Quick and Easy School Lunches

With the start of the school year approaching quickly, it’s time to start stocking up your kitchen with school-lunch essentials. This year, instead of sticking to traditional fare like sandwiches, you might mix-it-up by include some of these healthy and fast meals in your child’s lunchbox. In fact, these lunches are so good that you might pack an extra serving to bring for your own workday lunch!

Lettuce Wraps

Cold, crisp iceberg lettuce leaves and low-fat chicken salad make a delicious and fun low-carb meal. To prepare a flavorful chicken salad, mix cooked chopped chicken with raisins, shredded carrots, celery, red onion, or any other vegetables you enjoy. Top this mixture with your favorite salad dressing and pack it along with whole iceberg leaves to wrap around scoops of the salad.

Hummus and Pita

You can find an excellent variety of pre-made hummus at any grocery store, and it tastes great with slices of soft pita bread or crunchy pita chips. Veggie sticks are also excellent dippers for hummus, and you can find pre-sliced sticks in the produce section of the supermarket to save on prep time. Because hummus is made from fiber and protein-packed chickpeas, it is a surprisingly filling lunch option.

Gazpacho

You might not think of soup as a lunchbox-friendly item, but gazpacho works quite well for to-go lunches because it is served cold. To prepare gazpacho, mix chopped tomatoes with chopped seedless cucumber, bell pepper, and jalapeno. Add a generous splash of sherry vinegar and olive oil along with a pinch of salt and pepper and let the soup sit overnight. Blend the mixture until smooth and serve it with crackers or baked potato chips for a healthy, light lunch option.