25 Kids Healthy Lunch Ideas – Nutritious, Delicious AND Kid Approved!

The importance of lunch is often overlooked. Breakfast is known as the “most important meal of the day”, and dinner is thought of as the opportunity to spend quality time with the whole family. What about lunch?

Lunch is vital to give you the energy you need to power through the rest of the day. Have you ever heard of the “3 o’clock slump”? Well, lunch is just the thing to help you conquer it and turn 3 o’clock into your power hour.

Lunch is especially important for kids. Not eating lunch or consuming an unhealthy lunch could compromise your child’s learning in the afternoon or performance in extracurricular activities. Undoubtably, it can be hard to come up with kids healthy lunch ideas; afterall, those little ones can be unbelievably picky. However, believe it or not, there are kids healthy lunch ideas that are both good for you and great tasting. I swear, it’s true!

Here are 25 kids healthy lunch ideas to get you started.

For more healthy meals for kids follow Freebie Finding Mom’s Toddler Lunch Ideas Pinterest board.

25 Kids Healthy Lunch Ideas

1. Turkey & cheese sandwich, cheddar rice cakes and strawberries: This kids healthy lunch idea offers sweet strawberries that your little one is sure to love (without even realizing they’re nutritious).

2. Turkey, broccoli, crackers and grapes: Turkey is a great ingredient for any kids healthy lunch idea as it’s a lean protein. Plus, you can get lunchmeat turkey in a variety of “flavors” like roasted or cajun.

3. PB&J rollups, carrots and cucumber and strawberries: Present the much beloved PB&J sandwich in a more modern way with this kids healthy lunch idea.

4. Turkey and cheese hearts, applesauce, carrots and hummus: Show your little one just how much you care (and hopefully persuade him or her to eat) by cutting sandwiches into heart shapes or other fun shapes.

5. Cheddar cheese, sliced apples and kiwi, raisins, lemon pepper chicken breast, and baby carrots: When coming up with kids healthy lunch ideas, keep in mind that kids typically don’t mind eating a collection of food items that seem pretty much random to us adults.

6. Mixed vegetables, cheese, chicken and strawberries: Put last night’s leftovers to use when creating kids healthy lunch ideas.

7. Oranges, peas, corn, lima beans and turkey burger: Present your little one with a host of healthy options so even if he or she declines to eat one thing all of the other options are just as nutritious.

8. Fish sticks, corn, lima beans, squash and hash browns: Including one item in your child’s lunch that isn’t super healthy (ex. hash browns) won’t wreck the whole meal. Just offer less of the unhealthy item.

9. Sliced hard boiled egg, Puffins Multi-grain cereal, cooked carrots, blueberries and sliced heriloom tomatoes tossed in a gluten-free balsamic dressing: This kids healthy lunch idea mixes breakfast and lunch.

10. Pumpkin bread, blueberries, bananas, cooked mushrooms and fried egg: Present your little one with a variety of rich flavors and textures as with this kids healthy lunch idea.

11. Pigs in a blanket, celery, grapes, cheese and cookies/crackers: Try not to eat your child’s lunch while you’re making it. 🙂

12. Celery with nutbutter, cucumber and celery sticks, roasted sweet potatoes, and a hard boiled egg: If you’re raising your child as a vegetarian, consider this kids healthy lunch idea.

13. Heart shaped turkey, Gala apple half, Quaker Whole Hearts oat cereal, chocolate Teddy Grahams, raisins and yogurt craisins: Your child will feel the love with this heart themed kids healthy lunch idea.

14. PB&J quesadillas, cheese, and peaches: Here’s another take on the traditional PB&J.

15. Peanut butter sandwich, cheese, shredded carrots, strawberries, carrots and cucumber slices with hummus: This kids healthy lunch idea offers up a rich assortment of colors that are almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

16. Whole wheat macaroni with ground organic chicken cooked in olive oil and organic cheddar cheese, edamame, organic blueberries and strawberries: Try giving some of your child’s favorite unhealthy foods a nutritious makeover as with this macaroni.

17. Omelette, turkey sausage, blueberries, oatmeal, homemade english muffin: Brunch anyone? It’s never too late for breakfast.

18. Peanut butter and honey puzzle sandwich, half a banana, homemade chocolate yogurt, and strawberry slices: The puzzle sandwich in this kids healthy lunch idea is adorable and not as hard to make as you might think.

19. Salmon bites, cut grapes, Italian meatloaf leftovers, mixed veggies, blueberry yogurt, and polenta with cheese (leftover from dinner): This kids healthy lunch idea is a great way to use up some of those left overs.

20. Broccoli and cheese, cut up hot dog, pasta, strawberries, fresh mozzarella, and cranberry orange mini muffin: Give your little one a lot of food choices with things like this kids healthy lunch idea.

21. Smoked turkey & cheese, multi-grain Tostito scoops with Trader Joe’s Garlic Salsa, apple slices, and Trader Joe’s chocolate chip cookies: When dreaming up kids healthy lunch ideas try to start with items you know your child will eat and build off of that. For example, what kid doesn’t love chocolate chip cookies?

22. Vegemite & cheese on wholemeal, cucumber sticks, half cherry tomatoes, half boiled egg and a piggy: Here’s another kids healthy lunch idea that is vegetarian approved.

23. Celery, raisins, sugar snap peas, watermelon, cheddar cheese: Consider arranging these colorful and tasty lunch items in a creative way (ex. smiley face).

24. Shredded pork roast, rice, broccoli, onion, mushrooms and watermelon: Combine the ingredients (except for the watermelon) in this kids healthy lunch idea and you’ve got a simplified stir-fry/fried rice recipe.

25. Ham, American cheese, cookies, holly shaped cereal bar, and melba toast rounds: Copy this kids healthy lunch idea and use cookie cutters to shape foods in a theme (ex. Christmas).

There you have it, 25 kids healthy lunch ideas that are nutritious and delicious. In fact, they’re so good you might be tempted to try a few out yourself.

Do you have other kids healthy lunch ideas? If so, share them in the comments.

 

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