Our must-haves for the new school year? 📚🚌
* A sturdy lunchbox (that even my 6 year old can’t break)🥪
* Easy-to-pack snacks 🍎
* A carefree attitude 😅 Some days, there will be time (and energy!) for cute, themed lunches… and other days, the freezer stash will be our lunchbox hero. 🧇🍏
What’s in our lunchbox??
✏️ Pencil waffle sandwiches (using peanut butter as the spread). If not going the themed route, we just send in waffles without shaping them.
🐛 Hungry caterpillar apples (our kids dip the fruit into peanut butter)
🔥 S’mores energy bites (using almond butter as the base)… these are no-bake and store in the freezer as an easy grab and go make-ahead snack
Let’s make a no-fuss Valentine’s Day themed lunchbox together that your children will LOVE! Every item is no-bake and vegetarian. ✉️ Envelope sandwich sealed with a heart 🌹 Strawberry rose pops ❤️ Caprese heart skewers 🍎 Stuffed apple hearts 🍬 Dye free candy
It felt like summer weather this week in NY while the kids had spring break, and we’re celebrating with a fun warm weather back-to-school lunchbox idea!
Did you know that spinach is one of the most zinc-rich veggies? Zinc is important for many bodily functions such as strengthening your immune system (helping you fight a cold) + aiding in wound healing (for all those bruised knees). 🍃 These pancakes are made with clean simple ingredients like oats, spinach + bananas, and come together quickly in a blender. Not feelin that spinach?? Don’t worry! You can’t even taste it… the result is sweet caramelized banana pancakes (that happen to have green specks in them 😉)
☀️ Although summer is here, it’s never too early to start planning for back to school! ✏️ Sawyer is starting pre-k this year, and that means our little boy will join his big sister with taking lunchboxes to school! 🥳 💡 My biggest tip for new lunchbox packers is to include your kids in the process! Not only will it encourage them to eat their meals better in school, but it will also make your life a bit less hectic too! 🎒 My kids love to get involved by cutting their fruits + veggies with kid safe knives, portioning out foods, and making designs out of their meals. I find the keys to success are fun themed sandwich/veggie/cheese/fruit cutters as well as a great lunchbox system.
A collection of some of Liv's favorite vegetarian Halloween lunchboxes! All require easy pantry items and a little bit of creativity! Which one is your favorite?!
If you're looking for a vegetarian, vegan, or plant based lunchbox idea for your little ones, we got you covered with this semi-homemade lunch comprised of mini avocado toasts, sweet bell peppers filled with hummus, plant based maple sausages made from millet, lentils, dates, and apples, and a dessert of blueberries and chocolate.
Nothing makes life easier than semi-homemade meals! Today’s lunchbox consists of cauliflower mac and cheese, cheddar broccoli quinoa muffins, and carrot cake breakfast cookies!
The mac and cheese is store-bought and the other two are homemade, which is the whole point of a semi-homemade box: one hot thing you did not cook and two things you made on the weekend. The cheddar broccoli quinoa tots have their own recipe on the site. Pack the tots and cookies cold rather than warm — sealed into a compartment while still warm, they steam themselves soft by lunchtime.
These kid-friendly vegetarian quinoa bites can be made three ways: baking in a muffin tin, frying into patties, or using an ebelskiver pan to make round balls (view all options in the photo gallery at the bottom of the recipe page). Either way, the end result is a delicious, protein-, veggie-, and calcium-packed meal that will have the kids coming back for more!
My favorite veggie to sneak into the kids' lunches is spinach because its mild flavor is always masked by whatever it's combined with. My daughter LOVES grilled cheese and cheese quesadillas, so I always put spinach inside to get in extra nutrients. We've also made these quesadillas with scrambled cheesy eggs + spinach, and she always gobbles them up!
A lunchbox that goes together in about five minutes: cheddar broccoli quinoa tots, sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, guacamole to dip them in, and a granola bar in the last compartment.
The tots are the only thing that needs cooking, and they are better made the night before anyway. They firm up in the fridge and go into the box straight from there.
All the flavor of pizza with none of the crust. These bake in a muffin tray with cooked quinoa, chopped spinach and marinara, and they hold together well enough to go into a lunchbox cold the next morning. One tray makes twelve, which in this house lasts about two days.
Let them cool in the liners before you lift them out. I have learned that one the hard way.