It's that time again - what to pack in teen's lunch

Dd always had left overs. If there wouldn't be left overs she would get GF pasta salad or green salad with homemade ranch and toppings she liked along with fruit, chips, pumpkin seeds, water.

Ds' high school started so early thst he didnt have a choice but to make his own lunch!😂

Oh yeah, after like 3rd grade they pack their own stuff.

I had Lunchables, deli stuff, tortillas, bread, chips all available. I need to do a grocery run to get this stuff this weekend. ugggg...

I was so happy for the last two years lunch was free.. so sad that ended.

FWIW, breakfast & lunch have never been about variety in our house.

DD lived on hummus, pita chips and vegetables (cucumber, carrots and/or red pepper mostly).

DS made a sandwich (turkey, Havarti cheese, mayo & mustard), filled a baggie with carrots and grabbed a few Cuties and always had an assortment of granola and CLIF bars in his backpack. 

My girls do a lot of what you already have listed. Additionally: pasta salad, cold vegetable pizza with a ranch/cream cheese spread as the “sauce”, homemade soup in thermos, leftovers from dinner, noodles with peanut sauce with a lot of veggies and usually chicken Either in a thermos or cold, fried rice with pork and veggies in a thermos, leftover pizza eaten cold, egg salad, chicken salad, pinwheel style tortilla roll ups, wraps, big salad — I often buy them the bagged salads that include all the toppings and dressing right in the bag. I almost always wash and cut up veggies and fruits and just keep them stored in the fridge ready to eat. Homemade luchables - cheese slices, meat slices, crackers, pickles or a sort of charcuterie board style lunch. Generally my girls won’t eat sandwiches for lunch. They will usually pick a couple of options and we will prep them on the weekend and then they can mix and match all week long. .

DD always bought lunch at school.
DS had the same thing almost every day: sandwich, bag of popcorn (chips, veggie straws or the like), fruit snacks, water and maybe cookies.

Well my teenager - 17yo DS - has started work this year (apprentice carpenter) and his mummy still makes him lunch!    

For starters, there is NO WAY in a million years he would eat cut up veggies with dip.   

The not-so-junky food that he takes to work (and to school previously):
Wrap with a chicken, mayo, bacon and cheese mix
Chicken schnitzel / chicken tender roll or wrap
Chicken Caesar salad (this is about the healthiest thing my son eats haha - no other salads!)
Protein bars or muesli bars
Salami cheese and crackers (is that kind of what you mean when you say 'lunchables'? We don't have them here.)

He would eat yoghurt, but we don't pack anything that needs to stay cold.

His not-so-healthy snacks are potato chips, cookies, brownies. Maybe a Mars Bar if they're half price at the supermarket.


DS did Year 11 last year at a trade school, and they had a microwave, kettle, and sandwich press in the kitchen. That was so good, because he could take leftovers or noodles or a sandwich or wrap that he could toast.

My kids like breakfast burritos, quesadillas, meat and cheese sliders, salads, pizza, bagels with cream cheese, chicken salad on a croissant (pack the croissant separately so it doesn't get soggy), mini tacos (from costco) and a few of the other things on your list. They always take a fruit, veggie and something crunchy (chips, goldfish, pretzels)

I literally have no idea what my son ate for lunch for all four years of HS.

Nothing - at that age they would be doing it on their own.  From about 4th grade on if I wasn't having hot lunch, it was my responsibility to pack it the night before.  If they forget to pack something and don't have $$ to get lunch at school hopefully they will remember to take the responsibility and make their own lunch or make sure they have the means of getting it at school.

I love this thread for the different ways we all approach things.

I would definitely start with your kids though. What I envisioned as fabulously healthy variety and love-filled lunches were far from what my daughter wanted. She’s just not a big eater in the middle of the day and her lunch periods were SHORT. She was more about ease than variety. There’s be no way she’d want to assemble and eat a taco salad at lunch. She could eat a Rx bar and an apple every lunch for weeks - and still does. Lunches can still be healthy, but if you’re having lots of healthy variety at dinner, lunch can be more about convenience and less stressful.

Sometimes, I just give my DD17 money or my debit card and have her go to the store and pick out stuff for lunch. Or, I will ask her any special requests and pick stuff up when I'm there.

She likes snacky-type lunches - lunchables, cheese/peanut butter crackers. carrots, cucumbers, grapes, cut up strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon. She also loves kettle cooked potato chips. They do have some microwaves at school but sometimes there's a line to use them. She will take leftovers and sometimes a can of spaghettios and a microwave safe bowl. Just have to make sure the cans of stuff are the pop-top type.

Our school lunches have been free the past few years ... And they have been terrible. The kid barely eats school food. Most of the time if she doesn't take her lunch she will just scarf down food once she's home from school!

Second semester last year, she had an internship class that allowed her to be off-campus around lunch time so she would eat out quite a bit. But she paid for that herself.

I’m another that thinks the kids should be in charge of what they bring for lunch if they aren’t inclined to getting cafeteria lunch at school. I would take the kids shopping with me a couple times and have them choose what they want to pack in their lunches that get my blessing. If they never go to the store with you they don’t know what their options are, and you can shoot down the really junky stuff right from the get go. From then on, it’s up to them to let you know what they are running low on.

There is no point in buying things other people suggest if your kid won’t eat them, especially once they’re old enough to find other ways around getting what they want. I’ve been really surprised to hear what goes on at lunchtime from my kid about her table mates at lunch. One girl my middle school kid sat with last year would literally throw out 3/4 of the bagged lunch her dad or grandma packed EVERY SINGLE DAY because she just didn’t want to eat it and she thought she would get in trouble if she brought it back home uneaten. Even my kid was horrified by the utter waste. 

In our house, we all have the AnyList app downloaded on our phones and all members of the family can add things to any of our shared lists (Costco, Target, Grocery Store, etc.) at any time. For example yesterday, DD was with a friend for the day but she knew I was going to Costco later that afternoon. She was able to add some things to the shared Costco list that I wasn’t aware that we needed so I was able to pick them up when I was there. Usually I’ll text anyone I’m not right with telling them, “Heading to Costco, anything you want needs to be put on the list” and my list updates in real time with whatever anyone else adds. That way no one can complain if the things they wanted didn’t get bought.