Not all children enjoy eating sandwiches, even when the sandwich has been freshly made rather than sitting inside a warm lunch box all morning.

Most parents want their child to take a healthy lunch box to school. After all, studies have shown that a nutritious lunch helps kids perform better educationally. At the same time, parents want their child to actually eat the lunch!

Discovering your daughter hasn’t even taken a bite of her lunch box sandwich and only nibbled on an apple is frustrating. It’s enough to make a parent take the easy lunch box option of resorting to expensive pre-packaged snacks, just to ensure something from the lunch box gets eaten.

While sandwiches are the easiest lunch box option, if your child won’t eat them, then you need to become particularly creative with healthy lunch box ideas. Why not try these ideas:

Lunch box ideas that aren’t sandwiches:

These lunch box options can also be made as dinners and then taken as leftovers to school the next day. Alternatively, they can be cooked up on the weekend and then portioned into resealable bags. The big concern with preparing meals like these for a lunch box is making sure that food safety rules are adhered to. Packing lunches in an insulated lunch bag would be a must if you want your child to stay free of food poisoning or you can add a frozen item. Pop in a frozen pottle of yoghurt which is perfect to help keep food cold or a chilled carton of flavoured milk.

• Vietnamese rice paper rolls
• Home made sausage rolls
• Stuffed crusty rolls with mince
• Vegetable spring rolls
• Risotto cakes
• Noughts and crosses pizza
• Lamb samosa
• Impossible quiche
• Honey soy chicken legs
• Lunch box pasties
• Little meat pies
• Egg and bacon pies
• Sweet potato frittata
• Upside down tomato pie
• Vegetarian pasties
• Tomato glazed meat loaf

Lunch box scrolls:

Scrolls are a great alternative to sandwiches that are easy to prepare ahead and freeze. These home made recipes are a lot cheaper than buying the bakery versions – and your kids will probably love them.

• Cheese and bacon rolls recipe
• Cheese and vegemite scrolls recipe
• Apple and cinnamon scrolls
• Cheese rolls
• Pizza rolls
• Pizza pinwheel scrolls
• Cheese and tomato finger puffs
• Pocket pizzas
• Pizza strips
• Tuna melts

Lunch box scones:

Scones are so easy to make, and these different lunch box scones can be made even more nutritious by adding some fruit or vegetables for extra flavour.

• Cheese scones
• Buttermilk scones
• Potato scones
• Quick scone recipe
• Pumpkin scones
• Berry scone wedges

Healthier lunch box alternatives to packaged sweets and treats:

It’s common that children who dislike sandwiches have a passion for sweet treats. Try to keep their sweet tooth in check with these healthier alternatives to cakes and biscuits for the lunch box.

• Zucchini bread
• Banana bread
• Carrot cake
• Easy five cup loaf
• Easy coconut loaf
• Date and pecan rolls
• Dotty sultana cake
• Almond oat yoghurt muffins
• Apple muffins
• Honey orange dairy-free cake
• Lemon iced Weet Bix slice
• Rock cakes
• Oat, date and honey muffins
• Wholemeal apricot and coconut cake

Lunch box savoury treat ideas:

These ideas for savoury lunches can tempt even the fussiest eaters.

• Cheesy corn muffins
• Corn pikelets
• Gluten free pikelets
• Veggie sticks with dip
• Hummus dip
• Nan’s zucchini loaf
• Olive and feta muffins
• Sneaky pumpkin muffins
• Parmesan toasts
• Pesto and parmesan muffins
• Plain pikelets recipe
• Quiche
• Veggie pikelets

Lunch box muesli bars and snacks you can make at home:

Muesli bars are a fantastic lunch box snack which can give kids enough energy and fibre to carry them through the busy school day. Try these recipes if you don’t want to buy the pre-packaged variety at the supermarket.

• Fruit and Oat bars
• Home made rice bubble bars
• Home made muesli bars
• Granola bars
• Honey joys
• Muesli bar slice
• Muesli biscuits
• Trail mix