16 Tasty & Creative School Lunch Ideas

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Jazz up your child’s school lunch with these tasty and creative school lunch ideas. All of them take lunch from boring to brilliant!

As the school year trucks along, it can feel like you’ve tried every variety of sandwich and fruit for your child’s school lunches. If you need some fresh ideas, these are the best ones. This is Annie from Venture1105 and I have some new ideas that you might even enjoy making.

16 Tasty & Creative School Lunch Ideas featured on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry

Packing school lunches can become monotonous, can’t it? Sandwich, fruit, crackers, done. Next day, same thing.

If you are looking for something fun and different, these are perfect for you.

16 Creative school lunch ideas

I found an entire month’s worth of fresh, creative, and fun school lunch ideas. You can actually pack something different every single day for a month.

Let your child look through this list with you and pick out their favorites too.

1. Pizza Pancakes

Pizza pancakes for school lunches

These little pizza pancakes are incredibly portable. Put some marinara dipping sauce in a little container and you have something new.

Plus, they taste pretty delicious cold. You don’t have to warm them up.

Find the recipe on Happiness is Homemade.

2. Peanut butter jelly roll-ups

School lunch idea of peanut butter jelly rollups, apple slices, yogurt dip, and a trail mix.

This is a fun new way to serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with fruit. The cinnamon vanilla yogurt dip is divine.

To keep your apple slices from turning brown, just squirt a little lemon juice on them.

Find the recipe – and 5 more like it – on Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom.

3. BBQ Chicken Pineapple Quesadillas

bbq pineapple chicken quesadillas

BBQ chicken pineapple quesadillas taste just as wonderful cold as they do hot. The pineapple adds some amazing sweetness to them. Throw in some tortilla chips and salsa for a really fun lunch.

Find the recipe on Simply Stacie.

4. Vegetarian School lunch

Vegetarian school lunch idea

Whether you are doing a meatless Monday or you really are eating a plant-based diet, this school lunch is perfect. It has everything – fruit, protein, veggies, and grains.

Find the recipe on Vegetarian Mamma.

5. Cute Bagel Pizzas

cute bagel pizzas for school lunch

Just look at how adorable these little pizzas are! And they don’t take much time at all to put together.

Plus, if you use bagels, the sauce doesn’t make them all soggy. Bagels are the perfect thing for portable pizzas.

Find the recipe on Real Coake.

6. Sausage and Egg Muffins

Sausage and Cheddar Egg Muffins

Pack your kids breakfast for lunch. Throw in some ketchup, a hashbrown patty, some fruit, and a slice of bacon. It’s a lunch they will probably ask for again and again.

Find the recipe on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry.

7. Chicken quesadilla

chicken quesadilla recipe

Quesadillas are perfectly portable. And if your child doesn’t want chicken quesadillas, you can make cheese ones too.

Add some sour cream for dipping and you have a filling and yummy lunch.

Find the recipe on Stuffed Suitcase.

8. Turkey wraps

Turkey wraps back to school lunch

Turkey wraps are a classic lunch idea. You can make these wraps in a variety of ways. Add some dressing in a small container for dipping.

Don’t put the dressing in the wrap. It will make it soggy by the time lunch rolls around.

Add some tater tots and sliced veggies for a wholesome lunch.

Find the recipe on The Gracious Wife.

9. Pirate Lunch idea

Zucchini boat, grapes, and pirate's booty snacks for a school lunch

This is such a fun idea. Pack a pirate lunch for your little one. A zucchini boat and some skewered grapes are adorable and delicious.

Find the recipe on April GoLightly.

10. Apple sandwiches

Peanut butter raisin apple sandwiches

If you want to make this lunch allergy-friendly, use a different nut butter or even sunflower seed butter.

You can pack them just like this, or put everything in individual containers and let them construct their own sandwiches.

Find the recipe on Thrifty Jinxy.

11. UnSandwhich

Unsandwich idea for school lunch

Another way to think beyond the sandwich is to make little skewers out of the ingredients. Packing some dipping sauces keeps it fun and interesting too.

Find the recipe on The TIptoe Fairy.

12. Chicken salad cucumber cups

Chicken salad cucumber cups

These cucumber cups might be better for older children, but they are so flavorful. Who can say no to bacon?

It’s a really fun way to enjoy chicken salad.

Find the recipe on Divine Lifestyle.

13. Taco macaroni

Taco Macaroni for school lunch

Instead of tacos and quesadillas, pack them some taco macaroni. This is such a simple lunch to cook and put together. You can even prepare it the night before so it’s ready the next morning.

Find the recipe on Crazy Adventures in Parenting.

14. Disney’s Frozen school lunch

Disney's frozen school lunch - grapes, yogurt, granola.

Younger children will love this idea. Even the yogurt looks like a melted Olaf!

If you want to stay on-theme, make it out of frozen yogurt.

Find the recipe on Eclectic Momsense.

15. Apple cinnamon honey brie

Apple cinnamon honey brie

Doesn’t this look scrumptious? It tastes like dessert but fills you up like lunch. Pack some homemade granola for a filling and hearty lunch.

Find the recipe on Albion Gould.

16. Pepperoni Rolls

Back in the 1920s, coal miners in West Virginia packed rolls stuffed with pepperonis for their lunch. So these make a wonderful school lunch too.

This recipe is homemade from scratch version. But you can cheat a little bit and use premade biscuit dough instead.

Find the recipe on Venture1105.

Free Printable Lunch Box notes

Don’t forget to add a cute little note to their lunch box. We have some free printable lunch box notes. They are cute, and they’ll remind your child how much you love them. Even better? All you have to do is hit print!

Superhero Lunch Box Notes

Dr. Seuss Lunchbox Notes

Lunch Box Love Notes

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What’s Next? 

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16 School Lunches Your Kids Will Love featured on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry

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