Lunch & Snack Ideas for Your Kindergartener

Before this year, I hadn’t had to make a school lunch since the Preschool Lunch Ideas blog I wrote two years ago. The pandemic brought an abrupt end to the preschool my daughter was attending at the time that required a home lunch, and mid-pandemic we moved to Los Angeles where she began attending a new daycare/preschool that provided an amazing hot lunch (+ breakfast + afternoon snack, say what).

My daughter started kindergarten this past fall (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN) and I got a taste of making daily lunches again when she attended a two-week kindergarten orientation camp last July at her new school. Add in my new single mom status and a toddler who is still going to the old daycare/preschool for another year (which means two drop-offs/pickups for a 1+ hour roundtrip) – and having to make lunch every day was the straw that almost broke my already-sore mom back.

The first few days felt like a marathon that I simply could not keep running, and it was taking me at least 30 full minutes to prepare each lunch. But by the end of the two weeks, I was starting to get the hang of it and learned some little tips & tricks that made it easier, so I didn’t have to keep reinventing the wheel every time I opened that damn Bentgo box. Now that we’re halfway through the school year, I am a pro and it almost feels fun instead of like a burden (*almost*).

My lunches will never be Instagram-worthy, and there will be nothing particularly creative about them (who seriously has the time to individually dip pretzels into homemade yogurt sauce and/or make tiny sandwiches shaped like the alphabet), and there will be no hot food that I’ve actually cooked ahead of time – but I hope these ideas will be helpful for other average moms like myself.

First, a few tips:

Invest in a few good lunch boxes. I like this Bentgo box best with 5 compartments, and and going to try out this 3-4-compartment one too, which looks like it could be good for older kids too. They are not cheap (although about half the price for a 3-pack from Costco – which nearly pays for the annual membership), but they’re a great size for kindergarteners and I think I can even get away with using them for a few more years unless my kid starts eating a tremendous amount more. They may not be as fancy looking as the metal ones with individual silicone muffin tins placed delicately inside, but they keep the food totally secure and do not leak. Plus, I find the fixed compartments far less overwhelming than having to piece together various sized containers every day to make some kind of unique combination.
Find a way to keep the lunch cold. Once I discovered PackIts, I started buying them in all shapes and sizes. They’re an ingenious invention: you put the entire bag in the freezer and it stays cold for hours – far longer than just using a removable ice pack. The Bentgo box fits perfectly inside the PackIt Lunch Box, and there’s even room for an individual long-life Horizon milk in there. This thing kept my daughter’s lunch cold all day – I would take it out of the freezer in the morning and put the Bentgo inside it, and my daughter was even finishing part of her lunch on the car ride home in the late afternoon without risk of food poisoning.
If you also have to send snacks to school, get a couple of these PackIt snack packs. They’ll allow you to send healthy non-packaged snacks, like fresh fruit, yogurt pouches or cheese sticks. Or cut the difference like I did, and just use one in the morning for the healthy refrigerated stuff, and make the afternoon snack a whole piece of fruit or something packaged.
Come up with a formula for what goes into each section of the Bentgo and a list of options that your kid likes. Typically, I use the biggest section on the left for the main part of the lunch, the rectangular section at the top for veggies, the smaller rectangular section on the right side for fruit, the irregularly shaped section at the bottom center for a salty snack, and the tiny round section in the middle for a little treat. If the main lunch had some sweetness to it (e.g., sunbutter, honey and banana sandwich), I would skip the treat and use the round section for something else like cheese, olives, or hummus/dip for the veggies. This may require some explanation to your child ahead of time so they are not sorely disappointed when they crack open their lunch.
Trust in the fact that kids don't need a ton of variety in their lunches. They do not need a new main or unique combo every single day, and honestly they probably do not even notice if you’re going above & beyond to make their lunches fun and interesting, so take the pressure off yourself. I basically ate the same lunch every single day throughout elementary school: a peanut butter & jelly sandwich (back when that sort of thing was still allowed at school), a piece of fruit, carrot sticks, something salty, and something sweet. I loved it, and I still make this same type of lunch for myself as an adult when I have to pack a lunch. Come up with a few things your child likes and rotate them. Or give them the same thing every freaking day until/unless they start complaining about it or stop eating it, and then come up with a new idea. For some kids, knowing what they’ll be getting and that it will be something they like is even comforting and may ensure a more successful lunch experience. You know your own kid, so if the surprise factor really delights them, find some small and easy ways to vary it – but don’t kill yourself over it unless it’s actually something you enjoy doing and you have the time to do it.
Make two lunches at a time. This is a trick I discovered week two of making lunches. You can make two at the same time and they don’t even know! The first time I tried this, I held my breath when asking my daughter how her lunch was the second day in case she noticed something off, like the bread being a little soggier than the day before or the Cheezits being a little less crispy – but nope, she said her lunch was great and ate the whole thing. There are only a few things I wouldn’t add two days in advance and would make fresh the night before (e.g., a bagel with lox or the crackers for make-your-own lunchables) – but most things, including cut veggies and cut fruit, lasted just fine. I think the Bentgo with its separate compartments actually keeps it all fresh for the second day. It now takes me the same amount of time to make two lunches instead of one, and the second night I actually have time to watch a TV show (maybe).
Think about a drink. Some kids just drink their water bottle with lunch and are fine with that. My daughter has always been a milk fiend, so I send her with milk. At first when she was doing the summer camp, I could only find the long-life individual chocolate milks (during a last-minute Costco run), so she got that as a treat. I then was able to find the low-fat plain milk version (from Target – why does Costco not sell these?!) and have been giving her those every day in her lunch (it tucks in with just enough room next to the Bentgo box inside the PackIt). One day I ran out before realizing I was low and sent low-fat milk in an old breastmilk collection bottle, which worked great and is a lot cheaper; plus, I had been feeling like 8oz of milk at lunch was a little more than she really needed. So now she gets a cute little bottle of 5oz of milk with her lunch, and I send a silicone straw too, which she loves. You could also send a healthy juice box if that’s the only juice a kid gets in a day and it really makes their day to find it in their lunch (and if the school allows it). I tend to limit juice to weekends, but I have sent a small Honest Company apple juice box on occasion if my daughter has a cough that’s exacerbated by milk.

So now to the good part: your cheat sheet for making school lunches. Here are some of my favorite items and combos…

Mains

Leftovers from the night before. I only send stuff my daughter would eat cold, but if you wanted to send something like chili, curry or hot pasta, the Thermos Funtainer is good for keeping it hot for a few hours. Here are the types of leftovers I send:
- Homemade pizza (or store-bought pizza if we ordered in) – she loves it cold
- Pesto pasta – served hot the night before and cold for lunch the next day
- Sausages – served as grilled sausages the night before and converted to sausage sandwiches the next day using hot dog buns
- Meatloaf – served as hot baked meatloaf the night before and converted to a meatloaf and Swiss cheese sandwich the next day
Turkey + cheddar OR ham + Swiss sandwich on multigrain bread or mini Hawaiian rolls to mix it up and make it fun
Tuna sandwich on multigrain bread or in a pita pocket
Egg salad sandwich on multigrain or sourdough if I’m being fancy
Hummus + veggie rollups, served as a long wrap sandwich or cut into fun little pinwheels
Hummus with toasted pita wedges if I’m feeling lazier (Costco sells great individual sized hummus cups)
Sunflower butter and jam sandwiches (most daycares/preschools are peanut- and nut-free these days but allow sunflower butter or soy nut butter)
Open-faced toast wedges with sunflower butter, sliced bananas, honey drizzle, and a sprinkle of chia seeds
Mini bagel with cream cheese and lox
Make-your-own lunchables with deli meat or salami, cheese and crackers (add the crackers that morning or in a small ziplock to keep them from getting soggy)
Pasta salad
Egg muffins or hardboiled eggs
Quesadilla with guacamole (individual size from Costco) and sour cream in that small round center section

Veggies

I tend to stick with raw veggies for school lunches, which my daughter loves. If I happened to make cooked veggies the night before and had some leftover, I’d send them as long as they were the kind that could be enjoyed cold.

Carrot sticks or baby carrots
Cucumber rounds
Sliced bell peppers (my daughter especially likes the sweet mini ones, cut into loops)
Sugar snaps
Celery sticks
Green beans
Raw cauliflower
Cherry tomatoes (yes I know tomatoes are not really a vegetable)
Edamame
Corn on the cob (halved)

Fruit

Grapes
Apple or pear slices (best to add morning-of for freshness)
Mandarin orange sections
Berries
Watermelon, pineapple, melon or mango chunks (serve with fork)
Pomegranates (serve with spoon)
Kiwi (I cut in wedges and my daughter likes to eat them that way)

Savory Sides

Goldfish / Cheez-Its / cheddar rockets (from TJ’s – so good)
Mini pretzels
Veggie chips or veggie straws
Pop chips
Mini tortilla chips (if serving something like quesadilla with guacamole) – I love the mini sweet potato or beet “crackers” (more chip-like) from TJ’s
Green pea crisps
Seaweed snacks (if your kid likes that sort of thing)
Cheese
Olives

Sweet Sides

Raisins or craisins
Dried apricots, mango or apple rings
Chocolate chips (plain or mixed with raisins)
Yogurt-covered raisins
Yogurt-covered pretzels
Mini chocolate chip granola bar, or halved granola bar
Mini banana chocolate chip muffin
Animal crackers / bunny grahams / graham crackers
Fruit leather or fruit rollup (I buy the “healthy” natural fruit ones)
Fig newton
Mini cookie
A few gummy bears
A few M&Ms (I like the “natural” ones from TJ’s)
Mini marshmallows
A small piece of chocolate like a Hershey’s Kiss or Dove milk chocolate

Combos

Really any combos could work that sound good and varied to you, but here are a few curated ideas. The plus (+) sign indicates separate sections of the Bentgo box.

Turkey & cheddar sandwich (either using small bread like Dave’s Killer Bread Thin-Sliced cut into quarters or larger bread cut in half and used over two days) + baby carrots and sugar snaps + apple slices + Cheez-Its + yogurt-covered raisins
Lunchables + carrot and celery sticks + ranch dressing or hummus (in small round compartment) + grapes + mini chocolate chip granola bar or small cookie
Pesto pasta salad + fresh mozzarella and cherry tomato skewers (I use these) + sliced strawberries + Kalamata olives + chocolate chip raisin combo
Cheese quesadilla + individual guacamole + sour cream in the round center section + TJ’s mini beet or sweet potato crackers/chips + sliced bell peppers + watermelon, pineapple or mango chunks
Pita wedges and hummus + sliced cucumbers and grape tomatoes + mandarin orange sections + green pea crisps + a Dove milk chocolate
Sunflower butter and jam sandwich + carrot sticks + mini pretzels + grapes + cheese stick
Toast corners with sunflower butter, banana slices, a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of chia seeds + carrots and celery sticks + raspberries + goldfish + fig newton
Mini bagel with cream cheese and lox + cucumbers + blueberries + grape tomatoes + fruit rollup
Leftover pizza + green and red bell peppers + olives + grapes + a few TJ’s M&Ms
Sausage sandwich in a hot dog bun (halved if it was a big sausage) + ketchup in the round center section for dipping + corn on the cob (halved) + mandarin orange wedges + green pea crisps

Snacks

If you have to send a morning and/or afternoon snack, here are some ideas. Mix and match to meet your kid’s appetite level. I recently cut back on my daughter’s snack from two items to one and try to stick to just fruit or yogurt instead of packaged snacks, so that she has more of an appetite for her lunch and dinner, and so that I’m not sending her with too much food.

Whole banana
Whole apple or pear
Sliced fruit or grapes in one of these containers in a PackIt snack bag
Pomegranates + yogurt (I use plain Greek or TJ’s honey Greek) in a Bentgo snack container in a PackIt snack box (don’t forget the spoon)
Mini yogurt (don’t forget the spoon) or yogurt pouch (I like these reusable pouches) in a PackIt snack bag, or there are yogurt pouches that don’t require refrigeration
Applesauce pouches, or my daughter’s new favorite: the Chia seed strawberry + banana pouch that I found at Costco
Yogurt smoothie in a PackIt snack bag (I open it ahead of time for my daughter since it’s difficult and then twist it shut)
Hard-boiled egg
Mini muffins
Granola bar
Individual snack size sweet snack (e.g., animal crackers)
Individual snack size salty snack (e.g., popcorn, pretzels, goldfish, veggie straws, etc.)