5 Creative Ways to Keep Your Lunch Box Icy Cold

Tess Panzer

When it comes time for lunch at school or at the office, nobody likes to be faced with a cold-lunch-gone-lukewarm . If it supposed to enjoyed cold, then it’s best to keep it that way.

We’ve got a few simple DIY ways you can keep your lunch chilly, because sometimes your insulated lunchbox could use a little extra help.

Dish Soap Ice Pack

You can make a really festive ice pack for your little one’s lunchbox with little more than dish soap, a sandwich baggie and glitter. When you use liquid soap, it never quite hardens, making it the perfect, malleable medium for cold-lunch-insurance. With a touch of glitter or a drop of food coloring (both of which are suspended in the soap), these ice packs are not only functional - they’re fun to look at too!

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Materials:

  • Dish soap

  • Ziploc bag

  • Glitter

  • Duct tape

Tools:

  • Scissor

  • Mason jar

Instructions:

1. Place a ziploc bag in the mouth of a mason jar, so that it stays open.

2. Add glitter to the bag.

3. Fill ziploc a third of the way full with dish soap.

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4. Close the bag, pull it out of the jar and “smush” the glitter around.

5. Duct tape the top of the bag shut for safety. Trimming tape as necessary.

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6. Freeze.

Alternatively, add food coloring instead of glitter.

Sponge Ice Pack

When you soak a sponge in water and freeze it, you’re left with a great DIY ice pack, perfect to pop in a lunchbox. When you cut that sponge into fun shapes, lunchtime gets a little more interesting.

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Materials:

  • Sponge

  • Sharpie

  • Ziploc bag

Tools:

  • Scissor

1. Draw your desired shape on the sponge.

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2. Cut out the shape.

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3. Soak the sponge in water and gently squeeze out the excess.

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4. Place the sponge in a ziploc and freeze.

Related on Yahoo Makers: How to Make a Quick and Adorable Lunchbox Treat Your Kids Won’t Want to Trade

Juice Box Trick

Here’s a great cold lunch tip for you! Place a juice box in the freezer overnight, and it will thaw and remain cold by lunchtime.

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Extra Cold Water Bottle

When you combine ice, salt and water, the temperature drops from freezing cold to “oh-my-goodness-this-burns-it’s-so-cold!” Give your water bottle the (crazy) cold shoulder, with this nifty trick.

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Materials: 

  • Coarse salt

  • Water

Instructions:

1. Add half a cup of coarse salt to your water bottle thermos.

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2. Fill it with water and seal it.

3. Freeze 15 minutes and rinse with cold water for a water bottle that stays cold longer.

DIY Go-Gurt

If you’re familiar with Go-Gurt yogurt sticks, you’ll know that they’re long tubes of yogurt you keep in your freezer and pop in a lunchbox so they thaw by lunchtime. You may not know, however, that they’re full of sugar, preservatives and all kinds of other gunk. We suggest you make your own. You control the ingredients, you control the sugar, and that slurp-able yogurt still stays cold ‘til lunchtime.

You can pick up Zipzicle plastic tubes at your local cookware store or online.

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Ingredients/Materials:

  • Plain yogurt

  • Raspberries

  • Zipzicle sleeves

Tools:

  • Bowl

  • Fork

  • Spoon

  • Ziploc

  • Scissor

1. Smash raspberries into yogurt until well incorporated.

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2. Spoon yogurt mix into the corner of a ziploc bag and twist the bag to form a piping bag.

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3. Snip off a small corner of the ziploc and pipe the yogurt into the zipzicle sleeve. Freeze.

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