Mommy and Me Lunchbox Ideas

Let’s be honest: Packing lunches for your family can be a major chore. For this Mommy and Me lunch series, I’ll show you how to use similar items to pack your lunch alongside your child's lunch. With just a few slight differences, you can make a fabulous meal for you, and a fun lunch your kid will love to eat, and save yourself oodles of time in the process.

Quick Bean Quesadillas for lunch? Yes please! Before packing up my kid's quesadillas, I cut them up into fun bite-sized pieces. Both lunches are packed with cucumbers and raspberries. (I love how Sistema’s Lunch Cube to Go has split levels, so fragile and juicy items don’t get smushed or seep into other parts of the lunch!) I included a Fiber One® 90 Calorie Chocolate Caramel & Pretzel for myself and a Lucky Charms® Cereal Treats bar and Mott's® Snack And Go Strawberry Applesauce Pouch for my daughter’s lunch.

For this second set of lunches, I went with a lunchbox classic—egg salad sandwiches, supplemented with fresh strawberries and raspberries and some crunchy sweet potato chips. For the kid's lunchbox, I also packed a Mott's® Medleys Peach Apple Fruit And Veggie Snack and added a couple cute food picks from the kitchen supply store to make the strawberries even more irresistible.

When shopping for versatile lunch ingredients, bagels often wind up on my list. They can also be packed in many different ways! For this lunch, I packed bagels, cream cheese, fresh vegetables, an orange and a mini LÄRABAR for dessert. For my lunch, I kept it simple with a bagel and cream cheese sandwich. To make a more kid fun-friendly version for my girl, I topped the bagel and cream cheese with some of the vegetables I had packed in the lunch. Because my kids love to dip, I also packed a small container of dressing for dunking the vegetables in.

Chicken salad is always a great Mommy and Me lunch item. There are so many different ways to pack it, and most kids really do enjoy it. For my lunch, I popped the chicken salad on top of a bed of lettuce and topped the whole shebang with raspberries, celery and carrots. Kids love to dip stuff, so I packed the kid's chicken salad with carrots and celery sticks for dipping. Both lunches also contain crackers and Fiber One® 80 Calories Chocolate Cereal for a crunchy, good-for-you treat.

Croissant sandwiches are always a family favorite, especially at lunch time. Simply use a croissant instead of bread, and boom…instant “special” sandwich status. Here I packed the sandwiches with carrots, a Yoplait® Fruplait and fresh grapes. To add a playful element to the child's lunch, I cut the carrots into coins and put the grapes on some colorful food picks.

Do you have any tricks or tips for packing lunches for both you and your little ones will love? I’d love to hear your go-to recipes and ideas!