Running Out of Lunch Ideas?

Try These Easy Non-Sandwich Lunches!

If you’re tired of packing the same sandwiches every day and your kids are starting to complain, I’ve got the solution for you! With my non-sandwich school lunch ideas, you’ll have plenty of creative, nutritious options that are easy to pack and fun for your kids to eat.

Quick, Simple Lunch Ideas That Aren’t Sandwiches

I know how challenging it can be to keep lunches exciting while juggling a busy schedule. Whether your child doesn’t like sandwiches, or you’re just looking for new ideas, these lunches without bread will help you mix things up.

As a busy mom packing school lunches for four kids, I’ve been through it all. From bite-sized wraps to hearty salads and protein-packed snack boxes, I’ve mastered the art of making lunchtime stress-free for parents and fun for kids.

I’ve packed every kind of lunch imaginable.

Cold lunch, hot lunch, sandwiches, salads, quesadillas, soup…

My most popular lunches over the years have been the non sandwich lunches.

Non Sandwich Lunch Ideas

I have so many lunch ideas for you it can be hard to know where to start! So I’ve picked my top five ideas for you to start with, and there are links to even more after that.

But first - if you want to pack lunches that look like mine, most of my lunches are packed in Bentgo Easyboxes. Not only are these are my favorite lunch containers ever (and I’ve tried them all!), but they also happen to be the least expensive of all the popular lunch boxes. You can also find all of my other favorite lunch packing supplies listed in my Amazon store, be sure to check it out.

Top five easy non-sandwich lunch ideas:

I’ve got dozens of ideas for lunches you can pack that aren’t sandwiches, you’ll find loads of them in the links below. But if you’re new to lunch packing and want to stick with some reliable basics, here are my top 5 ideas for lunches that aren’t sandwiches. Click through here to read a much more detailed post with pics for all these ideas.

1. The homemade lunchable: crackers, meat, cheese, a cookie… like those things you can buy in the store but so much better.

2. Pizza rolls: my favorite make-ahead lunch idea. Make big batches and freeze them.

3. Quesadillas: quick, easy, versatile, and kids love them.

4. Pinwheel: a roll, a wrap, call it what you want - sandwich type fillings but rolled up in a tortilla.

5. Fruit & cheese box: this has always been one of the biggest hits with my kids, especially when sweet summer fruits are in season.

Even more no sandwich lunch ideas.

There are too many ideas to put the pictures all one one page - it would never load. So I’ve divided up all of my non-sandwich lunch pictures across four more pages. Click through the links below to see the lunches.

What you’ll see are not fake lunches staged for photos - these are the real lunches I have packed for my kids. I have packed literally hundreds of these lunches. Bookmark and Pin these pages so you never run out of lunch ideas.

Here’s a list of just some of the lunch ideas you’ll find on the following pages:

• breakfast for lunch (actually we love these so much I’ve got a whole page just with these lunches)

• burritos, tacos

• pigs in a blanket

• corndog muffins, plus lots of other ways of packing hot dogs for lunch

• the deconstructed sandwich - all the parts of a sandwich, but separate

• hot lunches in a thermos (soup, mac & cheese, oatmeal, and more)

• many ways to pack pizza for lunch

• various kinds of kebabs, or little bites on a stick (kids love food on sticks!)

• salads

And if you want more beyond just the non sandwich lunches - keep scrolling down for links to more of my lunch ideas and lunch packing tips.

Here are the pages with all the no sandwich lunches:

More Lunch Packing Ideas and Tips

Now that you’ve got the basics - browse through the rest of the linked images below. I’ve got lots more than just the no sandwich lunches. Keep on reading and click the images below for my top tips and tricks to make all of your lunch packing easy. This is a collection of my most popular tips and ideas for school lunch packing success.

These are all of my tried and true methods for packing the best school lunches, tips for how to make lunch packing easy, links to all of my favorite lunch packing products, and my viral tips on how you can pack lunch ahead of time - even several days ahead. (I promise you packing lunch ahead of time will change your life.)