“Take the stress out of school lunches with these top tips and out-of-the-box kids’ lunch box ideas. Discover how easy it is to create the best school lunch the little ones will love with fresh ideas and delicious, nutritionally balanced recipes."
- Jose.
01
Do: make it colourful with lots of fruit and veg
Get colourful and encourage the kids to eat the rainbow with lots of yummy fruit and veggies. There’s plenty of fun ways to serve fruit and veg in a lunch box, from whole fruits to slices, or carrot, cucumber, capsicum and celery served with easy hummus or pea pesto. Yoghurt also makes a great dip for both fruit and vegetables. Dress it up and make it more enticing with sultanas, blueberries, pepitas or even passionfruit scattered on top.
02
Do: play with shapes
Make lunchtime fun for the kids by giving them an eye-catching lunch box filled with stars and hearts. Cutting fruit into different shapes is an easy way to get the little ones excited about eating a variety of fruits. You can use a melon baller to make fruit balls, or make cheese stars on Ryvitas or cheese and kiwi fruit stars with crackers and cucumber slices for an out-of-this-galaxy lunch.
03
Do: reinvent old favourites
There’s plenty of ways to jazz up the classic lunch-box staple of sandwiches. Try our delicious chicken and lettuce flying saucer sandwiches for an otherworldly option, get crafty with egg and lettuce pinwheels, or Traffic light sandwiches are fun for a colourful theme with plenty of veg.
04
Do: try a bento lunch box
Compartmentalise in bento-box style for an easy-to-eat and easy-to-make school lunch. Variety is the spice of life, and bento boxes allow for an assortment of flavours and textures . Play around with different proteins, snacks and grains to accompany vibrant fruit and veggies. Try our pork katsu bento box or sushi burrito bento box.
05
Do: roll out the sushi and rice paper rolls
Try this easy vegetarian avocado and tofu sushi lunch box with raspberries, veggie sticks and egg, ready in just 15 minutes. Or roll up and roll out vibrant poached chicken and veggie rice paper rolls with apple, ricotta and crispbread snacks.
06
Do: wrap it up in style
While you can’t go wrong with a classic wrap used in this black bean burrito, there’s plenty of ways to keep things interesting with different types of wraps. Lettuce is great for a fresh and crunchy wrap with san choy bau-style fillings like in our lettuce roll lunch box. Ever used an omelette as a wrap? Try it out with this colourful Japanese omelette bento box.
07
Do: have a ball
Ball it up for a delicious school lunch with our easy beef meatballs with snacks recipe. For a vegetarian option, try these zucchini-packed veggie falafels with pita bread, tzatziki and vegetables.
08
Do: add variety with warm pasta or noodle soup
Using flasks is a great way to send the little ones off with a warming lunch in colder weather. Warm them from the inside out with this kids’ chicken noodle soup, our meatballs and veggie noodles, or send them off with a creamy, cheesy, veg-packed mac and cheese.
09
Do: make your own sweet treats
There’s no need to cut out sweets all together. If your little one has a sweet tooth, give them a fun and healthier sweet treat with one of our nutritionally approved recipes. There’s magical mango and coconut bliss balls, crunchy cinnamon bagel crisps, magnificent mango fruit straps, or DIY puffed rice and seed bars.
10
Do: hit the spot with savoury muffins
Savoury muffins are equally as delicious as sweet ones and make for a fantastic school lunch snack. You’ll get constant requests for these cheesy pasta bites and feta and kale pasta muffins.
11
Don’t: be afraid to shake thing up and introduce new flavours
Get adventurous and introduce the kids to new spices, textures and flavours from all around the world. For nutritionally approved recipes to help expand the little ones culinary horizons, try these vegetarian four bean quesadillas, Chilean tortilla, or colourful rice paper rolls.
12
Don’t: forget about salads
It’s not the first thing you might think of for a school lunch, but we’ve got lots of kid-friendly salads that will have them digging into their vegetables. These rainbow layered salad jars will have eyes popping and mouths watering. The kids will love our fresh and zesty veggie rice salad with crunchy pepitas, or try this speedy pizza pasta salad with bocconcini, cherry tomatoes and basil for a salad that’s sure to satisfy.