23 Back to School Treats For Fun Lunches
These 23 recipes for back to school treats are here to help make your lunch packing a little more fun without adding too much time to your week. Making school lunches for your kids isn’t always the easiest thing. Figuring out what they like and what they’ll actually eat can be a hit or miss process. I gave my boys string cheese in their lunch for literal years before I realized that they NEVER ate them (sad).
Even though we homeschool, our weekly Friday school requires us to make a round of lunches. All of my kids approach this lunch differently, with some bringing heated up leftovers in Thermos jars to others packing snacky bits of this and that. What all of them appreciate is a fun treat that we’ve made throughout the week that’s easy to pack. From Oatmeal Cream Pies to no bake treats like fun versions of Rice Krispie Treats, kids love to have a little something in their lunches that lights up their day.
What Makes Good Back to School Treats?
- Big Batches: Things that can be easily made into large batches. If you have a big family, there’s nothing more annoying than spending time making a recipe that will only make 1 serving per person. You’ll find none of that here!
- Make-ahead: All of these recipes can be made ahead, are freezer friendly and quick to make.
- Can Be Packed Frozen or Need No Refrigeration: It’s nice now that most lunchboxes have slots for an ice pack, but it’s better when you can pack a lunch without one.
- Not Too Messy: All these treats can be wrapped easily to contain any gooeyness or melting that could happen. Also, none of these treats are going to leak all over lunchboxes. All of these treats are relatively sturdy too, keeping crumbly messes to a minimum.
- Grab and Go: I understand now why people spend money on pre-packaged treats…they make life so easy when it comes to the early morning panic of needing to pack your lunch as the bus is at the end of your street. Still, with very little work, it’s easy to replicate packaging at home with very little time and money. If you can freeze your treats, all the better for quick and easy lunch packing.
- Customizable: Every school is different for what it will and won’t allow for allergy safety. For every recipe here with nuts or nut butter, you can swap out allergy safe choices like sunflower butter or pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds for whole nuts.
How to Package Any Treat for Easy School Lunch Making
When you make a recipe, you can easily package them straight away in one of these solutions. From there, freeze them and pull them out as needed for quick lunch packing.
- Cookies: Pack in snack bags, or self-sealing cookie bags (I get mine on Amazon or Hobby Lobby). I love the square Great Value snack bags from Wal-Mart in the 200 count pack.
- Muffins, Breads, or Bar Cookies: Wrap in a small piece of plastic wrap or snack bags.
- Dips or Sauces: Pop into a small lidded container like a 4 ounce Mason jar or Rubbermaid 1/2 cup containers.
23 Back to School Treats
Big batch recipes that’ll help you make your school lunch packing simple and way more fun without the junky preservatives of pre-packed snacks.
Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
These are the classic oatmeal cream pie without any of the preservatives or junky ingredients. Pack these in snack bags or self-sealing cookie bags and store them in the freezer. When it’s time to pack lunches, pop a frozen cookie in your lunchbox and it’ll be the perfect temperature by lunchtime.
Moist Chocolate Zucchini Bread Baby Loaves
The most tender chocolate bread has a summer secret in grated zucchini that adds extra moisture to the bread. Cut the loaves into 4 slices and pack 1 or 2 slices into snack bags then place the bags inside a larger freezer bag so you can grab and go when packing school lunches.
Healthy Applesauce Granola: Actually Healthy Granola
Sweetened with applesauce and date syrup, this is not the sugar loaded granola that gets passed off as healthy. This granola is high protein as well. Your kids will love it on top of plain Greek yogurt as an alternative to sugary desserts.
White Bean Blondies
Date sweetened, naturally gluten-free bars loaded with dark chocolate and impossibly moist, these bars are a healthy alternative to sugar loaded school treats. My kids actually prefer these and their sister recipe, Black Bean Brownies to regular brownies!
Black Bean Brownies: Gluten-Free, Dairy Free, Date-Sweetened
Gluten free and sweetened with dates, you’ll be amazed at how rich these brownies taste. You will never never miss the sugar in a traditional brownie once you’ve tasted these. They’re packed with protein and fiber, keeping kids full and minds sharp all day.
Zucchini Cookies With Chocolate: Sneaking In Those Green Veg
The zucchini adds some sneaky vegetables and the oats bring some good fiber to these otherwise classic oatmeal cookies for a cookie that’s just the right amount of sweet. For lunches, uses a small cookie scoop to make your work go farther.
Lemon Zucchini Muffins
Moist lemon muffins filled with the gorgeous green of zucchini, a little bit of toothy chew of oatmeal and packed with triple lemon flavor you’ll love. A mini muffin pan or a square muffin pan will make packing lunches ultra efficient.
Lazy Homemade Applesauce: The Easiest Way To Preserve Apples
The simplest and the best way to make applesauce. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is a lazy recipe; the best part is that you can make a giant batch and freeze it. Pack these in a small lidded container for applesauce better than anything you could ever buy. Alternatively, you can freeze it in snack bags and clip the corner for a cheaper, better alternative to the squeeze top applesauce packs.
Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats: Even Better Than the Classic
These are rice krispie bars for peanut butter lovers chock full of extra peanuts from trail mix. You just need 10 minutes to whip up a batch of these bars. Swap out the peanut butter for sunflower seed butter to make them safe for school lunches.
Confetti Sugar Cookies
The perfect soft sugar cookies get the sprinkles treatment for big soft confetti cookies. These are such a fun lunchbox treat and a great way to use up those dye free sprinkles you forgot about in your pantry.
Homemade Nutella: Rich Chocolate Hazelnut Flavor, No Seed Oils
This recipe will ruin you forever once you realize how easy it is to make your own nutella. Unlike the packaged stuff, there are no seed oils and no fillers. Pack this in small lidded containers with some apple slices or animal crackers for your chocolate-loving kids. Can’t have hazelnuts in your school? Just use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds in place of the hazelnuts.
Ultimate High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies: No More Flat Cookies
There is no cookie more iconic in a lunch than a good chocolate chip cookie and this recipe makes GREAT cookies for those of us living at high altitude, tired of flat, overly browned cookies.
Apple Butter Muffins With Walnuts
Warm spiced apple butter adds delicate flavor to these sweet Fall muffins. Make them in a mini muffin tin and skip the walnuts for an easy added back to school lunchbox treat.
Oatmeal M&M Cookie Bars
One of the fastest, easiest bar cookies you can make also serves the most people. Cut these up in small squares for the simplest school lunch treat you could possibly imagine.
Easy Candied Orange Peel: Never Throw Away Your Orange Peels Again
You wouldn’t think that candied orange peels would make a crave-worthy snack, but I’ve watched a room full of kids quietly pass through my kitchen over a couple hours, eventually nicking an entire tray of these peels. The bitter of the peel and the chewy sweetness is amazingly refreshing. A few strips in a snack bag are a better than dessert alternative for kids’ lunches!
Marshmallow Crispy Cookies: Better Than Costco
This cookie brings out the kid in everyone with the gooey marshmallow middles and rice krispie flavors inside a caramel flavored cookie matrix. Cut your marshmallows in half for slightly smaller cookies for the best lunchbox portion cookies.
Chocolate Cookie Dough Bark: The Easiest Cookie You’ll Ever Make
This cookie bark could not be easier to make. Pack a couple pieces in a snack bag for a lunch treat your kids will look forward to.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
These are happy making cookies with the crunch and mysterious floral nuttiness of poppy seeds boosted with lemon and cloves. These are an everyday cookie in our house and their light sweetness and petite size makes them a nice lunchbox treat that won’t be too sugary for kids.
Easy Strawberry Cereal Treats (No-Bake Recipe)
This is a fun recipe to make with your kids and an adorable lunch treat. Feel free to use whatever cookie cutter you have on hand. The hearts are cute though for cheering up your kids and letting them know you care!
Granola Butter: The Nut Butter Variation That’s So Good Homemade
Nutty oat butter made with whole granola, cashews, and coconut with all the cozy flavors of an oatmeal cookie. Put a bit of this in a lidded container with some sliced fruit for a less sweet dessert your kids will love. Use pumpkin seeds in place of the cashews to keep it school lunch safe.
Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats
These bars have everything you love about rice krispie treats but with chocolate. Skip the nutty trail mix for school lunches and use regular chocolate chips on top instead.
Mini Banana Breads: Customize Your Favorite Mix-Ins
Classic banana bread with less sugar with easily customizable mix-ins to make everyone in your house happy. Slice these into 4 slices and pack 1 or 2 pieces for lunches. You can even freeze your pre-packed slices for even easier lunch making.
Birthday Cake Blondies
These bars have all the chewy butterscotch flavor of classic Brown Butter Blondies with the festive additions of white chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles. These bars travel well too, making them perfect for school lunches.
