3 Easy Lunchboxes for the New Year

After a long winter break, no kid wants to go back to class! But having one of these bright and colorful lunches to look forward to should help with the back-to-school blues. 

Cookie cutters are the quickest way to add extra cuteness factor to any lunch (And if you’re like us and still have yours out from Christmas, it’s double fast!). Here we turned a ham-and-Swiss tortilla sandwich into a mitten complete with a cheddar snowflake decoration. For our veggies we thread yellow, red and orange cherry tomatoes onto toothpicks. Little hands can’t resist the bright colors, and of course, dipping them in ranch. Last but not least, there’s a Mott’s Fruit-Flavored Fruity Roll. We love that they’re made with real fruit juice and natural flavors and colors from natural sources.

Here’s an easy way to remind your bright little pupil that he or she is a star! We loaded up kid-favorite white bread with ham, cheese, honey mustard and lettuce, then cut the entire sandwich with a star cookie-cutter. For extra sparkle, reach for decorative toothpicks and add purple and green grapes in alternating order. It adds a pop of color and serving of fruit—what’s not to love about that? And because who doesn’t love a sweet and salty fix, we added a handful of peanuts plus Mott’s fruit-flavored snacks. Best of all, these snacks give kiddos 100 percent of their daily dose of Vitamin C!

After all those holiday cookies and treats, it’s nice to go fresh like we did here with this super-simple salad wrap. For these, big Boston lettuce leaves are your best bet. When it comes to loading them up, anything goes—tuna salad, roast beef, turkey, or honey-smoke ham and provolone cheese like we chose. Keeping things fresh we loaded up on kid-favorite veggies—cucumbers, carrots and celery—with a heaping side of ranch. Then, because it’s all about balancing the healthy options with the well, less-healthy options, we added a chocolate cookie.

What are you excited to pack for the New Year? Share your ideas. We’d love to hear what you’re making!