Easy Lunch Meal Planning – Printable
Looking for a way to make lunches interesting and simple?
This busy mom needed a lunch meal planning solution, so I made one to share! I hope this printable will help you out as it has me.
Quick but not Boring
Things have been busy around here and I’ve got to admit lunches have been sliding. We were in a rut of hot dogs, sunbutter and jelly sandwiches and lunch meat roll ups. Quick and easy, but pretty boring and not real healthy.
The more I read about the serious health problems associated with Nutrition Deficit Disorder – a phrase coined by Dr. Sears in his book The N.D.D. Book: How Nutrition Deficit Disorder Affects Your Child’s Learning, Behavior, and Healt (affilaite) the more I decided it was time for a change. We had to get out of our rut, start eating better lunches, and it HAD to be simple or I wouldn’t be able to make it happen.
Lunch Meal Plan Printable
Use this blank school lunch menu template to plan lunches for the week.
I made this lunch meal planning template based it on a restaurant here in town that has this great kids menu where the kids pick one item from each category. You can print it out and write ideas in each of the squares. Then just mix and match, choosing something from each square for your lunches.
Download your lunch meal planning template here
The categories are pretty self explanatory, and I hope will work for most people’s idea of a healthy lunch. I use “Main Meal” to mean the heartiest part of the lunch, something that includes some protein and hopefully has some “staying power.” The “Extras” Category I use for grains, treats or chips, just “extra” type stuff.
Here is my list of 20+ Real Food Lunch Ideas to get you started!
OK – Now what’s YOUR go-to lunch? You might be tired of it, but I’d love to know what your staples are to see if they give me any new ideas!
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One of my go to lunches on busy days is hummus and shredded cheese on a crunch taco shell. Everything I need to make it is easy to keep on hand and doesn’t go bad quickly so I always have a reasonable option 🙂
I created a Lunch Box Checklist for The Trip Clip that lets you do this same thing but with pictures! My kids find it super helpful in the mornings. You can see it here: https://thetripclip.com/tc/Main/Activities/index.php?activityID=33
Thanks Molly – I love the lists you’ve created for the Trip Clip, super helpful.
Great 🙂
Hey, this seems like a great idea! Hope to share on my parenting page on Facebook too at http://www.facebook.com/ConsciousParentingApproach – inviting you and your fans to come say Hello to us there! 🙂
We love hummus & avocado sandwiches. Or a container w hard-boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, avocado, cucumbers, and a separate container of crispy rice crackers. Mine also love build your own tacos. And pitas with toppings for a ‘pizza’–sauce, chicken, pepperoni, & olives. All GF/CF at our house but still yum!
I just found your site today & LOVE IT! One of our favorite picnic lunches is Taco Salad. This would also work in a child’s school lunch.
Actually, my 4 1/2 yr old will not eat lettuce to save her soul. But she loves kidney beans; black olives; taco meat and cheese – all cold & seperated into compartments. My 6 year old loves all of that – together – plus lettuce; tomatoes; onions & Western Dressing – which is on the side until it is time to eat it. On days when we’re feeling especially fun we cruch up taco chips & add them to the top. Yummy.
I needed some school lunch ideas, Alissa. Thanks!
You’re welcome! I’m finding that having this filled out and posted on the side of my fridge helps me from feeling all chaotic when I’m figuring out lunch. I just check it out for ideas and it’s made it much easier to get lunch made.