If you find yourself eating the kids’ leftovers for lunch or never stopping to eat a real meal, these super doable tips for how to meal-prep lunch are here to help. Use these ideas to feed yourself and to get ahead with making lunch for the kids.
Lunch can be the hardest meal of the day, whether at home or when we need to pack it to go. So to help you get ahead with making healthy kids lunches and to make it easier to feed yourself in the middle of the day, these lunch meal prep ideas are here to help.
Quick Look: Meal Prep Lunch Ideas
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: varies
- Total Time: varies
- Serving: 4-8
- Flavor Profile: Range of bright, fresh flavors, textures, and nutrition
- Difficulty: Easy, perfect for everyday lunches
- Why to Make: These ideas work well to prep when you have time and enjoy as needed
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Table of Contents
So you can plan to use these tips for lunches that are best as hot lunches or cold lunch ideas, but the goal is to make it easier for you to feed yourself and your kids when lunch rolls around.
Why these Recipes Work
I am always looking for smart, efficient ways I can meal-prep in the slivers of time I do have, and these lunch ideas are fast, nutritious, and store well in the fridge for future days.
Plus, you can customize meal components exactly how you like when you make your food at home, whether for yourself or as toddler lunch ideas.
(You may also like my cold lunch ideas for kids, tips for Reducing Food Waste, Breakfast Meal Prep, and How to Store Strawberries.)
How to Meal-Prep Lunch Step-by-Step
This approach can feel like a lot of work, but if you keep a few simple tips from Talia in mind, it’s doable for anyone. (And I say this as someone who’s only ever hard-cooked eggs ahead for my lunches—the weeks when I’ve actually made a real meal ahead have been so enjoyable!)
To start, know that you don’t need any fancy equipment. Just the basics you already have in your kitchen. From there, these tips will help. Pick one to try or use a few. You can always do as much or as little as you prefer.
1. Keep Things Simple
Think pasta, burrito bowls, sheet pan meals, sandwiches, snack lunches, cheese and crackers, and other super simple meals are an awesome way to start since they don’t always require a ton of cooking or ingredients.
You do NOT have to prep 7 meals at once (unless you really, really want to). Even just packing your midday meal one day of the week is a great place to start.
Or freezing simple sandwiches and cutting up a few portions of fruit at once is perfect, too.
2. Think of What You Usually Buy for Lunch
What do you like to get for takeout? You can totally make a burrito bowl or sandwich or soup at home, especially if you stock the pantry with the basics you need.
3. Do it for the Kids AND You
If you’re already packing lunches for the kids, take a few extra moments to pack one for yourself, too. We parents need to eat, too, and this way, you’re more likely to actually eat a real meal than just grabbing the leftover crusts while you wash the dishes.
4. Make Sure It’s Satisfying
Combining the basic food groups will help you stay satisfied until the next meal or snack, so aim to include them so there’s some protein and fat—but also include dessert, something crunchy, a seltzer…whatever you need to feel like the meal is checking all the boxes for your personal preferences.
5. Add a Sauce
Try adding salsa, tahini sauce, peanut sauce,, cucumber sauce, garnishes, mustard, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, guacamole, and other toppings to mix it up and add flavors to basics. These can be a great way to add flavor to meals you make for the kids but eat yourself, too. Buy or make these yourself, however it works best for you.
6. Pick Recipes That Store Well
Some recipes work better than others to make ahead. Anything that’s meant to be crispy won’t hold up (like baked chicken tenders—though maybe you don’t care!), or foods like some Asian noodles (like soba) can stick together when stashed in the fridge). And salads are great but hold better with the dressing on the side.
7. Prep in Small Batches
Whether making food for yourself or the kids, try not to make a giant volume of any one thing unless A.) you know everyone loves it or B.) it works as a freezer meal. Most of us won’t want to eat the same thing day after day, so simply acknowledge that and cook accordingly.
8. Make Good Use of the Freezer
You can make a big batch of beloved chili, soups, stews, muffins, pizza rolls, and more and stash them into the freezer for future weeks. You can also cook twice as much rice or quinoa each time you make them and freeze them for easy lunches in a future week.
Sanity-Saving Kids’ Lunch Guide
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Recommended Storage Containers
Investing in glass containers is a great way to plan for years to come—they last forever! Glass also won’t absorb flavors or food stains and is super easy to clean. Ceramic is also a nice option, or durable plastic can work too. Some of my favorite meal prep containers include:
TIP: Find my favorite kids lunchboxes and Bento Boxes for the whole family.
Tips for Prepping Food to Share with Kids
I am always a fan of cooking the same food for the entire family, so here are some tips for making it palatable for everyone at the table.
- Omit the salt if sharing with a baby (and salt your own portion).
- Make the meal less spicy and add hot sauce to your serving.
- Include produce they like—or keep the pieces of less preferred produce larger so they are easy to pull out.
- Deconstruct the recipes so they’re easier to eat by placing the foods next to each other instead of all mixed together.
- Serve your portion over baby spinach or shredded romaine to turn it into a salad.
- Add a simple side of fruit, applesauce, avocado, or a cheese stick to round out the kids meal.
TIP: Find my go-to 50 Recipes for Kids Lunches.
Favorite Meal Prep Recipes
In addition to the recipes mentioned above, here are a few more of my favorite lunch recipes to make ahead for easy lunches for parents and kids.
Maal Prep Lunch FAQs
Spoiler alert: There isn’t one proper way to meal prep. You can do it however works for you. You can meal prep vegetables, you can prep full meals, you can prep anything that helps your life be a little easier when things are busy.
Meal preps can usually store in the fridge for 3-5 days in an airtight container. You’ll want to add salad greens that might wilt in dressing right before serving and chop any produce that will brown when cut soon before packing if possible.
Meal prep lunches allow you to get ready for a meal whenever you have the time, then be able to feed yourself (or the kids) when you are in a busy stretch and need a fast meal. It’s a great way to cut down on fast food costs and to have food ready when you are.
Best Tips for Success
- Use these as mom lunch ideas or kindergarten lunch ideas.
- Include a mix of food groups, as well as a drink and dessert, to make the meal satisfying.
- Staples like hard boiled eggs, chickpeas, store bought chicken salad, hummus, cooked chicken breast or sausage, black beans, baked tofu, whole grain crackers, and cheese can form a satisfying base to start a lunch. Buy any precooked options at the grocery store to help ease your load.
- Start with a base of rice or quinoa, then layer on food groups in a range of textures to make meal prep bowls for yourself or the kids.
- Pack hot lunches in a thermos if there’s not a microwave available for reheating.
- Pick easy meal prep ideas on Sunday so you know the plan for the week. Even just one may help a lot.
- Hummus bowls with tomatoes, corn, chickpeas, feta cheese, shredded lettuce, and pita chips is a delicious lunch.
More Easy Lunch Ideas
Please comment below with any comments or questions!
This post was first published January 2020.
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