Home Lunch Hacks

Not sure what to put in your kid's lunch box? Here are tips and tricks from parents who know how to make lunch look Instagram ready.

Fact checked by Karen Cilli

School-bought lunch is perfectly adequate. But if you or your child prefer a homemade lunch, here's how you can save time and money—without losing any of the fun or flavor!—with six tips from some of your favorite lunch box influencers.

Plan Ahead

Meal plan, meal plan, meal plan. The morning rush out the door is a challenge on the best of days and no one wants to think about lunch pre-coffee. Creating a plan, in consultation with your child or tween, will alleviate morning stresses.

“By preparing your meals in advance, you can save valuable time in the morning,” says Jessica Woo. “It’s a lot more fun if [your children] have some input on their likes and dislikes and what they want to eat for lunch! You can both make healthy choices together and make lunchtime a great experience for everyone.”

Tech-savvy parents can download Gillian Fein’s app LaLa Lunchbox, in which children set up virtual lunchboxes and select meals for the week ahead by feeding a hungry monster from a completely customizable library of options.

Plot Portions

Content creator Rossini Perez includes fruits and vegetables in every meal. Her hack? Wash, cut, and portion ahead of time.

“Make it easy to just take out of the fridge and pack,” she says. “I also like to buy fruits and vegetables that don’t go bad super quickly—apples, oranges, carrots.” These also make good for an after-school snack if your children bring them home, Perez adds.

The same pre-portioning philosophy applies for other snacks. Crackers, popcorn, seeds, or dried fruit can be allocated into reusable containers so you or your child can grab-and-go in the morning.

Repurpose Leftovers

Seems obvious, doesn’t it? It’s not necessary to reinvent every meal.

Manasi Khedlekar often repackages leftovers, and makes extra of the mains and sides that are “easier to pack in lunch boxes, like rajma or daal,” she says. “Leftovers have a proven track record—I know [my two sons] have already eaten whatever I’ve packed.”

You can also reimagine leftovers: Fein tosses leftover chicken with rice, and serves it alongside strawberries and a quick salad.

Or you can smash mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, or fried rice, also via Fein, in a waffle iron for an all-in-one, portable meal.

Bento Box For the Win

Sometimes it's smart to stir things up. Going beyond basic with a bento or bistro box—including multiple yummy items meant for mixing and matching—can make you a real lunchbox hero.

“Who didn’t love Lunchables growing up?” says Perez. “My daughter’s favorite meals tend to be the snacking ones,” such as this spread with crackers, sliced hard salami, cheddar cubes, strawberries, blueberries, apple slices, and sandwich cookies, she says.

Batch It

Batch cooking isn’t always fun, but can save precious minutes in the morning. Make a large quantity of reliable faves and freeze them to make quick-fix lunches whenever you're short on time—or energy.

Egg bites or hard boiled eggs, sheet-pan pancakes, baked potatoes, or soups make for a nourishing packed lunch and can be made at one go and refrigerated or frozen piecemeal.

Ditch the Bread

Sandwiches are nice, but not everyone loves tuna on rye or PB&J.

Mix things up by using rice, noodles, or quinoa as the base for your meal. These grains are energy-packed and can often be purchased in bulk.

Woo serves up mul naengmyeon, or Korean cold noodles, which she pairs with sliced cucumbers, an intricately-cut hard boiled egg, and peaches.

Yuksu, the cold broth, is packaged frozen, and thaws by lunchtime. Elsewhere, she packs a caramelized sweet potato with carrots, crackers, a small serving of mac and cheese, and a peeled, seedless orange. Her daughter loves spam musubis or kimbap. “You can customize them!” Woo says. “It’s easy and filling!”

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