quick and Easy Packed Lunches

It’s that time again. School supplies, backpacks, meet the teacher, and back to school. As the school machine starts to chug again, the pressure can build pretty quickly. Sometimes the last thing on our minds is packing a healthy school lunch. But, if you are wanting to pack lunch for your littles or even start bringing your own lunch to work, it helps to have something quick and easy to pack. And, hey, if it’s healthy, that is a pretty great bonus. 

As a teacher and a food lover, lunch is a pretty big deal for me. I do not have time to “grab something” on my lunch break. Even if I did, eating out five meals a week is not very appetizing to me. But then, I have to have my lunch packed and ready to go pretty much every day. This year, I get to be a student, too. Which means, on days that I have class, I am going to need to pack breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So, without further ado…here is how I plan on keeping my belly happy without hitting a drive thru or eating frozen dinners this school year. 

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The lunch shuffle

We all do it. If you go to work, you have to figure out what you are going to eat. If you are a student or have littles who go to school, lunch is needed. Even if you stay home or work from home, you have to eat. For some reason, lunch is the trickiest meal for me. I don’t know why, but planning for it seems harder every day. 

Then, if you have an allergy or are trying to trim down on the carbs, the problem is compounded because you cannot just grab a sandwich. You need to put a lot more thought into your meal. 

I started packing lunch at 7 years old and have gone through many stages of diet change, time constraints, and food preferences. I can promise you that with a very little bit of planning, you will be packing lunches like a pro in no time.

Great packed lunch ideas

I look for five things in a great packed lunch. 

1. A protein
2. A veggie (or two)
3. A carb
4. A treat
5. A fat

Now, packed lunches can actually be pretty easy for me because I can usually grab some leftovers from the fridge, warm them up at school, and presto. Lunch. But, Hubs won’t eat leftovers. And, as he has transitioned into the keto diet, could not eat out every lunch break. So, we started packing his lunches instead.

We almost primarily pack snackie type lunches because they are so easy to do. All you need is a container. Bento boxes or plastic containers already sectioned out are excellent. But, if you want to grab a pack of inexpensive plastic containers, using silicone cupcake liners is a great way to keep foods separated. 

We often use these plastic containers with these for single serve or mini-portioned out items. The small containers fit inside the larger container, so it is easy to prep ahead of time, stick in the fridge, then transfer to a lunch box before heading out the door.  We also recently invested in some compartmentalized storage containers that make packing a lunch extremely easy.

Planning ahead for lunch

When you are ready to start packing lunches, there are a few things you can do to make the process easy, quick, and painless. 

• Put it on your shopping list.
• Purchase snack size or prep it.
• Wash fruits and veggies right away.
• Keep a running list of well loved lunch ideas.
• Make it a habit.

Put it on your shopping list.

Make a plan for lunch and put the ingredients on your shopping list. Want hard boiled eggs, broccoli, cheese sticks? Put it on your list. 

Waiting until you are at the store leads to impulse purchases that rack up that grocery bill quickly. Walking into the store with a plan helps your budget and saves you the time of “looking” for what to eat. You won’t find yourself squeezed against the shelving slowly oozing along to stay out of everyone’s way while you search Pinterest, for “quick and easy lunches healthy.” Yes, as a matter of fact, I have done that before. I know from experience, shopping with your list in hand saves time, extra trips to the store, and money on gas or impulse purchases. 

Purchase snack size or prep it. 

When I am planning lunches for the week, I either purchase snack sizes or individually wrapped items like these nuts and or these cheeses, or I purchase in bulk and take time to prep it. 

Stores are coming out with many more healthy prepackaged options. It is not all gummy snacks and fruit roll-ups. If you want to add those to your child’s (or your) lunch, I don’t judge. But, you can also throw in some mini-bananas, snack sized carrot sticks, and trail mix. With so many options, it is pretty easy to find something that will help you save time when putting lunches together. 

That being said, I usually don’t purchase prepackaged items. I will cut my fruits and veggies, portion out my almonds, and slice up my pepperoni stick. Call me a food snob, but I think most things taste better when they are not prepackaged. 

You are trying to take the strain off of lunches, so decide what works for you, and go with it. Make this process easy and quick from the second you walk in the store. 

Wash fruits and veggies right away.

If you are serving fresh fruits and veggies that need to be rinsed, wash them as soon as you get home. I am much more likely to prep my lunches if this step is already done. I am not sure what it is about running water over an apple that makes me think packing a lunch is going to take soooo long, but having it done already makes me feel motivated and accomplished. 

If you are feeling really ambitions, take this time to cut the celery, slice the bell peppers, or portion out the grapes. If not, having washed fruits and veggies readily available, makes you more likely to pack them later. 

Keep a running list of well loved lunch ideas.

I have a notepage on the fridge where we scrawl all of our most loved lunch ideas. If we try something new that we love, we add it to the list. That way, when I am meal planning, I can skim the list and pick our lunches with very little trouble. Some of our favorites are: 

With a quick look at this list, I can pick one or two things from each category and add them to my grocery list in a snap. Knowing what you or your family likes to eat ahead of time really takes the pressure off. 

Make it a habit.

Try this once. 

Then try it again. Challenge yourself by setting a goal. You can start small, by packing 2-3 lunches a week, or you can go all out and pack all needed lunches at once. Once you know your goal, work to meet it. Don’t let this fall to the wayside. Packing healthy, delicious lunches should be easy. It is all about the preparation. 

Plan ahead

Some of the best advice I was ever given about making a habit was plan ahead. You put the ingredients on your grocery list, you washed your fruits and vegetables, you may even have cut or portioned some of them out. So, you are halfway there. Now, set aside some time to either prep a week’s worth of lunches all at once or add lunch prep to your daily morning routine.  

Stick to your plan

Sure, things happen. Sometimes, I don’t get my lunch packed until about 3 minutes before I am supposed to leave for work. But most of the time, I have my lunches prepped and ready to go before I even get up in the morning. Sticking to a plan will help you turn this into a habit. Remember, you set this goal. You can keep it!

Related: 4 Steps to a Successful Meal Plan

School lunch prep

Really, there are two camps when it comes to school lunch prep. Prepping day by day or prepping a week at a time. I do a little of both. 

Prepping weekly

Hubs eats the same lunch every day for a week. I, also, plan to bring something similar to his lunch for dinner on nights I have class. For me, the best way to prep lunches that are all the same is to do it at once. 

I get out seven containers (or one for each day plus my two nights of class). I get out my small portion containers and put them in the larger tupperware. Then, I start filling them up one ingredient at a time. If we are having chicken salad, I lay a handful of spinach in each container. Then goes a scoop of chicken salad. I will slice cucumber and add it in to each one. Next, I portion out the almonds into every container. I’ll add some apple slices to each then a dollop of peanut butter. Usually some cheese finds its way in to every lunch. And that’s it. It takes about 15 minutes, and we have five lunches and two dinners to get us through the week. 

Prepping daily

For leftovers, I like to pack that day by day. As I put away the leftovers at night, I pack it up in a way that is going to be easy to carry the next day. If there is a lot, I might portion it into two containers so it is easy to grab and go in the morning. 

If it was a late night or I was really busy, I make sure to pack my lunch in the morning. Either way, I have about 8-10 minutes set aside to pack a lunch every day. 

Taking a few extra minutes to plan and prep every week makes my morning run more smoothly and ensures we have healthy, delicious lunches every day.

School lunches your child can pack

I started packing my school lunch in second grade. My mom realize that packing lunches was a simple task I could easily do. She taught me the rule of 

1 main dish

1 veggie

1 fruit

1 snack

1 treat

I knew I would need to put five things in my lunch every morning. She made it easy by prepping the veggies, prewashing the fruit, and putting baggies and plastic food containers where I could easily get to them. I remember throwing together good ol’ pb&j, stuffing it into a sandwich bag, grabbing a hardboiled egg, some carrot sticks, and an apple for lunch. She had done most of the prep work ahead of time, which, really, didn’t take her all that long, and I did the rest.

With some simple instructions and all the tools readily available, your children can easily put together their lunches every morning giving you the time you need to do…well, pretty much anything else. Make it a part of their routine, and they will quickly learn how easy packing and eating a healthy lunch can be. Put a container in the fridge that holds all the cut veggies, fruit, cheese, and other goodies. Label it, school lunches, so your children know exactly where to turn every morning. Do the same in the pantry for dry goods. Your children will take ownership of their lunches and probably enjoy them a little more if they are in charge. 

I know I complained a lot less about what I ate after I was the one putting things into the lunchbox. I would even grab things I was tired of eating because they were easy and just deal with it. Clearly something stuck, because here I am, still packing school lunches for myself at thirty years old. Life lesson learned. 

The Healthy Packed Lunch system

No matter the reason you are wanting a health packed lunch, using this pro system will help you do it efficiently and easily. If you would like to streamline the process get my free healthy packed lunch download. It includes a page with lunch ideas we love in our home, an empty lunch ideas we love sheet, and my healthy packed lunch system.

Do you have any packed lunch tips? What kinds of lunches are favorites in your home? Leave photos and comments below.