Ideas
A week of school lunches without a sandwich
A school lunch does not need a sandwich: a main that holds up cold, a side with some crunch, a fruit and a small sweet make a whole box. Here are five, one for each school day, built from foods most kids already know and packed the night before.
The sandwich usually stops working by Wednesday. The bread has gone soft, or your kid has eaten the filling and left the rest, or they are simply tired of it. The answer is not a better sandwich. It is a different main.
How each box is put together
Each day is a main, a side, a fruit and a sweet. The side is there to be different from the main: something crunchy beside something soft, something with protein when the main is mostly pasta or bread. That is the whole idea, and it works with whatever your kid eats.
The week
- Monday: pasta with butter and grated parmesan; cucumber slices; grapes; a small cookie
- Tuesday: turkey and cheese roll-ups, deli turkey wrapped around a cheese stick; pretzels; apple slices; a few chocolate chips, or raisins where the school says no chocolate
- Wednesday: quesadilla wedges, cheese or cheese and beans, cooked and cooled; bell pepper strips; a peeled clementine; a mini muffin
- Thursday: a build-it box of crackers, cheese cubes and ham; carrot sticks with a little ranch or hummus (hummus has sesame in it, which some schools keep out); berries; a fruit snack
- Friday: mini pancakes or waffles, made on the weekend and frozen; a cheese stick, for the protein the pancakes do not have; a banana; a small cup of maple syrup to dip in
Make the pasta the night before and toss it with the butter while it is warm, so it does not set in a block in the fridge. Cut the quesadilla into wedges before it cools; cold, it tears.
What keeps it working
- Pack it cold. Every main here is made ahead and goes into the box from the fridge; an ice pack keeps it cold where the school allows one.
- Give it something to dip. Hummus, ranch, salsa or a little syrup makes a plain thing worth eating. Use a small container your kid can open alone, and check that at home once.
- Repeat what worked. If Tuesday’s roll-ups came back empty, they can be Tuesday again next week. Change the parts that come home, not the parts that get eaten.
- Start from your kid’s list, not this one. Three mains your kid eats make a week. Repeat them.
If the box is coming home anyway, When lunch keeps coming home uneaten is about what to change first.
Where Lunch Sorted fits
Lunch Sorted is a school-lunch planner for parents. It plans a week like this from the foods on your list: a main, a side, a fruit and a sweet for every school day, matched so each box goes together, with the shopping list written for you. Switch on Cold lunches only under School rules and a food that breaks it is flagged, and the week is planned without it. Planning and the shopping list are free for one lunchbox. If your school is nut-free as well, there is a week for that: Nut-free school lunches: a week to start from. Questions are answered on the help page.
The planner is free to try at lunchsorted.app, and the iPhone app is on the App Store.