Creative Packed Lunches for Kids Lunchboxes

Sending your child to school every day with a lunch they will actually eat can be a daunting task. Use these techniques to keep your child's school lunch creative and their appetites inspired.

Use cookie cutters to cut classic sandwiches into fun shapes. You can make your child's favorite ham and cheese or peanut butter lunch into a fun heart or star. Or, cut smaller shapes out of the top piece of bread before placing it on top of the ham or cheese sandwich. The pink and yellow colors will show through the top piece of bread, making the boring packed lunch more creative.

For a protein rich school lunch idea, pull out a few Easter tricks. Boil three or four eggs the night before school. Use non-toxic markers to draw faces or designs on the boiled eggs. You can also use stickers or food coloring to decorate the eggs so your child has a nice surprise when they open their lunch box. Include some crackers, salt and pepper packets, and complement it with some fresh fruit and vegetables.

Skip the sandwich with lunchmeat roll-ups instead. Take one piece of your child's favorite lunchmeat, like ham or bologna, and layer it with a slice of your kid's favorite cheese. Roll the two up and secure with a brightly colored toothpick. You can place a layer of cream cheese, light mayo or mustard between the meat and cheese and even add some shredded lettuce on the inside.

Surprise your child with something in their thermos other than soup. You can pack any of their favorite hot dishes in a heat-safe thermos. Fill it with macaroni and cheese and add chunks of hot dogs. Or give your child leftovers from dinner, like pastas in sauce or curried soups.

Make your own Lunchables by combining sliced lunch meat, cheese and crackers in a sandwich shaped plastic container to keep everything from getting smushed. Use tiny cookie cutters to cut the cheese into hearts, stars or other fun shapes.

Keep your elementary aged child happy be designating a Color Lunch Day. Pick one day every few weeks and make sure all her food is backed in one color. For example, Red Lunch Day could mean a baggie of red berries, red Jell-O, red jelly sandwich, red juice and red yogurt (like strawberry). Or you could use food coloring to dye a simple sandwich filing blue or green, wrap non-dyable foods in colored plastic wrap, and all the colored fruits you can find.

Change everything up by putting your child's lunch items in all the wrong places. Make the sandwich with one piece of bread inside two pieces of meat and cheese. Use an empty yogurt container to hold a small amount of trail mix with nuts, dried fruit and granola. Put a fruit and vegetable juice in a miniature water bottle. Young children will be so entertained by their lunch they might actually eat all of it.

For your elementary school aged child who is just at the right age to appreciate the grosser things in life, give them a lunch disgusting enough to eat. Attach a note to each item in your child's lunch box with a gross description of its contents. Stuffed olives are Martian eyeballs. Baby carrots are Oompa Loompa fingers. Leftover meatloaf with extra ketchup becomes believable as baked mouse brains. Just make up the grossest names you can think of and chances are your kids will eat it.