Green School Lunch Ideas

Green School Lunches

Happy Earth Month to You!

The birds are chirping, the sun is making an appearance longer, and everything is turning green! In honor of Earth Month, our friend Renee from Raising Generation Nourished, is sharing some Green School Lunches that are fun and yum! Your kids will be asking you to pack veggies & salad after you try these green lunch ideas.

Little Kids Make the Best Observers

Have you ever really stopped to listen to what “wow’s” your kids? Every spring it never fails! The wonder and excitement over trees budding, flowers blooming, and fresh green grass to roll around in. I love hearing my kids’ amazement over the new growth in the spring.

Start a conversation about how green everything is in the spring, and then turn it into a game to list all the green fruits and veggies they can name!

Celebrate Spring and Earth Month with a Fun “Green” Lunch!

I wanted to share a plethora of ideas to make Earth Month a fun green lunch – but also nourishing too! There are so many great real food green options! No need for chemical food dyes here. With bright green fruits and veggies, those lunchboxes will be healthy and festive for the spring season.

I thought I’d give you a head start with a great green list, and then you can have the kids mix and match what they want in their lunchboxes. The more choice kids have, typically the more likely they will be to eat it!

Pack-able Green Fruit Options

- Green apples

- Green grapes

- Kiwi

- Honeydew melon

- Avocado

- Even something fun but nutritious like an Apple Larabar has a green wrapper that can be a great fruit option.

Pack-able Green Veggie Options

Don’t forget the dip! Kids are usually more likely to eat their veggie sticks with dip or something like cheese or cream cheese. You can make your own 5 minute DIY Ranch, or make a salad with kid favorites like the Ranch, Thousand Island, or French. Making your own will help you avoid the rancid oils and preservatives in store bought versions.

- Sugar peas

- Celery

- Green Pepper

- Leafy Greens/Salad

- Spinach

- Cabbage (think coleslaw or sauerkraut)

- Cucumbers

- Zucchini

Green Kid Lunch Box 1

Lunchbox #1

- Salad with green pepper (and other veggie colors of the rainbow too!) and my own Olive Garden Copycat Dressing

- Leftover gluten free protein waffles from weekend breakfast with coconut butter and jam (great option for nut free schools! If you can have nuts, use your favorite nut or seed butter!)

- Kiwi

And a quick note on the salads! If we are going to get kids excited about salad, we need to have some fun toppings as well as super yummy dressings. Crumble their favorite nuts or seeds over the top (pistachios would be a fun green add-in!). Even a sprinkling of raisins or dried cranberries sometimes sweetens the deal. You can make kid favorites like Ranch, Thousand Island, French, and more – see this DIY with 5 popular family favorite dressings!

Green Kid Lunch Box 2

Lunchbox #2

- Kid friendly Broccoli Soup

- Gluten free crackers

- Avocado

- Green grapes

To keep your avocados from browning, simply turn the avo flesh down in the container. You can brush some lemon or lime juice over the top if the kids don’t mind that (mine do mind!), but just getting the air away helps keep it fresh.

Soups are a fantastic, kid friendly way to get some green veg in. Pack their soup in a great thermos that will keep the soup warm, and a straw (we like these short, re-usable stainless steel straws for less waste!) and those veggie soup purees will disappear before your eyes! It is one of my staple lunch items weekly, and you can get so much green variety in this way!

Here are some green soup ideas that my kids love to pack in their thermos for lunch!

- Broccoli Soup

- Asparagus Soup

- Roasted Asparagus and Nettles Soup

- Zucchini Soup

- Pea Soup (there is a recipe for this in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings)

- Greens Soup (there is a recipe for this in my cookbook, Nourished Beginnings)

Pack up those green lunches and make sure to tag us on Instagram @Naturepedic & #NaturepedicGreenLunches so we can see what you and your kids create!

For more school lunch packing tips and school lunch gear answers, you can follow these posts!

- Mix & Match Bento Box Lunches

- 6 School Lunches Besides PBJ!

- Lunch Gear Resource Guide

Green Kid  School Lunches

About Renee:

Renee Kohley Renee is a wife and momma of 3, the vision behind Raising Generation Nourished, and the author of Nourished Beginnings, a cookbook focused on nutrient-dense recipes for infants, toddlers and beyond inspired by traditional foods. She is passionate about raising the next generation of kids with a better understanding where their food comes from, and how food affects their bodies. She is committed to teaching others that simple, real food can make positive changes in health and can be done on a tight budget, all while making the kids smile.

Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.


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