Quick and Easy Lunch Box Snacks

As a dietitian mom, including easy lunchbox snacks to packed lunches has been my answer to packing school lunches with less stress. 🙌

Individual snacks laid out on a surface: dried apricots, applesauce, grapes, beet chips, muffin, apple, trail mix, protein bar, spelt pretzels, HIPPEAS, energy bites, belVita package, and a apple-carrot fruit crusher from Trader Joe's.

The start of a new school year should be exciting for busy parents, not stressful! Let me teach you my strategy for managing lunchtime with less stress. 😅

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Dietitian Tip for Packing Lunches (what I do)
Easy Lunch Box Snacks
Tips for Packing Lunches
Why I Started Adding Snacks to Lunch Boxes
Questions You May Have
Related
Easy Snack Recipes

Dietitian Tip for Packing Lunches (what I do)

Pack a 'main meal' or main part of their lunch. It could be a hummus and veggie wrap, chicken salad with whole grain crackers, peanut butter and jelly (or honey) sandwich, or dinner leftovers reheated and packed in a thermos. Leftovers are a great option for school lunches, just saying!
I also pack one lunch container with fruit and another small container with veggies.
My kids complete their lunches with what I consider lunch box snacks, often including one dairy item (they usually choose Greek yogurt).

Easy Lunch Box Snacks

Here's my list of lunch box ideas broken down into categories. As you'll see, this list includes a wide variety of foods and food groups, including protein sources, crunchy snacks, fresh fruit, and whole grains. Most are finger foods made with simple ingredients.

And while they may not all meet your definition of 'healthy snacks,' these lunch box snacks can all fit into a well-balanced meal. 😊

Fruits & Veggies

Banana
Apple A whole apple or apple slices work well. To save time, pre-packaged apple slices can be found in the produce section of many grocery stores.
Grapes
Cherries
Clementines Or seedless mandarin oranges that are easy to peel.
Carrots Baby carrots or carrot sticks
Cherry Tomatoes
Cucumber Slices
Applesauce Best when kept cold.
Fruit and/or veggie pouches
Guacamole with tortilla chips or pretzel sticks. Guacamole should be kept cold.
Hummus with carrots or pretzel thins. Hummus should be kept cold.
Fruit Leather or Fruit Bars I often buy fruit leathers at Trader Joe's or stock up on That's It fruit bars (all fruit) at Costco.

Dairy and Egg - These Need an Ice Pack to Stay Cold

Squeeze Yogurt Look for brands with less added sugar.
Drink Yogurt Small bottles of kefir fit well in lunch boxes.
Cheese Sticks Example: string cheese or cheddar cheese sticks.
Hard-Boiled Eggs I like to make steamed hard-boiled eggs once a week, because they are easy to grab and go. Otherwise, you can find pre-packaged hard-boiled eggs in the egg section of most large grocery stores.

Dried Fruit, Nuts, Seeds & Jerkey - Room Temperature Snacks

Dried Fruit Mango, raisins, craisins, and dried apricots are some of our favorites.
Nuts Lightly salted cashews, pistachios, dry roasted almonds.
Seeds Roasted and lightly salted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds.
Trail mix
Granola (low sugar granola or store-bought)
Jerky Beef jerky or turkey jerky snack sticks are my son's favorite.
Beet Chips Storebought or homemade beet chips
Banana Chips
Apple Chips

Bars, Baked Goods, and Energy Bites

Protein Bar Kind bars and Laura Bars (made with nuts and dried fruit) are often kid-approved.
Snack Bars with whole grains like belVita Breakfast Biscuits.
Quick Bread A slice of quick bread made with whole grains, like whole wheat banana bread or pumpkin bread make a great addition to packed lunches. Just be sure to put this in last so they don't get squished.
Muffins Lemon yogurt muffins, banana carrot muffins, and zucchini chocolate chip muffins are some of our favorites.
Energy Bites Storebought energy bites or homemade bliss balls. You'll want to keep homemade energy bites cold, so they don't fall apart.
Granola Bar

Crunchy Snacks

Trail Mix Nut-free trail mix is especially handy for packed lunches.
Popcorn While it's much less expensive to pop your own, I often buy individual bags of Boom Chika Pop popcorn for a quick and easy snack.
Graham Crackers
Cheddar Crackers (examples: Goldfish or Annies bunnie crackers)
Pretzels Whole grain pretzels, pretzel thins, or peanut butter or almond butter filled pretzels.
Veggie Straws
Chickpea Puffs (example: Hippeas)
Cheddar Puff or popped Corn Chips rice and/or corn puffs (example: Pirates Booty or Pop Corners)
Pita Chips These go great with hummus.
Rice Cakes
Animal Crackers
Whole Grain Crackers We've been loving Triscuit Thin Crisps.
Chips Storebought or homemade air-fried tortilla chips. Everything fits, right? 😉

Tips for Packing Lunches

It's hard to believe that I have been packing school lunches for thirteen years, even longer if you count our daycare days! I've learned a lot over the years of packing lunches, and I'll summarize it here.

Some days kids are hungrier than other days.
Some kids eat more than others (and it's ok).
If your kids tell you that something you packed was 'amazing', it doesn't mean that they want it for lunch every single day.
Some weeks your kids will want a similar lunch packed every day and then all of a sudden, they'll decide it's time for a change. This is normal.
Kids understand that some foods are better choices than others. This doesn't mean that they always want to or have to make the 'best' choice.
Some days hunger takes priority. Other days, talking and catching up with friends comes first (which means they will probably not eat much, then come home hungry).
Kids are more likely to waste less if they have a say in what gets packed for lunch.
Kids may be more accepting of food they'd rather not eat if there's at least one food packed that they enjoy eating.
Do what's best for you. Some parents choose to buy everything pre-packaged from a grocery store, while others prefer to make most foods from scratch.

Why I Started Adding Snacks to Lunch Boxes

I started adding lunchbox snacks every day when I was going crazy trying to figure out how much food to pack.

My son would come home one day saying I didn't pack enough in his lunch and then when I would pack more, he'd come home with food left that we'd have to throw out.

Since then, I've started packing more snacks for lunches and explain that they need to eat the 'food that will go bad' first and then eat the rest of the snacks if they are still hungry.

And if they are not hungry for all of it, they can have the rest as a snack when they get home from school. Problem solved. 😅

Questions You May Have

What are kids lunch box snacks?

Here's how I see it: lunch box snacks are the foods packed in lunches that can also serve as a snack. Or at least foods that kids would be able to rationalize are snacks (because, really anything can be served as a snack;).

Which lunch box snacks are healthy?

This is a tricky question to answer. I have been trying to avoid labeling any food as "healthy" simply because it has become a very confusing word.

Afterall, what is healthy for one person (like high fiber food) may not be healthy for another (someone may need low fiber for medical purposes).

As a dietitian, "healthy" often refers to a food that meets one or more of the following criteria: high in fiber, low in added sugar, low in sodium, low in saturated fat.

What snacks are filling for kids?

Snacks that contain fiber and/or protein will help your kids feel full longer, as will ensuring they are meeting their energy needs.

I should add that while I reference packing lunch for kids, these tips work just as well for the whole family (parents, too!).