13 Best DIY School Lunch Desserts for Your Kids

This post is all about the best school lunch desserts you can make quickly and easily at home.

When it comes to children, I know we all want to give them the world. Now I am not a mother myself, but as someone with 3 nieces I adore helping my sister’s daughters in any way possible.

For school lunches, I think it is fun to get creative with the school lunch desserts. This post will allow you to personalize your kid’s lunch box desserts, overall making them cuter and more fun for the little ones to eat.

Not only this, but you also get the benefit of all these recipes being SUPER easy, you can even make them WITH your kids!

Here are some of the benefits of making homemade desserts over store bought:

1. Healthier – The list I have curated, involves many fruits to keep the desserts sweet, but not overwhelmingly so that it is too much sugar for the little ones
2. Affordability – Sometimes trading a little time for money is worth it when you can create awesome dessert snacks from common household items. AND you can freeze many of these recipes to save for the weeks ahead.
3. Transparency – Many grocery store buys that we currently use as school lunch desserts such as Cosmic Brownies and Oatmeal Crème Pies can have tons of preservatives and unknown harmful ingredients (although these two are particularly delicious). When you are making your own desserts you know exactly what ingredients are going into your child.
4. Fun for the kids – Whether you make these simple school lunch desserts with your little one or just pack it away for them to try around noon, they will be delighted at how cute and delicious the dessert is. They can definitely brag to their friends about bringing the best dessert for lunch.

Now lets hop into these 11 super cute and easy lunch desserts to pack into your child’s lunchbox next week.

1. Chocolate Turtle Apple Slices

These chocolate turtle apple slices are the perfect snack for the kids. Tasty, pretty, and easy to make. This recipe uses my favorite kind of apple, Fuji, the perfect mix of crunchy and sweet. I mean what kid won’t like a snack size version of a pecan caramel apple. With only 5 ingredients, this is a super simple recipe to throw in your kid’s lunch box this week. Check out the recipe here.

2. Kid’s Dirt Dessert Snack Pack

My niece was just telling me about these dirt cups they made at her elementary school the other day, so of course I thought it would be a great dessert snack for a parent to make. And how cute are some edible creepy crawlers to surprise your kid during their lunch. I know you want the recipe, so click this link to check it out!

3. Homemade Fruit Roll Ups

This dessert snack is a sweet AND healthier alternative to the regular fruit roll up. I think the best part of this recipe is that you can make it with your kids and have a little parent child bonding and then have something delicious to eat right away after or stuff into the lunchbox for school. Get this amazing recipe right here.

4. 5-Ingredient Healthy Caramel Chocolate Banana Bites

Bananas are the perfect fill of fruits, potassium and when covered in chocolate and caramel and amazingly sweet treat to add to your kids lunch box! With only 5 ingredients needed it is super simple AND these can be thrown in the freezer to last for weeks. Check out the recipe for these caramel and chocolate little bites of heaven.

5. No Bake Cookies

It’s like I can practically SMELL the chocolatey peanut butter no bake cookies through the screen. These cookies were my girl scout troop and I’s favorite cookie to make together. And they taste amazing. These quick to make cookies are the perfect DIY lunch desserts to add in the lunchbox. Get the recipe here.

6. Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn

I wanted to throw in a few recipes that you won’t feel like are going to rot your kids teeth. When it comes to desserts it doesn’t always have to be super sugary and heavy. This cinnamon sugar popcorn is an easy to bag snack for lunch. Another alternative is to save these for an after school snack to. Honestly, this recipe works for all times of the day; lunch, afterschool or midnight! Try out this quick and easy snack for yourself.

7. Chocolate Dipped Oranges

I know. You are looking at these like…are you sure they taste good? But YES! Orange and chocolate together is a surprisingly good mix. And we all know every parent has cuties in their pantry. Dip them in some chocolate and voila! This DIY school lunch dessert is a cool way to trick your kids into eating some fruit as well! Although its very simple with only 3 ingredients, go ahead and check out the details of this lunch dessert here.

8. Watermelon Heart Pops

Cool, tasty, and SO cute! These watermelon pops are going to make all your child’s friends as you to make their lunchboxes. Don’t come for me about the watermelon being a fruit, because outside of the U.S., fruit is often had for dessert! So yes, I consider this on my list of DIY school lunch desserts. If I was a kid I know I would be real excited to be surprised with these for lunch. So make sure to add this to your kids lunchbox.

9. Kool-Aid Lollipops

How fun would it be to make these homemade kool-aid lollipops with your kids! Either way, adding these to their lunchbox is a small treat to sweeten up lunch. You can even pack a few and make a lesson of sharing with friends at the lunch table for your kid. Two birds, one stone. Make sure to use your kids favorite kool aid flavor too. Check out the recipe here.

10. Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

This was another elementary and middle school favorite treat of mine when I was in my girl scout troop. We would make peanut butter rice krispies with a milk chocolate fudge bottom. Refrigerate and cut in squares and you have a week’s worth of dessert. Imagine how much more tasty and better these would be for you compared to the store bought Rice Krispie’s brand! Get this deliciously chocolate DIY school lunch desserts recipe here.

11. Chocolate Covered Pretzels

As a dessert caterer who once had chocolate covered pretzels on their menu, just know that the kids ABSOLUTELY LOVE pretzels with chocolate. Specifically those in white chocolate. This is a perfect snack to throw in a lunch box. Make it pretty with sprinkles, nuts or colorful chocolate drizzle. To take a healthier approach, douse the pretzels in a dark chocolate instead. Either way, you can’t go wrong with this sweet and salty snack.

I hope you found at least one awesome DIY option from this school lunch desserts list I’ve created for you all. Any treat that surprises your child at school will be sure to make their day.

And if you want to find some healthy dessert alternatives you can pick up at the grocery store while you’re at it, check out my other blog below:

• 10 Low Sugar Desserts to Buy at Your Local Supermarket

This post was all about the simplest and quick DIY school lunch desserts to make for your children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, or any kid near and dear to your heart!