please know there are MANY sources high in protein aside from just meat products such as yogurt, eggs, cheese, cream cheese, nuts (including peanut butter), seeds (including sunflower butter), and beans. When we switched to a “real food” diet we purposely reduced our meat consumption.
- I make most of the pictured baked goods (like muffins and pancakes) in advance and store them in our freezer. So when I am packing school lunches the night before I just pull out what I need so it can defrost in the fridge overnight. Almost all of the recipes I used can be found on the blog…just use the search box at the top right of the page to find what you are looking for!
- Also, I’d like to note that my 1st grader goes to a peanut/tree nut-free school so I often use sunflower butter and cream cheese as an alternative to peanut butter.
So without further ado here is the School Lunch Roundup! And please feel free to share you “real food” school lunch ideas in the comments below…
These are great! Thank you! And I have a dumb question. You show frozen peas and corn. Do you just put them in frozen and then do they thaw by lunchtime?
Yes, they’ll thaw by lunchtime :) – Nicole
This looks way better than the stuff they used to serve us in school. I remember my school would gives us cinnabuns for breakfast with even more sugar packed juice.
About four years ago, I found your “School Lunch Roundup,” and there were dozens and dozens of lunches. There are many idea here, but where did those other archives go? I loved looking through them for ideas.
They are still there if you do a search for school lunch roudnup. This should get you there: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/?s=school++lunch++roundup
Just wondering your thoughts. A lot of people I know are doing the Paleo diet and I just was curious about your take on it. Thanks so much! Love your site.
Hi there. Lisa loves her whole grains so Paleo is not a way of eating she would choose for her family. Personally, I feel better if I don’t eat many grains or much meat but strongly believe that everyone’s physiology is very different and you have to make the choices that work for you.
You are blessed your kids eat so little, my 5 kids by age 4 would eat more than is in any of those lunches lol By 7 my kids eat a grown man’s portion, none are fat, have way too much energy and we eat whole foods. Ah well, c’est le vie. Someday I ll have leftovers again without cooking double meals lol
When you are eating whole foods you are filled up way more than when you eat processed foods. So it might look like a little amount but you will feel more full if you eat whole.
Your kids are very lucky :D I’m sure they feel very loved! Beautiful & healthy ideas, thanks for sharing.
How do you stop the fruit going brown. Peeled apples and banana’s always go brown in my kids lunch boxes and melon is always off by recess.
Not sure about the bananas or melons, but to keep apples from turning brown just squeeze lemon juice on them. It works perfect every time.
These are so inspiring! I’m having to pack lunches for my preschoolers, and this is really going to help me up my game.
Great post! Thank you so much for your excellent ideas. This is a big help. :)