4 Simple, Healthy Back-To-School Lunch & Snack Ideas

Disclosure:  This is a post sponsored by Produce For Kids.  All opinions are my own.

Back-to-school is upon us!  Dang, that was fast.  Which means the season of packing lunch boxes and having after school snacks on hand for ravenous kids is also upon us.  Do yours come home from school like they haven’t eaten in a year?  What is that about?

I’m so excited to have teamed up with Produce for Kids to share these tasty and simple lunch box ideas with you.

Produce for kids is an awesome organization that’s encouraging families nationwide to kick off the school year right by pledging to eat a healthier lunch August 7 through September 22 at PowerYourLunchBox.com. The digital program has raised nearly $60,000 for Feeding America® programs that benefit families and children!

All of these recipes are adapted from their site.  There are so many fun recipes there.  You must check them out.

Broccoli Grape Salad

This sweet and savory salad is perfectly crunchy and creamy.  My whole family loved it and begged for me to make it again.  It’s on the rotation now.  Pair it with a nice turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread, or the buffalo chicken wraps below.  Throw in some Crispy Green fruit and you have a lovely healthy lunch.  The Vegy Veda dips are a great thing to have on hand.  They’re made with greek yogurt, so they add a nice protein boost to everything.

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Switch up the sandwiches with wraps.  These are tangy and delicious.  Cut them into pinwheels for a bite-sized lunch or keep them as a wrap.   The filling can be made in advance and assembled the night before or in the morning.   Chopped onion or celery would be great for a nice crunch and extra veg.  The kids got into helping.  I find that they are way more into eating healthy if they created it themselves.

What you need:

• 8 oz. cooked shredded chicken breast
• 3 Tbsp. Vegy Vida™ Cool Buffalo dip
• 1 Tbsp. shredded carrots
• 2 (8-inch) tortillas
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 pkg. Crispy Green® freeze-dried fruit

Banana Fruit Sushi 

My kids (and husband) can’t resist this banana sushi! It’s super simple – roll and cut.  We have it for breakfast sometimes.  And my kids LOVE making their own.  They enjoy eating what they make.   (If your school is a nut-free zone, just use sunbutter instead.)  Add some Pero Family Farms® mini sweet peppers for a delicious healthy lunch.  My kids like eating these whole, but sliced is great too.

Produce for Kids partners supporting Power Your Lunchbox Pledge include: Avocados from Mexico, Bee Sweet Citrus, Crispy Green®, Eat Smart, Earthbound Farm®, Eric Carle®, NatureFresh™, Pero Family Farms, Sun World®, Vegy Vida® and Zespri®.

They will make a $1 donation to the Feeding America program for every pledge taken.

It’s so easy to pledge.  Just enter your name, email and how many people in your household are pledging to pack healthy lunches until September 22.  Do it here.

Teachers can get in on the fun by  taking the pledge as a classroom.  Elementary and preschool classrooms who take the pledge can pledge on behalf of all the students in their class, and access fun free classroom resources and lesson plans.  And every day between August 7 and September 22, Produce for Kids will give away a popular Eric Carle book to an individual who has taken the pledge!  Score.

My kids always grab for healthy snacks when I have them in the house.  I had to hurry up and take photos for this post.  They couldn’t get enough of the midnight grapes and the yellow kiwi.  SO sweet.  

Get packing!!  Lunch packing.