What’s In Your Lunchbox? {No-Waste Tools}

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Back-to-school means back to lunch-packing. If you’re anything like me, you are not looking forward to it. When my kids are home, either because of summer or homeschool, they make their own lunches. However, when they go to school, I save them a few extra minutes of sleep by preparing their lunch while they get dressed. At 5:30 AM, every minute counts! This year, my second child will be leaving our homeschool to start high school, so I am making sure all our lunch tools are stocked and ready.

In addition to making sure my kids eat healthy food, I want their lunches to be waste-free. Did you know there are approximately 76 million kindergarten through high school students in the United States? If each one throws away just one plastic fruit cup each day, that’s a TON of garbage. We try not to contribute to that mountain of waste by using reusable containers for everything we pack. Here are the tools we could not live without.

An insulated food jar. My oldest son does not like sandwiches. This can make lunch-packing tricky, but an insulated food jar saved me. It has gone to school nearly every day with my child since he was 7 years old. When he was little, we invested in a Funtainer food jar so he could take soup, pasta, or virtually any leftovers we have on hand. Last year, due to his teenage appetite, we upgraded to the bigger 16 oz. Thermos.

Whichever jar fits your child, they work the same way. First, boil enough water in the microwave to fill the jar. Pour hot water in and place the lid on while heating up your food. Dump out the water and add hot food. The jar will keep food hot until lunchtime. You can also put cold food in the jars the same way. Instead of pouring in boiling water, put ice water in to chill the jar. Then dump it out and add chilled food. It will stay cold for hours. Pro-tip: a surprise ice cream sundae in their thermos on your child’s birthday will make you a total rock star. 

Rubbermaid Lunch Blox. I love these handy mix-and-match cooling containers. They fit well in lunchboxes, snap together conveniently, and keep everything tidy and separate. Plus, they come with a reusable cooling block that snaps together with all the containers so everything stays cool.

My oldest loves chicken Caesar salad for lunch. This salad kit is perfect for keeping it fresh. The large bowl holds lettuce and chicken, while the top part keeps croutons, parmesan cheese, and dressing all separate so nothing gets soggy.

The sandwich kit is just as convenient for sandwiches as it is for nachos, naan bread and hummus, pretzels with peanut butter or any combo your kid loves.

Sometimes salad dressing or applesauce will leak out of the containers we have, so I just invested in this snack kit. We haven’t had a chance to use them yet, but I expect these locking lids will solve that problem.

Fold-over lunch bag. Years ago, we fell in love with a simple and inexpensive lunch sack from Target. Sadly, they are no longer available, and ours finally need to be replaced. We loved these bags because they hold a lot of food for my hungry kids, are easy to open and close, do not have a zipper to break and hook onto a backpack with the handle’s clasp to keep their hands free.

This bag from Goodbyn looks the most like our favorite Target lunch bags so we are trying it out this year. It has the same unstructured shape, easy-wipe fabric, and roll-top closure with clasp.

A lightweight water bottle. Surprisingly, it has been challenging to find just the right water bottle. When my kid is already carrying eleventy-billion pounds of books in his backpack, the last thing I want to add to his load is a heavy water bottle. It also has to be leak-proof and the right size to both satisfy his thirst and fit in his lunchbox.

For an elementary student, our favorite is this lightweight Naglene water bottle.

Bigger kids need more water, so we are upgrading to a bigger bottle this year. It is still small enough to fit into a lunch box but holds 20 ounces of water.

Back-to-school season can be both challenging and exciting. Don’t let lunch stress you out. Invest in a few of these tools, and you will be prepared. With them, you and your kids can pack lunches that are healthy and safe while reducing waste and saving money.

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