what to cook when you don't feel like packing school lunches

If you’re a parent still enjoying your kids’ summer vacation to the fullest, I’m sorry to jump-scare you with the mention of back to school. But my kids do indeed go back to school this week! So, ready or not, back-to-school season is upon us.

We’re very fortunate to have universal free school lunches here in California, but the menu never changes and my older sons have gotten more… vocal… about wanting to bring a packed lunch from home certain days of the week. So toward the end of last school year, I (lovingly! begrudgingly!) started packing some school lunches.

A few weeks in, I got into a rhythm of purposefully making dinners that would leave leftovers I could pack in their lunch boxes and it was a very helpful unlock. For example: I’ll cook pizza chicken knowing that I’ll have pepperonis and mozzarella in the fridge for a Lunchables-style DIY pizza lunch. Or I’ll make tuna melts for dinner, then pack leftover tuna salad and hardboiled eggs in their lunch boxes (yes, Mattis and Cashel will eat tuna salad! If yours won’t touch it, you could take the same approach with chicken salad!). I also add in some fruit I know they’ll eat, a veg they like, and a little sweet bite.

To show you this leftovers-filled lunch box approach in action — and to take a week of meal planning off your plate! — we teamed up with PlanetBox, AKA the best lunch box makers out there, to create a five-day dinner and leftovers-filled lunch box meal plan.

We’ve mapped out five family dinners from the WTC archives that will leave you with five days worth of kid-friendly leftovers to pack in their lunch box. And we compiled a grocery list for you, too! You’ll find it all in the printable PDF below.

You can print out and cook through this meal plan from start to finish, or just use it for inspo. Once you start viewing lunch boxes through a dinner-leftovers lens it gets kinda fun, and feels easier than recreating new lunches day after day!

When I started packing lunches more often, I remembered a lot of you guys going crazy over PlanetBox in the comments section of WTC. I ordered a couple of their Rovers and, man, they live up to the hype! They’re stainless steel, so are durable and dishwasher safe, and have five compartments for a nice little snacky mix of food. They come with decorative magnets in fun designs and pre-loaded with two leakproof containers that you can fill with condiments, juicy fruits, etc.

Their team is also SO nice and creative. They approached us about teaming up on a back-to-school lunch box guide this year it was a big heck yes! We combined our skillsets (our team’s: cooking dinners and repurposing leftovers; their team’s: making, packing, and photographing lunch boxes), and created the ultimate meal plan for back-to-school season!

How much food a family eats in a day varies so widely based on the number, ages, and appetite levels of each kid. Even within same-sized families, there’s variability — a family of four with a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old needs a different amount of food than a family of four with a 14-year-old and 16-year-old.

Double recipes if needed based on how much YOUR family typically eats. If you have two little kids whose appetites combined equal one full serving, this will likely work as written! Alternatively, if you have older kids or more than two children, you may need to double them.

The PDF below has ALL the info — every dinner recipe in full, notes for how to transform the leftovers into a kid-friendly lunch box, and a grocery list for it all. Here are the meals included within it!

The lunch box includes:

• Lamb and feta pita-dillas (like a quesadilla but made with leftover pita!)

• Watermelon salad

• Cucumber slices

• Leftover dilly minty yogurt sauce + cherry tomatoes

• A yogurt-dipped pretzel

The lunch box includes:

• Leftover pita bread

• Pepperonis, mozzarella slices, and (optional!) basil leaves for something green

• Tomato sauce

• Sliced olives (swap in another veg if they hate olives!)

• Fruit salad

• Mini cookie

The lunch box includes:

• Leftover tuna salad

• Sourdough chunks

• Hard-boiled egg halves

• Leftover dilly minty yogurt sauce + cucumber slices

• Gummy fish snacks

The lunch box includes:

• Salami slices

• Cheese slices

• Kettle chips

• Kalamata olives

• A halved hard-boiled egg + cherry tomatoes

• Green apple slices (or swap for any seasonal fruit)

• Mini cookie

The lunch box includes:

• BBQ chicken meatballs

• Cheesy rice + cherry tomatoes

• Broccoli

• BBQ sauce

• Watermelon & clementines

• Brownie bite

My kids will eat room temp rice and meatballs! But I know not all kids are into it. If yours wouldn’t, you could warm them in the morning and pack them in a temperature-controlled thermos — meatballs piled on top of the rice. Fruit and/or veg could be packed separately in something like this.

Click here to see our favorite Planetbox products and shop their back-to-school sale!