14 Easy Bento Lunches To Plan For Back To School

I’m starting to plan for Back to School, but we don’t go back until the day after Labor Day. I know I want to make Bento lunches at least once a week this year, they are an easy solution for healthy school lunch ideas. I would love to do it four days a week, but with both boys being in school this year I don’t know what to expect. I thought that you may enjoy seeing the bentos that I’m very excited about recreating from last year.

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Ants at School: This bento was from our Back to School Week and I actually found that Zane loved having ants on a log in his bentos. Ants on a log is a great PB&J sandwich alternative and gets them to eat their veggies too!

Included in this bento: Peanut butter sandwich, celery with peanut butter and raisins, grapes, abc cheese cut outs, and a cheese stick.

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Red Bento: Rainbow Week I wanted to choose this whole week, it was my favorite. I did a bento for each color of the rainbow this week.

Included in this bento: Red sweet peppers, Baybel cheese, hot dog, and strawberries.

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Pirate PB&J Bento: PB&J Week actually became one of my back up themes for the year because it was easy and Zane was guaranteed to eat his lunch.

Included in this bento: Peanut Butter and Jelly Pirate with a cheese bandana, applesauce pouch, sweet peppers, and chocolate bunny grahams.

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Bitty Bite Lunch #3: I did a fun themed week called Bitty Bites Week where I made the whole lunch bite sized finger foods. It was a lot of fun and these lunches were great for pre-packing for the week.

Included in this bento: Cheese squares, mini sweet pepper, grapes, gold fish, and Matt’s Munchies Mango Fruit Snacks.

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Healthy Taco Muffin Bento: I had completely forgotten about Muffin Week! It took a little more planning on Sunday, but was also a great theme to have pre-packed for the week.

Included in this Bento: Healthy Taco Muffins, grapes, olives, carrots and goldfish. 

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Spider Bento: I did a couple weeks of Halloween Bentos, I think Halloween is one of my favorite times of year to do bentos. This bento all started with the cracker spider and developed from there.

Included in this Bento: Cracker with peanut butter, pretzels, and raisins, carrots, and grape spider eggs.

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Bat Bento: This was Simple Halloween Week, I wanted to show how even a sheet of stickers and a couple fun bento tools can make a fun lunch!

Included in this Bento: Turkey and cheddar bites, no sugar added peaches, bat wings (blue tortilla chips), and spinach leaves.

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Ninjago Bento: Lego Week was tons of fun and I will definitely be recreating most of the bentos from that week!

Included in this Bento: Cheese sandwich Ninjago, Zane cut out of cheese, cucumber throwing stars, and grapes with a sword pick.

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Forest Animal Bento: Fall Week was all about fall, animals, and thanksgiving. This was one of my favorite bentos because owls are the school mascot at Zane’s school so it was perfect.

Included in this Bento: PB&J whole wheat english muffin owl, fruit O eyes, pistachio beak, apple wings, chocolate bunny grahams, more apples and sweet pepper leaves.

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Snowman Bento: Christmas Week I didn’t do anything spectacular, this year I will have to plan a little better.

Included in this Bento: Cheese, cracker, and turkey pepperoni snowman with grapes and spinach.

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Ham & Cheese Heart Bento: Valentines Week was the week I was able to get away with pink and cute for my boy. I loved it!

Included in this Bento: Whole grain bread cut as a heart with cheese & ham, strawberries, celery, pretzels, and a chocolate strawberry heart for a treat.

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Pirate Bento: Not my best photo but one of my favorite bentos from Pirate Week.

Included in this Bento: Pirate Kabobs made with olives, cheese stick, hot dogs, and mini sweet peppers. Whole wheat chocolate chip muffin, grape island with a sweet pepper X, and a fruit cup.

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Goodnight Moon Bento: I was amazed at how this Reading Books Week turned out, it was better than I could have imagined!

Included in this Bento: Waffle PB&J sandwhich, cheese stick (cow jumping over the moon), bunny graham crackers with Gold Fish moons, and applesauce (mush) carrot stars.

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Chick Eggs Bento: Easter Week was lots of fun too, another great week I can get away with a few semi girly things in my boys lunch.

Included in the Bento: Hardboiled eggs with sweet pepper beaks, bunny pretzels, grapes, and Peep for treat.

Are you going to try making Bentos?

Easter was the last themed week I did of bentos, life got busy and I just made a bento here and there with no theme. Zane still loved his “fun” lunches and if I didn’t do one for a while he would ask for one. This year I am very excited to send two sets of bentos with the boys. Zarek always got a bento at home too, but this year he will get a lunch box and get to eat it in his class.

I hope this inspired you to try a couple bentos for your kids this year too. Do you think you will try?

Want more healthy lunch ideas?

Follow Pepper Ferguson’s board Healthy Kid Lunches on Pinterest.

Written by

Pepper Ferguson

Hi I'm Pepper. My family and I are sharing pieces of our lives.
We hope to inspire you by showing that even small changes can make the biggest differences in your life. You don't have to go to extremes to become healthy. Just do it one habit, one meal, one walk, and one hug at a time.

Let's work together one piece at a time making better habits, eating healthier, getting moving, and most of all loving our families.

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