10 Simple Fun Food School Lunches

10 Simple {and EASY} Fun Food School Lunches!

Fun food can be daunting if you don't know where to start and looks like it takes a lot of time. It doesn't have to, I promise. I'm all about Simple and EASY Fun food that can be easily recreated. Making school lunch every day can get mundane. You might even find yourself packing the exact same thing day after day because it's what you have in your fridge/pantry (been there, done that!).  I decided to put together this round up of lunches to show that with just a few minutes you can add some FUN to your school lunches; and put a smile on your kids' face :)

So a few things about these lunches.  First thing; every lunch here was made in TEN minutes or LESS. These particular lunches were all captured with my phone right before school and I have previously posted them on Instagram. And, as always, all of these lunches are peanut free and tree nut free.

1. The Last of Everything Lunch

**Many times grocery shopping is put off til the last minute. I enjoy being creative with using everything up in the pantry! I take it as a challenge to eat out of our pantry and fridge/freezer so that we don't end up wasting food!**

Here Eliana's school lunch is all about lasts! As in last of everything in the pantry at that time! The last of the raspberries (some filled with mini chocolate chips), the last of the snowflake crackers, the last of the wowbutter (in the small container so she can make cracker sandwiches), the last of the pirate booty (found half a bag in the pantry) and a cut up last cheese stick and packed it all in her EasyLunchbox in square silicone baking cups. 

2. Grab and Go!

I made this very simple and quick lunch for Eliana on a morning where my days got mixed up and I had to make it FAST before we left for school! I used square silicone cups in her LunchBots Quad and filled them with blackberries, chocolate soy butter mini sandwiches, sliced plum and a cut up cheese sticks! A cloth napkin and a lunchbox love note finished it off!

3. Flutter Flutter Butterfly!

Here Eliana had a lunch full of Butterflies. Cucumber, strawberries, yogurt (in the purple butterfly container) with nut free granola to mix in (inside small green container) and chocolate soy butter sandwich squares. Packed in her Easylunchbox.

4. Sheepishly Easy

A Sheepy Bento for Eliana's school lunch this day. Popcorn (looks like wool right?), sliced plum with a waving sheep bento pick, sliced apple with a sleepy sheep bento pick and two CuteZCute Sheep wowbutter sandwiches. Packed in a LunchBots Quad.

5. Springtime is coming; Ladybugs and Flowers

This Simple Spring lunch full of flowers and ladybugs is perfect to lift your wintertime blues! Packed with a homemade wowbutter granola bar, strawberries, yogurt (in the ladybug container) with nut free granola (in the orange container) and sliced cucumbers. The ladybug bento pick and flower silicone cups are simple touches that make the lunch complete :)

6. Roll it up!

Sometimes I pack lunch the night before.. Sometimes I am a quick!-rush--and-pack-the-lunch-before-we-leave! kinda gal. This lunch represents the latter. For less than 10 minutes this lunch is not too shabby! A babybel cheese, butterfly crackers, raspberries, blackberries and chocolate soy butter sandwich roll ups packed in Eliana's LunchBots Quad.

7. Leaping Dolphins

I went with a Dolphin theme for lunch this time! Packed in her Easylunchbox she had strawberries (with two cute dolphin bento picks),  yogurt with mini chocolate chips, A wowbutter honey and cinnamon sandwich and dried cranberries (in the little blue container). I used this small cutter to make the dolphin bread cutouts.

8. Bear-y Simple Lunch

This panda-riffic school lunch was so simple and easy to make! In a LunchBots Trio Eliana had sliced plum and blackberries with cute panda bento picks, slightly overstuffed (whoops!) wowbutter, cinnamon and honey CuteZCute panda pocket with two fig newton cookies underneath it and a cut up cheese stick. I accidentally overstuffed the sandwich so some wowbutter was coming out of the sides... but that is just a minor casualty in rushing to make this lunch ;)

9. Froggy Fun!

This school lunch happened to fall on a Friday. A Fun Froggy Friday Lunch! Strawberries, cucumbers, cheese and wowbutter cinnamon sandwich roll ups on froggy picks, all packed in her Easylunchbox.

10. April Showers Bring May Flowers

This is one of my absolute favorite school lunches I've ever made Eliana! Flower cut cucumbers (with cucumber scraps underneath), a strawberry flower with a blackberry center, babybel cheese umbrella and a chocolate soy butter sandwich with cut outs. This was SO simple and quick to make! I'll have to make it again when those April showers come this year! :)

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SO, there you have it! Ten Super Simple FUN food school lunches that are EASY to make! 
You'll notice there are some common themes throughout these lunches. I'll explain five of them in more detail :)

One, you will see repeats of my pantry staples: crackers, fresh fruit, cucumbers, cheese sticks, popcorn, bread and nut free spreads. These are things I always have in my fridge or pantry so that putting together a quick fun lunch is possible. These staples will be different for every family based on favorite foods/fruits/vegetables/seasonal availability.

Two, I use fun shaped silicone cups and bento picks. Just sliced cucumber inside a fun shaped silicone cup makes all the difference in presentation! Just adding a panda bento pick to cut strawberries takes one second and it really makes lunch more fun!

Three, I use sandwich stampers or cookie cutters to make quick designs on the fly. 

Four, I try to add a daily lunchbox love note. Doesn't really make the food taste better or look more fun but I do try to add one and Eliana loves saving them and reading them. 

Five, If I have no idea where to start I go with an overall animal or color theme-- butterflies, frogs, ladybugs, dolphins etc. Once I have the animal/theme down the rest of the lunch comes together quickly!


These Simple and Fun lunches are EASY to recreate! Your kids can make it with you, or make it themselves if they are old enough! I figure if I have to make her lunch every day I might as well make it FUN! and no. Not every lunch I send to school is fun. I have many times sent in a lunch with no cute shapes or picks because I'm too tired or don't feel like even spending the extra minute doing that. And that is OK too. The important part is providing her with a healthy and nutritious lunch every day :)

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Back To School Essentials: Fun Food Cutters

Back to School Essentials: Fun Food Cutters

The entire month of August has been Back to School mode over here! With Eliana starting school next Wednesday (!!) I've been sharing different "essentials" lists for Back to School every week.  Not just for you.. but for me too. This is our first experience with the whole Back to School parade and I need to get myself in order! At the moment she is completely prepared for every cute lunch she will ever get... however school supplies? we should probably go out and get her folder.. and other stuff... but anyways back to the most important part about school: FOOD! ;)

Of course this list is my favorite.  Being my blog is all about creative fun food I love using tools to make fun food easier. I love how simple fun food cutters are to use and how they transform simple sandwiches in seconds!  I also do understand that this list of fun food cutters is not exactly "essential" in the same way as a lunchbox and a lunch bag is for back to school.  But here on Creative Food using fun food cutters is part of what we do! :)

In my first two editions of Back to School Essentials I went over my personal favorite lunchboxes and lunch bags.  Again I will start off by saying, even though I make creative fun food I do not own every single fun food cutter out there, nor is this a full compliation of ALL the fun food cutters out there. I'm  just sharing my personal favorites with you and telling you why I like them so much :) 

My favorite Fun Food Cutters are The Lunch Punch, FunBites, CuteZCute, Cookie Cutters (mini and vegetable cutters included) and sandwich stampers (numerical order is not in order of preference; I like all the cutters for various reasons)

1. Lunch Punch

Ever since I laid my eyes on The Lunch Punch I knew I had to have them! I don't have them all (yet anyways) but I have four sets. The sets I have are: Sand*wishes*, Match & Munch, SWEET and VRRRM! I do love the Critter Cutters set, but honestly I already have butterfly and dolphin/fish cutters. I'd just want it for the dog and elephants so its on my wish list :)

I love ALL of our Lunch punches. They are simply the easiest way to make a plain sandwich into fun food in a matter of seconds.  You simply make your sandwich and press the cutter down on top.  Eliana can use them herself and she especially loves to make the puzzle one so she can put it all together again :)

With this Easy Back to School Bus Lunch I used the VRRM! Lunch Punch cutter. I do like to add extra details sometimes, but honestly the sandwiches look great even without the details.  To do the details I take the cheese (or whatever I'm using) and press it into the mold with my fingers.  It makes a cleaner cut and ensures that I cut out what I want.  The only problem is sometimes the shapes that have a lot of extra pieces can get stuck inside the punch.  Whenever I remove my sandwich I always do it slowly to be sure not to break any of the pieces.

2. FunBites

FunBites are food cutters that cut your food into bite sized pieces.  With the Cube it you can cut food into 12 small square pieces.  With the Luv it (available in pink or red) you can cut your food into 8 geometric shapes and two mini hearts.  With the Triangles you can cut food into 8 small triangles and 2 larger triangles.

You can use the cutters on fruits, veggies, sandwiches, pancakes, french toast, pizza etc. There are a lot of options on how to use the cutter because they are so sturdy.  My particular favorite cutter is the Cube it (what I used to make my lion, pictured above) and I use it much more than the other ones. For more Cube it Lunches click HERE.

3. CuteZCute

I said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE the CuteZCute Cutter! It is a 6 piece set and the options are endless.  You get one outer face cutter and four different animal face cutters/stamps.  One side of the animal face is used as a cutter while the other side can be used as a stamp.  You also get a cute little panda pick tool that helps you poke out the food that gets stuck in the cutter. I love how versatile this tool is and I use the panda pick all the time with other cutters too!

Here I used the CuteZCute Frog on a wowbutter (peanut free/nut free) sandwich. I had decided to punch out the face details (Eliana ate the scraps) but you could leave them in and it would look just as cute!

4. Cookie Cutters (mini cookie cutters and vegetable cutters too!)

ANY cookie cutters work but I have this animal 50-Piece Cookie Cutter Set and it is amazing! They are plastic and very easy to use.  I've made Eliana lots of fun lunches with them as well. Honestly I'm not as creative without the use of my handy dandy cookie cutters.  I'd rather not cut out fun food with scissors or with a knife because it takes longer.  I enjoy the simplicity and ease of using cookie cutters. Plus I can use them for cookies too! :)

I also have various other cookie cutters, the ones I use the most are pictured below:

 nesting circle cookie cutter set, circle cookie cutter, 
star cookie cutter and nesting heart cutter set

I use the circle cookie cutters the most. And I love my nesting cookie cutters because not only do they take up less storage space, I can make fun layered sandwiches with each layer being a different size.  There are so many cookie cutters out there, so really any large cookie cutters will do for cutting out sandwiches and making lunches fun very quickly! Eliana will sometimes choose which cookie cutters we will use. I love how involved she is with all the cooking and prepping of food. I've found that having her involved has helped her eating habits tremendously.

I also LOVE my mini cookie cutters:

I have a variety of mini cookie cutters.  I love to use them on organic fruit leather and cheeses mostly.  They cut out the tiniest pieces and add such cute accents to lunches without me doing any work at all!

Vegetable Cutters are great too:

These vegetable cutters (come in small and large) are not just for vegetables! You can use them on vegetables AND other foods as well.  They cut great through cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, apples, pears, cheese, deli meats and breads.  They are very easy to use with even the hardest of vegetables because of their stainless steel edges.  I love that these sets come with cases so that storage is simple and easy.

5. Sandwich Stampers:

mini transportation sandwich cutter stamps and Angry Birds cookie cutter stamps

Sandwich stampers are a lot of fun! They are super easy to use.  You simple take your piece of bread, use the other rim to cut out the shape, and then push the design part down very hard.  You'll get a cute outlined sandwich! You can either make mini sandwiches, or use the stamps to add decoration.  They work best on bread and if you push down firmly and hard so the design is stamped well.

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So those were my favorite fun food cutters! I know I probably have too many of these... but we do use them all the time so I justify my addiction that way ;) What are your favorite fun food cutters?

Make sure to check out my Back to School Essentials: my personal favorite lunchboxes, and lunch bags.

p.s. Stay tuned for my Back to School Essentials: Allergy Friendly Snacks list next week! :)

**Disclosure: I was not compensated by any of these companies for this post. 

I created this list to share my favorite fun food cutters with you**

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