Looking for free nutrition lesson plans? Look no further than your kid's lunchbox. Helping students plan and prepare healthy school lunches is one of the best learning activities you can do. Check out my month-long menu of easy, quick A-Z school lunch recipes. Kids'll eat up these healthy school lunches and lunchbox recipes and beg you for more! Here are some free printable nutrition lesson plans and resources from MyPlate for lesson extenders.
First, teach students about food safety by showing them how to keep food fresh with a freezer ice pack or bento box with freezable tray. Make it part of their chores to wash daily, freeze overnight and pop in lunch box in the morning. Next, make the preparation school lunches part of the lesson plans.
Teach kids to always read product nutrition data. Some foods are surprisingly high in sugar, salt, junk fat and additives. Help them to compare which brands are healthier than others. Have them use snack-sized zippered bags for kid-friendly portion control and to avoid waste. Rotate this A-Z school lunch menu monthly so kids won't get bored.
A-Z lunch menu of quick lunch recipes and lunchbox foods for kids
A+ Applewich: Spread light oat grain bread with almond butter or natural peanut butter (no transfat). Add sliced apples or apple butter. This will be in hot demand on your monthly lunch menu.
Banana Boats--cut two slits in banana and peel back skin part way. Remove a little banana and fill with peanut butter and apple slices. Save removed banana for PBB sandwiches (lunch recipes below)
Cheez-its crackers with dried apples or apple slices--sprinkle apples with lemon juice and store these lunchbox foods separately.
Dogs in the blanket--Smart dogs (made with tofu) or nitrate-free beef hotdogs with honey mustard or hummus and wrapped in lettuce leaves
Eggs Devilishly Good--Hard boil eggs, chill and peel. Rinse and slice lengthwise. Remove yolk and mash with light olive oil mayo, spicy or horseradish mustard, dill weed and paprika. Fill egg cavities.
Fruit Max--Mix dried apricots, raisins, apples, guava papaya (don't get sugared ones) with nuts, seeds and pretzels
GORP (good old raisins and peanuts) or almonds, walnuts or any nuts or seeds. Personal favorite: pepitas or pumpkin seeds
Happy Trails Mix-- Mix unsweetened breakfast cereal, pretzels, raisins, cheese cubes and dark chocolate chips (just a few) for yummy lunchbox foods.
Insanely Healthy Peanut Butter Dip (peanut butter and plain Greek yogurt mixed half and half) with rice crackers, strawberries, pineapple, baby carrots, green pepper spears.
Jumble nut butter oatmeal cookies--Make with healthy sunflower oil and blue agave syrup to sweeten. Use different nut butters (peanut, cashew, almond or sunflower). Add mixed nuts and seeds for remarkably filling protein alternatives for vegetarian lunch recipes.
Kangaroo Sandwiches--Stuff pita pocket bread with lettuce and chicken or tuna salad. Mix tuna or chicken with light mayo, spicy mustard, chopped celery, apples, grapes, nuts and black pepper. Be sure to call it Kangaroo Sandwiches on the lunch menu!
Lighten Up Roll-ups--spread tortilla shell with light cream cheese or hummus, turkey lunchmeat, large romaine lettuce leaf. Roll and slice. For gluten-free roll up, roll cheese stick in lunch meat or cheese slices
Mucho Guacamole Boats--remove pits from avocado and scrape out some avocado. Mix with lemon juice, garlic, tomatoes, onions for guacamole. Tuck tortilla chips inside avocado, fill cavity with guacamole and sprinkle with cheese. Send some chips separately. How's that for super healthy school lunches in minutes?
Nuts and bolts--pretzels, dried fruit and Honey Nut Cheerios. Send almond milk or lowfat milk for lunch cereal.
Olives overboard pasta salad--Cook whole grain pasta, drain and chill. Add cubed feta cheese, cucumber chunks, green and black olives and a little olive oil for vegetarian lunch recipes.
Po'boy Shish Kebobs: Skewer Swiss cheese chunks, pickles and all natural Al Fresco chicken sausage slices on toothpicks.
PBB sandwiches. Make peanut butter sandwiches with banana spread like jam on bread.
Quick lunch recipes--Pita chips and hummus with baby carrots--Teens love these lunchbox foods.
Raw colored peppers and yogurt salad dressing (store separately). Yogurt dressing is Greek yogurt mixed with lemon juice, feta cheese, pepper, dill, rosemary, oregano and sage.
Smoked almonds, broccoli and yogurt dip and blueberries--How's that for super portable vegetarian lunchbox foods.
Sailboat Sandwiches: PBJ sandwich cut diagonally (for boat) and then one half in half again (sails). Use light whole grain bread, natural peanut butter and low sugar jam.
Tomatoes or baby carrots and hummus are another teen lunch pleaser.
Very Vegetarian Veggie burger: Mash beans and mix with chopped veggies. Cook ahead and make into sandwich.
Wagon wheels--Cut sliced cheese round using mouth of small glass. Place inside two crackers. (This was Timer's recipe in the old Saturday morning PSAs)
Under the Sea. Serve Goldfish crackers with foil tuna packets or imitation crab sticks. Add cucumber slices and watermelon chunks for quick lunch recipes.
X-tra quick school lunches--Serve healthy power bars like RxBars, Kind, GoMacro and Larabars. These make great school snacks or lunches that satisfy
YOLO--Lemon, lime or orange flavored yogurt cups or Greek yogurt cups like Light and Fit, Stonyfield, Oikos, Dannon, Chobani. Avoid "kid" yogurt or yogurts with granola, candy, dyes or junk in them. Choose small yogurt cups for less waste. Or mix plain Greek yogurt with organic lemonade, peeled grapefruit and oranges. Serve with nuts for vegetarian healthy school lunches.
Zucchini "Sushi" Rollups--Spread turkey lunch meat or cheese slice with cream cheese and wrap around skinny spears of zucchini, carrots, green peppers, cucumbers and scallions.
