August 15, 2013
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Learn how to make these homemade Healthy Lunchables Tacos that your kids can assemble and eat at school.
It’s not hard to recreate the pre-packaged Lunchables into a healthier and more appealing lunch made with real ingredients.
Homemade Lunchable Tacos
My kids are big fans of soft chicken tacos and the classic beef tacos, and whenever there are leftovers, these Homemade Lunchable Tacos are a perfect solution.
You can find more healthy homemade lunchables here, and they are easy to recreate with simple ingredients.
Lunch Taco Options
Just like taco night, the toppings and filling ideas are endless. Whether your kids prefer the soft tortillas or crunchy taco shells, they can build their lunch with the ingredients below:
- Soft or crunchy taco shells
- Street size tortillas
- Baked wonton wrappers (used in this recipe)
- Cooked taco beef
- Shredded Salsa Chicken
- Black beans
- Guacamole
- Sour cream
- Salsa
- Sliced black olives
How to pack tacos for lunch
There is a way to pack tacos for lunch without them getting soggy. Instead of assembling the taco in the morning, place your choice of ingredients in a compartmentalized lunch container like EasyLunchboxes to keep wet and dry items separate.
Lidded sauce containers make a perfect vessel for condiments like salsa, guacamole, and sour cream. When it’s time to eat, add the filling and toppings to the tortilla and enjoy.
If you don’t have a lunch container with compartments, use a regular container and silicone muffin cups to keep the ingredients separate.
Healthy Lunchable Tacos
Ingredients
- 6 baked wonton wrappers
- 1 cup cooked taco meat shredded chicken, or black beans
- ½ cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- ½ cup salsa or pico de gallo
- Sour cream optional
- Guacamole optional
Instructions
- Evenly divide the taco cups, taco meat, and cheese between 2 compartmentalized lunch containers. Pack the salsa, sour cream, and guacamole, if using, into lidded sauce containers.
- To assemble, scoop the cooked taco meat or beans into each taco cup. Top with cheese, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.
Rashelle
The little silicon containers you use look really cute and a great way to separate the foods you place inside from the rest (sprinkled cheese), however, I know for my kids, the containers don’t stay straight in their lunch box, it does go sideways or upside down, how do you prevent the contents in the small silicone containers from leaking onto the other foods or falling out once you close it and it gets meshed around all over the place. For example, the orange silicone cup doesn’t reach the top, so the shredded cheese will inevitably fall around the other food.
Thank you.
Kendra Peterson
I pack a folded cloth napkin on top in the larger compartment, and it fills the space. Works great for “dry” ingredients like small crackers or cheese. Not so good for really tiny stuff like sunflower seeds, but then I fold the napkin smaller and just put it over that area. :)
Arelis Keszthelyi
I just want to make sure… When I pack the chicken it’s cold, right? Is it going to be ok cold..it’s not going to go bad?
I love this idea. Something different than the plain old pb&J or ham and cheese sandwich.
Thank you for all your wonderful ideas.
MOMables
The chicken is cold. Given that you throughly cooked the chicken; No, it won’t go bad for the 3-4hours that it’s packed inside an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack or two.
Jamie
So I made this tonight for my son (dry run/sample) before packing it in his lunch. It was AMAZING! My son immediately asked for more. The only change I made was adding a little (homemade) taco seasoning to the chicken just to give it a little kick. Yum!!! So glad for another addition to our lunch rotation!
Kendra Peterson
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! And yeah. Plain chicken, seasoning is a great idea! Or for those who can tolerate stronger flavors. But often leftovers are from already seasoned chicken, and the salsa should add a little “kick,” so I didn’t mention it here. ;)
My kids are still “deconstructionist” eaters, so eat everything separately. And salsa is “too spicy” for my older one. So I just packed the meat and cheese with other stuff for them. But I bulked this up for my husband and he looooved it! (He got roasted chickpeas instead of cookies and crackers though! Haha!)