Looking for healthy school lunch ideas for picky eaters? These 30+ lunches for picky eaters are sure to spark your imagination and expand your picky child’s lunch menu options!
My big boys went back to school last week, and this year they are both attending school all day long. That means that this year I get the dubious honor of preparing school lunches for not just one, but two picky eaters each day. Lucky me?
In order to make my life a little easier, I sat down with these guys and compiled a list of all the foods that they might be willing to try at lunchtime. Naturally, they don’t agree on 100% of the foods on the list (honestly, they only agree on about 5% of them!), but at least it’s a start for those days when I’m running out of ideas! I thought it might be worthy of sharing if you also find yourself staring vacantly into the pantry before whipping up the gazillionth almond butter and jelly sandwich of the year. Variety is nice.
For my boys’ lunches, I use Easy Lunchboxes because they fit perfectly into kid-sized lunch boxes, and the divided portion sections eliminate the need for a bunch of different plastic baggies (less mess, less waste – yay!). Because we use the Easy Lunchboxes, our list of lunch ideas is actually made up of two different lists – one for the main compartment (entree) and one for the two smaller compartments (side dishes). Simply chose one item from the main list and two from the side list, and you can easily create a customized lunch that is sure to please your picky eater!
Main Dishes:
- Turkey and Cheese Tortilla Wrap
- Ham and Cheese Bagel
- Peanut Butter (or Almond Butter) and Honey Sandwich
- Cream Cheese and Cucumber Finger Sandwiches
- Cream Cheese and Jelly Tortilla Wrap
- Chicken Nuggets and Dipping Sauces
- Pasta – Ravioli, Tortellini, or Spaghetti with Sauce of Choice
- Hard-Boiled Eggs or an Egg Salad Sandwich
- Turkey & Cheese Crescent Rolls (or other meat/cheese combinations)
- Quesadillas or Quesadilla Tortilla Rolls
- Deli Meat and Cheese Kabobs
- Simple Breakfast Burrito – Scrambled Eggs, Cheese, and Bacon in a Tortilla
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Healthy Muffins (Banana, Apple, Zucchini, Blueberry etc.)
- Chicken Kabobs with Rice Balls
- DIY “Lunchables” – Deli Meat, Cheese, and Crackers
- Peanut Butter & Banana Graham Cracker Sandwich
- Taquitos
- Mini Burger/Turkey Burger Sliders
- Breakfast for Lunch – Waffles, Pancakes, or French Toast
- Egg Rolls & Potstickers
- Build-Your-Own Mini Pizzas – English Muffin, Pizza Sauce, Cheese, and Toppings
- Grilled Cheese Sandwich Sticks
- Bagel Dog or Pigs in a Blanket
- Calzones/Pizza Pockets
- Fruit Nachos – This Way OR This Way!
- Mini Bagels with Jam, Cream Cheese, or Nut Butter
- Pizza Quesadilla
- Fruit and Cheese Kabobs
- Pinwheel Sandwiches
- Pita Bread and Hummus
Side Dishes:
- Applesauce
- Fruit – Strawberries, Bananas, Grapes, Blueberries, Melon, Pears, etc.
- Veggies – Carrots, Celery, Broccoli, Bell Peppers, etc. with a Side of Ranch, Peanut Butter, or Hummus for Dipping!
- Whole-Grain Goldfish
- Cheese – String Cheese, Babybel, Cheddar Cubes, etc.
- Pretzels
- Raisins or Dried Fruit
- Dry Cereal
- Crackers – Graham Crackers, Ritz, Saltines, Club Crackers, etc.
- Yogurt
- Cottage Cheese
- Popcorn
- Nuts – Almonds, Pistachios, Cashews, etc.
- Veggie Straws
Dressing up your lunch options as “cute food” can also help encourage picky eaters to try new foods. Cute food is a TON of fun, but it doesn’t have to be a ton of work! Take a peek at our 25 Quick & Easy Bento Lunch Box Ideas for Kids and get inspired!
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Jessica @ Stay at Home-ista says
August 27, 2012 at 10:06 pmPinned it, and thanks for the Easy Lunchboxes idea, might have to get my hands on some:)
Jessica
Stephanie Woodward says
August 28, 2012 at 9:09 pmAwesome ideas. My son is starting 1st grade this Thursday and we are venturing into the world of eating lunch at school (he’s so excited). So I’m super new at this…how do you keep the warm stuff warm w/out using a thermos? I have the same lunch containers, and I’m so super glad I bought them in May when I did. He keeps requesting grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, and hot pockets; I’m not sure how he will like them being cold. What do you do?
Heidi @ Mom's Crafty Space says
August 28, 2012 at 9:15 pmI think I’m pretty lucky in that my boys actually are NOT that picky about eating warm foods at room temperature, so I generally just send them as-is. The one food that they refuse to eat at room temp, however, is quesadillas. Last year we solved that problem by adding a hand warmer packet (like the kind that people use inside their gloves/boots in winter) to the inside of their lunch box (outside of the Easy Lunchbox container, but inside their lunch box). I made sure not to send any other food that needed to be kept cold that day, and it worked great! The quesadillas were warm, but not hot, and the lunch box actually stayed warm until after lunch time.
Stephanie Woodward says
August 29, 2012 at 11:36 pmThanks!
Casey Lee says
March 1, 2017 at 6:32 pmWrap it in aluminum foil.
aliya wilson says
August 28, 2012 at 11:47 pmThanks a lot. I will definitely try these tips because unfortunately I’ve got two picky eaters too. Hope it works on him.
Amy* says
September 4, 2012 at 1:52 pmGreat tips! My Picky eater makes packing lunches a real challenge. You just made my mornings a whole lot easier! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Amy*
Stephanie says
August 22, 2013 at 9:34 amLove the ideas 🙂 Thanks!
Daniella says
September 7, 2013 at 9:19 amWow, you consider this a list for picky eaters? I wish my kindergartener would eat 1/4 of the things on this list!!!!
Elizabeth Weniger says
January 25, 2017 at 8:04 amI was thinking the same thing. I wish my daughter would eat any of those things. Her idea of eating is fruit, peanut butter & jelly, chicken, bread & cereal. It’s so frustrating.
Kathy Olvera says
August 5, 2017 at 5:35 pmMy thoughts exactly.. Cucumbers and cream cheese?!?! I WISH!!
Heidi says
August 11, 2017 at 8:41 amNot all children are picky in the same ways, and these ideas are meant to help guide you into finding lunch ideas that your child will respond favorably to.
Megan says
August 12, 2017 at 9:33 amI know what you mean. The list is great for school lunches, but my son won’t eat most of that.
sharon says
September 15, 2013 at 2:55 pmHi, great ideas! My friends son and my nephew are severely allergic to peanuts. Also most schools and daycares have banned peanuts. I wouldn’t send my daughter to school with peanut butter, but maybe an alternative like Wow Butter.
Just an idea!
Heidi says
September 15, 2013 at 6:54 pmI absolutely agree! Peanut allergies are very prevalent these days and incredibly serious. I’m actually surprised that there aren’t MORE schools in our area that are peanut-free. My children’s school still allows peanut products, but we often substitute sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) as well since my kiddos love it almost as much!
Erin says
July 30, 2014 at 8:31 pmI would not send peanut butter to school, either. Peanut allergies are very serious. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for one of my kid’s classmates being hospitalized! That said, does everyone know about sunflower seed butter? It’s tastes very similar peanut butter but is nut-free. It’s an easy way to let your kid enjoy a faux PB&J while making being safe for other students. We eat sunflower seed butter all the time and it’s great! Available pretty much everywhere these days, too.
Heidi says
August 4, 2014 at 9:51 amI completely agree! Many schools are now going peanut-free, and sunflower seed butter (also called sunbutter) and almond butter (if allowed) are definitely delicious alternatives! My boys love sunbutter, so we eat that a lot, too. 🙂
Jennifer says
October 17, 2014 at 9:27 amOur school nurse says you can never guarantee your school is nut free. If we eat peanut butter for breakfast and I accidentally grab a lunch box with peanut residue on my hands and my child takes that bag to school we could unintentionally expose a child to peanuts. She recommended having nut free tables where children with allergies could sit and eat. Because hot lunch is an option the nut free table was always for the hot lunch kiddos too. Our kitchens don’t have any peanut products in them so it is safer to assume those lunch trays are nut free. Plus she insisted on hand washing the minute students entered the classroom and frequently throughout the day. We learned a lot about keeping a classmate safe last year and thankfully he was never exposed to peanuts at school! 🙂
Johanita says
February 7, 2014 at 8:27 pmWow love the candy making idea. Going to try it.
Alan says
April 4, 2014 at 5:21 pmYou say for Picky eaters – my eight year old daughter will eat 3 from your Main Dish list. You are lucky – having no idea about picky eaters. I need innovation – any good suggestions?
Audrie says
November 15, 2015 at 6:04 amI feel your pain here mom! I think my son would rather DIE than eat peanut butter. You will never catch him eating bread (or anything that is similar such as a bagel or crackers) as he will run from it as if it is the black plague! Also, due to dietary restrictions (he was having some serious behavioral issues so we put our whole family on the feingold program) he can’t have most of the stuff on this list. There are some great ideas though! I can always build off of the ideas that are given.
Jennifer says
August 8, 2016 at 6:10 amI’m in the same boat with my 6 year old. My other 2 are not as bad. My 6 year old won’t eat sandwiches, hates peanut butter (makes me cringe just saying that!! who could hate such a magical food, lol), is now slowly surrendering from her 3 or 4 years long battle on Veggies, most items on this list would not fly, Last year I would make extra food in dinners and sent leftovers with the kids alot of days. Homemade or frozen chicken nuggets, taco meat (god forbid any other ingredient got on there, no cheese, lettuce sauce, anything), spaghetti oh’s (meatball flavor only!!), etc. I warmed it up in the morning then put it in a food thermos. They told me to stop making the food so hot because it would still burn their tongues at lunchtime (I tended to make it hot thinking it would cool down by then).
I would roll up some lunch meat and made kind of a DIY lunchable with string cheese, grapes and goldfish. There were days I just didn’t feel like pounding my head to find something she would eat and sent her with grapes and yogurt as her main meal (my structure on school lunches is the main meal, healthy side, snack and drink, most would come back home, the snack, usually small bag of chips or a chocolate chip cookie never seemed to return. So many days I said please, at least drink your drink, I’d be sending the exact same drink, one she does like, every day cause she’d ignore it) She is over 90% in height and only 35% in weight for her age. Every year I ask her pediatrician if I should be concerned about her weight and every year she tells me, she wouldn’t be that tall or stay on the same weight line if her weight was an issue.
The parent of a very picky eaters club is not one I recommend, lol.
Nadia Brunt says
June 28, 2014 at 8:11 amThis is great! I will tweak it to my son’s likes and such, but it will let him ‘control’ his lunch choices.
Ashton Shea says
July 6, 2014 at 3:54 pmLOVE!! I’m going into the eleventh grade and I’m still picky. Loved the majority of these 🙂
Sarah says
September 29, 2014 at 11:20 pmI eat around 30 of the them.
Taylor says
November 30, 2014 at 1:05 pmHeres the issue my eighth grade daughter hates all of those things. she is pick towards the basics. any suggestions?
Channon says
June 5, 2015 at 12:32 pmThese are good ideas for kids, but really not for picky kids. My daughter won’t eat any spreads, sauces, dips or condiments. It’s pretty infuriating. I am going to show her this list and have her circle what she will eat. Wish me luck!
Veronika says
August 24, 2015 at 10:16 amGreat ideas!!! not for my kid though..i am honestly in shock that kids actually eat that things from the list? my girl’s fav food is a peanut butter sandwich with nutella, but peanuts are banned from school, and wowbutter got into “i dont like it”-list by her, so no sandwich i guess. For school lunch my picky eater will eat only fruits and veggies until she will starve herself, then maybe we will try something to eat , like a cheese string. Seriously, that’s my plan. Also I hope she will watch other kids eating different food, and she might want to try that too. Good luck to all little munchkins for the new school year!
Heidi says
August 24, 2015 at 11:44 amThanks, Veronika! Each of my picky eaters will only eat a few things from this list (and all of them like completely different things!), but I compiled all of them together into one list in the hopes that the full list might spark a new idea or bring to light something that other picky eaters haven’t tried yet. In my experience, I have discovered that my kids ARE more willing to try something new if they see their friends eating it, so hopefully your daughter will become a little more adventurous in her eating habits as well! 🙂
Grammy says
September 14, 2015 at 11:58 amGrandkids love waffles with strawerry/mixed berry cream cheese. Eggo Wafflers are perfect for small “taco” size.
Chloe M says
August 23, 2016 at 8:28 amI’m a super picky eater and I’m going into 11th grade so I’ll be a junior. What doesn’t help is that I also have a SUUUUPER long list of things I’m allergic to so I try and stay plain and simple when it comes to food. My past two years in high school I would only buy a Poptart and an apple juice. I branched out a little at the end of the year but due to allergies not that much. This list really helps because I can modify some of the thing on it ( Nuts, and others) to things I can actually eat. Huge thank you!
Anne Stone says
May 25, 2017 at 10:00 amThank you so much for all your fantastic ideas! I have already printed your meal suggestions, and I’ve placed them on the fridge. Every day my kids take their time looking at them while deciding what meal they want for the day to come. Now they are both happier because they get to choose what they are going to eat and I am so pleased as well with this time-saving process that allows my children to eat healthily every day!
farah says
August 17, 2017 at 10:45 amyour ideas are so helpful but i like your family picture the most