Are your mornings rushed too?  I’m really glad my son’s day-school doesn’t have the option to buy his lunch. Otherwise, I would have thrown in the towel early on and never even attempted to learn how to make his lunch without the stress. However, I have created and perfected a system that makes lunch prep a breeze. Today I’m sharing my 5 best kids lunch box hacks!

After reading this post, you will know some of my favorite lunch box hacks to not only make your kid smile but to simplify your morning lunch packing routine.

You will learn:

• 3 ways to make lunch prep way easier
• how I keep a sliced apple from turning brown without adding a thing
• what I do when I get caught off guard and run out of bread (with no leftover in sight!)

Prepare everything the day before

I always make my son’s lunch the day before since mornings are rushed as it is. The key here is to have a trigger to remind you to do it the day before. The trigger for me is when I am cleaning up after we just finished a meal. When portioning the leftovers in a container (you can read about my favorite lunch containers here), I always make sure to put his in a microwave-safe container before putting the rest away. Sometimes I’ll do this for just the next day or I’ll do it for a few days if it’s one of his favorite meals (like spaghetti.) If there are no leftovers or its not something I think he will enjoy, I will then make him a sandwich. The key here is to make the main portion that takes the most prep the night before.

Throw in Healthy Foods

Have prepackaged or individually packaged foods on hand makes packing a lunch so much simpler. This can be things like

• a banana
• cheese stick
• yogurt
• apple sauce
• peanut butter

Having these items seriously makes a world of difference since you are literally just throwing them in the lunch box. I go head a put the non-refrigerated items in his lunch box and I group everything to in the fridge for his lunch (including his drink in his favorite water bottle that’s still holding up from when I bought it in 2017.) Seriously, I want to do nothing but put the items in the lunch box the morning of.

Cutting sandwich with Cookie Cutter

This is my son’s favorite of the 5 best kids lunch box hacks. My kid doesn’t mind the crust on a sandwich but he does like when his sandwich is cut in half. Using a cookie cutter or my son’s personal favorite, dino sandwich cutter, makes it super easy to take off the crust and cut the sandwich. Not to mention it is super cute and fun!

Sliced Apple That Will Not Turn Brown

There are several ways to slice and apple and make sure it doesn’t turn brown. However, most of them require adding something or another. I purchased an apple cutter that not only slices the apple for me but when done with a little trick, it will also make it to where it doesn’t turn brown.

Here’s what you do, take the apple cutter and cut the apple but not cut it all the way to the bottom. This way the apple is still connected. After cutting the apple, remove the apple cutter by bringing it back up and simply put the apple back together. There’s no need for a rubber band or anything if you do it properly. I place it in a snack bag and it’s ready to eat or dip in peanut butter!

Here’s a link to one similar to the apple cutter I have.

Roll it up

Bread goes fast at my house. We all eat it and it makes its appearance at both breakfast in the form of toast and at lunch. I’ve been caught many times with no bread and absolutely no leftovers. One thing I always have on hand are wraps or tortillas for taco night. I simply use the tortilla instead of bread and add the exact same ingredients. This can a savory wrap like a turkey sandwich or a sweet wrap in the form of a peanut butter sandwich. It tastes great with both and changes up the monotony of a plain sandwich. I can’t tell you how many times this has saved me!

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So there you have it- 5 of the Best Kids Lunch Box Hacks! With these lunch box, hacks you are sure to make your kid smile and have a much more smooth morning. You might even have time to grab a GOOD photo of your kid on the first day of school without being rushed! Want to make that photo look super professional? Check out my mom-mobile filters. One-click and your phone photos look professional. ****Click here to learn to install them and get one for free! ****