DIY Homemade Lunchables : Quick & Easy Tips

While store-bought Lunchables offer taste and convenience on the go, the experience becomes even better when you craft your own. In just a few minutes, personalize your lunchbox with your favorite foods or cater to specific dietary preferences. With complete control, your DIY Lunchables can be the freshest, most delicious, and even more cost-effective than store-bought options. Take an extra minute to cut them into fun shapes, add a touch of decoration, and arrange them neatly in your lunchbox for a meal that's both tasty and visually appealing.

Why DIY Homemade Lunchables?

• Customization: One of the main advantages of making your own lunchables is the freedom to choose what goes into them. Tailor your meal to fit your dietary preferences, ensuring a healthier and more enjoyable experience.
• Cost-Effective: Creating your lunchables can be more budget-friendly than purchasing pre-packaged options. Buying ingredients in bulk allows you to save money while also reducing single-use packaging waste.
• Freshness: Enjoy the satisfaction of using fresh and quality ingredients. This not only enhances the taste but also ensures that you are consuming wholesome, nutritious foods.

Ingredients:

Protein: Start with a base of your favorite protein – think deli meats, chicken nuggets, or even tofu for a vegetarian option.

Cheese: Choose a variety of cheeses such as cheddar, mozzarella, or Swiss. Cube, slice them or cut into cute shapes for easy snacking. 

Crackers or Bread: Include a selection of crackers, breadsticks, or even mini pitas.

Fresh Vegetables: Add color and crunch with fresh vegetables like cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, or baby carrots.

Dips and Spreads: Elevate your lunchable by including hummus, guacamole, or your favorite dip. Small containers or compartments work well for keeping them separate.

Fruits: Incorporate sweetness with fruit slices or berries. Grapes, apple slices, or melon cubes are some choices.

Assembly Tips:

Bento Boxes: Invest in a bento box or compartmentalized container to keep each component separate and visually appealing. Some of our favorite lunchboxes are: Easylunchboxes, Planetbox, Bentgo Kids and more.

Portion Control: Be mindful of portion sizes to create a balanced and satisfying meal.

Variety is Key: Rotate your choices to prevent lunchtime boredom. Experiment with different combinations to discover your favorite mix.

Temperature Considerations: If you're packing lunchables for school lunch or work, consider using an insulated lunch bag or adding an ice pack to keep items fresh.

We have packed many DIY Lunchables over the years, and the joy of crafting our personalized meals never gets old. If you're ready to take control of your lunchbox experience, check out more ideas and tips HERE. 

Here's to delicious, customizable lunches that fit your taste, budget, and style! 

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5 Snacky Lunch Ideas For School

Snacky lunches are fun to make, easy to pack and easy to eat. Lately, besides leftovers, most of Nikolai's lunches are snacky lunches which I often times refer to as homemade lunchables. With the short school lunch time, and of course the need to talk at lunch, snacky lunches are convenient and most welcome. It contains foods that he loves to eat, and we have the foods on hand most of the time.

These lunches are also easy for us to assemble with variety of fruits, vegetables, crackers, cheese, meats, breads, etc.

Our snacky lunches mostly contains any of the following:

• Bread, crackers, croissant, bagel, tortilla wraps, muffins, pretzels.
• A variety of cheese either in slices, sticks, wheels and at times cut into fun shapes from block cheese.
• Sliced deli ham, turkey, roast beef, salami.
• Fruits such as apple slices, seedless grapes, berries, peaches, watermelon, orange slices, and at times apple sauce.
• Vegetables and dips (ranch or hummus).
• Extra treat - Granola bar, rice krispies, popcorn, chips.

Here are 5 snacky lunches which Nikolai enjoyed recently.

Lunch 1: Cheese and ham roll ups, peach slices, seedless grapes in our favorite square silicone cup and tortilla chips in his leak-proof Ecolunchbox bento splash box. 

Lunch 2: Croissants, lefse with cinnamon and butter ( hubby is part Norwegian so we enjoy lefse occasionally), grapes, crackers and elderberry vitamin gummy. Packed in our Planetbox rover.

Lunch 3: Nitrate free pepperoni and crackers in the main compartment. Sides are apple slices, celery sticks with dip in the small container, a yogurt covered star, cheese stick above a granola bar. Packed in our Planetbox rover.

Lunch 4: A couple of turkey and cheese wraps secured with cute food picks, a granola bar, apple slices with cinnamon and crackers. Packed in our Easylunchboxes urban.

Lunch 5: This was packed by dad a.k.a my awesome husband. Sandwich cut into half, crackers, orange slices, cheese slices and I believe he hand cut the N for Nikolai's initial. 

You can always assemble a snacky lunch with what you have on hand, and include foods that your kids love to eat. They are quick and easy to pack! For ideas on DIY homemade lunchables, you can find them here.

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10 Non-Sandwich School Lunch Ideas In Planetbox

It has been a couple of weeks since we started back to school, and it looks like we made it! We are, however, still getting used to our new sleeping schedules, waking up schedules. Nikolai has been quite cooperative open to compromise. We offered an arrangement  accepting a later bedtime but with the agreement that each grade on a report card that was less than 95%, would adjust the time earlier by half an hour.  He took the deal, and I am hopeful that it will work out well. I don't expect he would have any difficulty as he has always done better than that.

I've combined several of Nikolai's lunches packed in his Planetbox in this one post. They are non-sandwich lunches which he had enjoyed a while back.
You can see that Planetbox is one of the lunchboxes that we used quite often and it's one of our favorites. It's easy to pack, easy to wash, very durable and will last for many years to come!

I'll try to describe what we included when packing each of these lunches.

Bento lunch 1: Main compartment contains nitrate free ham and string cheese cut into pieces for kebabs with an organic granola bar. Sides are grapes, sugar snap peas, hummus in the small dipper, a Yogurt covered star and organic cheese crackers.

Bento lunch 2: Lunchables style lunch with nitrate free pepperoni and crackers in the main compartment. Sides are apple slices, celery sticks with dip in the small container, a yogurt covered star, cheese stick above a granola bar.

Bento lunch 3: Another lunchables style lunch with nitrate free pepperoni, string cheese and crackers in the main compartment. Sides are Annie's organic crackers, celery sticks and baby carrots, a yogurt covered star and organic apple slices. I thought the 'eye' picks made it fun!

Bento lunch 4: Main compartment contains a bagel with cream cheese and a granola bar. Sides are goldfish crackers, chocolate chips, grapes and orange slices. I'm pretty sure that this was one day that I needed to go grocery shopping.

Bento lunch 5: Mini waffle sandwiches with cream cheese in the main compartment. Sides are red and green grapes, baby carrots, chocolate chips and goldfish crackers. Packed in our Planetbox.

Bento lunch 6: Crackers and cheese for the main section with ham roll-ups above. In the other sections I included organic fruit snack, rice krispies bar and grapes.

Bento lunch 7: An English muffin with eye picks and carrot mouth (a little like Hubby after too much T.V. ... Just kidding!), orange slices, chocolate chips (What a combination!), celery sticks, baby carrots, and Annie's organic crackers.

Bento lunch 8: Main compartment contains waffle sandwiches with cream cheese. Sides are a ham kebab, orange slices, chocolate chips, organic granola bar and Annie's organic crackers.

Bento lunch 9: Tortilla wrap cut into half with eye picks and an organic granola bar in the main compartment. Sides are grapes, orange slices, baby carrots, fruit snacks, Babybel cheese and crackers.

Bento lunch 10: Mac and cheese in the main compartment, Nikolai doesn't mind eating it at room temperature...works for me!. Sugar snap peas with a cute bear pick, pretzels, yogurt covered raisins, cantaloupe and grapes.

Below is a collage that I made for those who might like to pin.

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Christmas Tree Bento

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!🎄 Of course , as we are in Florida, Christmas here looks a little different than, say Minnesota or Vermont, though Christmas always looks good wherever you might be. It's also my favorite time of year to make some winter and Christmas themed lunches. Although life is usually especially hectic during the holidays, I decided to try my best to make at least a few fun lunches for Nikolai.

We have all been busy here and already have put up and decorated our Christmas tree, or to be more accurate, several trees throughout the house. In addition we have yard decorations, table decorations and more. It's so festive and I just love Christmas!

This is a super easy Christmas tree bento for which I used a tree cookie cutter as separator for a lunchables style lunch.

In this bento lunch: Within the confines of the Christmas tree cutter which I used as a separator I included some ham roll-ups, some chunks of Colby-Jack cheese and some colorful goldfish crackers. The moon and stars are Ritz round crackers and yogurt covered stars from Trader Joe's. There is half of a granola bar alongside the tree. In the other sections there are organic baby carrots and grapes in a silicone cup with a present pick. All of these are packed in an Easylunchboxes container.

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5 Homemade Lunchables and DIY Pizza Lunchables

In this post I will continue to share some lunches which Nikolai had enjoyed last school year and didn't get posted then. There are so many brands and varieties of lunchables these days in stores, their popularity can hardly be questioned. I may have mentioned that we have NEVER bought or tried the store brands ones. It is not that I have anything against those sold in stores, but I just can't justify the price for the small amount of food that you'll get. Packing our own is easy, much less expensive, and we can include the foods that we prefer, and choices are always great. I love packing these lunchable style lunches as it's nice to have a little bit of everything. You can find more lunchables ideas in my previous posts here.

The DIY Pizzables shown here is the first time I packed this for Nikolai and he loved the concept.

Bento lunch 1: DIY Pizza lunchables. Main compartment contains whole wheat sandwich thins (you can also use pita if you prefer), nitrate free pepperoni, organic marinara sauce in a leak-proof mini dipper, a spoon and a baran. Top left are shredded mozzarella cheese and top right are organic granola bar cut into half and seedless grapes.

Bento lunch 2: DIY Homemade Lunchables. Main compartment contains whole wheat crackers, round shaped cheddar cheese which I used my small round shaped cookie cutter for the cut out, organic popcorn and nitrate free salami in a square silicone cup. Sides were organic celery sticks, dip in small container and organic apple slices.

Bento lunch 3: Main compartment contains slices of cheddar cheese, nitrate free ham roll ups with a music note food pick and whole wheat crackers. Sides were cucumber slices and watermelon chunks with a smaller music note pick.

Bento lunch 4: DIY Homemade lunchables, Mickey Mouse themed. I used my Mickey Mouse fondant cutter for the provolone and cheddar cheese slices on top of some crackers, nitrate free salami, Pirate's booty and seedless grapes. I also included a yogurt cup which is not pictured.This was the day when we were low on groceries.

Bento lunch 5: DIY homemade lunchables with nitrate fee honey ham roll ups, cheese stick slices, cheese bread from the store which was so yummy and organic baby carrots in the main compartment. Seedless green grapes and organic apple slices on the top.

All of these easy lunches were packed in our Easylunchboxes container. Easy peasy right?

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Dabbawalla Lunch Bag Review

Dabbawalla kindly sent us an example of their wonderful bag and I am very pleased to share with you my very favorable impression. Their name sounded familiar, so to satisfy my curiosity I managed to find this from the Dabbawalla site.
"Literally translated it means lunch box carrier. We are inspired by the legendary system of dabbawallas delivering homemade lunches, packed with love, to thousands of office workers in India."

It is a colorful and wonderful way for you and me to send lunches with our children. The British Union Jack lunch bag shown here is the one which Nikolai had chosen.

This Dabbawalla Lunch Bag is just one from the great selection which you can find at their site. Their colors are eye popping bright and their designs are both numerous and cheerful. 

Dabbawalla is an absolutely phenomenal brand that is known for its trendy designs and its amazing neoprene-like fabric called eco-sponge. Not only is the PVC-free material eco-friendly, it’s also insulating so your child’s lunch stays colder typically for four to five hours if you include an ice pack.

The Dabbawalla bags are easy for even very young children to open and close to access their lunch, and the handle is soft and comfortable. While quite roomy inside, they are not bulky outside. It's not as small as some of the ones I've seen sold in stores, this is quite a good size bag which I absolutely like! I have tried it with many lunch boxes from my collection and found that it will easily accommodate many types of containers.

The photo above shows the back side. The inside usable dimensions are 10 inches high x 9 inches wide  x 6 inches deep, but these are a bit variable as their bags are soft and expand a bit to fit many containers. I am very pleased with how much I could fit into this roomy lunch bag, it was able to hold Nikolai's lunchbox, an ice pack, his water bottle and still have room to spare! The lunch box can even stay UPRIGHT, a feature that I truly love!

Below you can see that there is even a mesh pocket inside for an ice pack or napkins and one on the side for a water bottle or utensils.

The photos below show:

1. Homemade lunchables with nitrate free ham roll-ups, organic baby carrots, seedless grapes, cheese chunks with a cute pick and rice crisps which was packed in a PlanetBox Shuttle.
2. The Shuttle lunchbox is positioned upright in the bottom of the Dabbawalla bag.
3. Room to spare even after adding an ice pack and a PlanetBox BottleRocket.
4. The adorable zipper pull which is easy for children to use and which I truly adore. How cute is that!

I LOVE this lunch bag and only wish that I've found the Dabbawalla site when Nikolai was much younger. I like all of their super duper cute and functional bags!

Disclosure: Dabbawalla generously provided me with the product for review without cost to me. Other than receiving the product, I have not received any compensation to write this review. All opinions are my own.

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Star Themed Lunches

I try to make at least one star themed lunch for Nikolai towards the end of every school year. It's my way of reminding him that he's our star and we are very proud of his achievements and hard work throughout the entire school year. This year it's slightly different, I made a few star themed lunches, probably because this will be his last year in elementary school. I've combined them in one post as the last week of school will be quite hectic for us with concerts, award ceremony and all.

I'll still be packing lunches till the last day of school for sure, just the last few days will be bento snacks since they only have to attend half days.

In this bento lunch: Main compartment contains a sandwich topped with a couple of smiley stars cut out of Gouda cheese with my small star cutter, STAR lettering and an organic granola bar. Alongside are organic baby carrots, broccoli florets, strawberries, grapes and a sting cheese. This lunch was packed in a Bentology Living Box.

In this bento lunch: Main compartment contains a couple of star shaped sandwiches topped with stars of cheddar and Gouda cheese, a Babybel cheese which I used my small star shape cutter for the cut-out, Trader Joe's yogurt stars and an organic granola bar. Sides are strawberries, organic baby carrots and broccoli florets. This lunch was packed in our Easylunchboxes urban.

Nikolai is quite particular with the number of cheese, crackers and meat whenever I sent lunchables. If it's 8 crackers, he prefers everything else to be 8 so he can stack them. Many times I've sent lunchables without counting and he suggested that I should, LOL. The bento below has 8 of each but one cracker is hidden behind, so you'll only see 7.

In this lunchables: Main compartment contains whole wheat crackers, star shaped cheddar cheese and nitrate free ham roll-ups. Sides are baby carrots, seedless grapes with a star pick, mini chocolate chips, a yogurt star and cheddar popcorn. This lunch was packed in a Planetbox rover.

In this bento lunch: Cheddar cheese star topped on a yummy sandwich. Alongside are kiwi slices and strawberries with a star pick. He also had a snack box and his daily water bottle which is not pictured. This lunch was packed in a Planetbox shuttle.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.
 

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6 Fun and Easy Lunchbox Ideas

Happy New Year 2016! I wish you all a New Year filled with Happiness, Health and Prosperity!
We have had a fantastic Christmas and enjoyed our long holidays very much. They have been great fun with lots of food, the company of our wonderful family and visiting with great friends. Now, however, it's back to basics time and I'll start by posting some fun and easy lunches which Nikolai enjoyed months ago. All of these lunches were packed in our Easylunchboxes. For this week, I'll begin by packing something similar to these, which are simple, quick and easy.

Here are 6 Fun and Easy Lunchbox Ideas.

Bento lunch 1: DIY Lunchables. Main compartment of ham roll-ups in a square silicone cup, crackers, seedless green grapes, string cheese slices and organic granola bar. Top left are some organic baby carrots and top right are slices of organic apple.

Bento lunch 2: This was a cute lunch which I packed for Nikolai's field trip. I used my new bear cutter/stamper for the sandwiches. He also had an organic granola bar along with baby carrots, some dip in the small container and seedless red and green grapes with a cute bear pick.

Bento lunch 3: Leftover ham and Annie's organic mac & cheese. He had this lunch warm and I packed it in my Warm&Tote lunch-bag which kept this lunch warm till his lunch time. His sides were some fruits and veggies (not pictured)  as I packed them in a snack box with an ice pack.

Bento lunch 4: Freezer pizza bites which I baked in the morning while we were having breakfast. His sides were organic granola bar, a Babybel cheese, organic baby carrots, seedless red and green grapes.

Bento lunch 5: Stamped sandwich. This was an easy one, I stamped the top of the bread with my Mickey stamper, ranch in the Mickey container, organic apple slices and cucumber slices and their Mickey picks completed this lunch.

Bento lunch 6: Annie's organic mac & cheese in a silicone cup are along with whole grain all natural chicken nuggets in the main section with some music note picks. Baby carrots and grapes are in the smaller sections.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

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Snowman Ornament Lunch and DIY Lunchables

Snowman...man....man...man, was one of the words that Nikolai uttered when he was a toddler. He loved Snowmen and will get his hands on one whenever he sees them. I still remember finding an odd hand towel in my shopping bag when we got home one day. I usually get a set of towels but this was just one and it was, yes indeed, a Snowman! That little guy must have got his hands on it while sitting in the cart and nicely dropped it with my other items without me noticing. I still have that towel and every year I'll get it out and share this story with him and others.

A couple of year ago he made a snowman ornament at school and it's hanging on our Christmas tree again now. Our cute ornament inspired this lunch.

In this bento lunch:

• I used a circle cookie cutter for Snowman sandwich and topped with a slice of mozzarella cheese. His eyes and mouth are made from raisin bits, carrot nose and the pick to make it like the ornament.
• Top left are organic baby carrots and a cucumber slice cut into ornament shape with my small cookie cutter.
• Top right are some pear pieces in a silicone cup with a snowman cupcake pick. This lunch was packed in an Easylunchboxes container.

Here is a Kids DIY Christmas lunchables. I have some cute cupcake picks, which add a festive feel for this time of year. I used them to spruce up the lunchables.

In this lunchables:

• Ritz crackers, ham slices, holiday edition goldfish crackers, mozzarella cheese slices. 
• Cucumber slices cut into Christmas tree shapes.
• Orange slices and seedless green grapes.
• This lunchables was packed in his Easylunchboxes container.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

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4 DIY Homemade Lunchables

We are having a blast of a summer vacation and and I am quite happy that we still have around three weeks of summer break till school starts.The only thing left for us to even think about relating to school is the school supply list which we received in the mail, we usually get those supplies a week before school starts. Every year, we get Nikolai's school uniforms, new shoes, backpack, lunchboxes, lunchbags, etc, the first weekend after the school year ends. YES, you read it right, as soon as school gets off, so we can start our summer break without talking or even thinking about back to school till the last minute.

I'll update more about our trips in my future posts. As I was looking at my picture archives today, I found so many lunches which I made towards the end of the school year, and which I've not posted. Most of them are in the same category, when I have a lot of other things going on, I like to pack lunches based on the same category or theme for the entire week. I thought that this lunchables post would be great for some easy lunch packing ideas. I may start out packing lunchables myself when school starts and when I might lose my lunch packing mojo.

Many have found Lunchables tasty and convenient especially for meals away from home, but often it is even better if you make your own DIY Lunchables. By taking just a few minutes you can include the foods you like best or those that meet your particular dietary needs. You are in control, so they can be the freshest, most yummy, and even cheaper than what you could find on the store shelves. In addition, you can take that extra minute to cut them into cute shapes, perhaps add some decoration, and arrange them neatly in the box.

All these lunches were enjoyed by Nikolai months ago and they were packed in his Easylunchboxes containers.

This first lunchables was flower themed. I used my small flower shaped cookie cutter to cut the Colby-Jack cheese, cucumber slices and ham. It also had Ritz crackers, pineapple slices and Trader Joe's yogurt stars. The square shaped silicone cups are some of my favorites, they are practical and great for keeping foods separated.

The second DIY lunchables are Applegate nitrate free pepperoni slices with a panda baran sheet, Annie's organic fruit snacks, whole wheat crackers, Colby-Jack cheese cut into circles, veggie sticks and apple pieces. I used some round silicone cups here as well as my favorite square cup. The small house shaped cup was given to me by my friend who lives in Japan years ago.

The third DIY lunchables include crinkle cut cucumber slices, ham roll ups, whole wheat crackers, a string cheese cut into pieces, all in square shaped silicone cups and also apple slices and veggie sticks.

The fourth DIY lunchables has slices of cheese bread, pepperoni, mangoes, babybel cheese, strawberries and Annie's organic fruit snack.

Pinterest friendly collage.

Here are the supplies that I used to create and pack these lunches.

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