Super Mario Galaxy Movie Lunch Ideas: 4 Themed School Lunches

Four Super Mario Galaxy themed school lunches, one for each kid, built around the new movie.

We just got back from seeing the new Super Mario Galaxy movie and it was so much fun. Around here we love all things Mario, and we love themed lunches, so that became the challenge: one lunch per kid, all on theme, all colorful, and most importantly all easy to put together. I gathered up every Galaxy themed snack and treat I could find first, then worked the food around them.

The four lunches at a glance

• Bowser Jr (McKenzie): a spicy chicken sandwich with chocolate paintbrush pretzels
• Princess Rosalina (Lily): peanut butter and banana with a fruit star wand
• Yoshi (Griffin): a dino nugget sandwich with cantaloupe and Yoshi cookies
• Mario & Luigi (Jackson): a pizza sandwich, mac and cheese, and galactic cereal treats

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1. Bowser Jr lunch: bringing the heat

McKenzie is my kid who loves spicy food the most, and Bowser Jr is a fiery sort of bad guy in this movie, so her lunch had to bring the heat while still being cute. The main course is a sandwich she was always going to love: crusts off, a thin layer of butter instead of mayo, then lettuce, pepper jack cheese, buffalo chicken slices and smoky crispy bacon, finished with a drizzle of sriracha mayo. She only tried sriracha for the first time the week before and now she is all about it.

To make it read as Bowser Jr I used a sandwich stamp and edible food markers. The sides keep the theme going: kiwi because that green fits so well, baby bell peppers sliced to look like the jagged mouth design on his bib, cheese cut to sit on top, and carrots trimmed into little shapes that I was aiming at his hair and that honestly look more like his claws.

The snacks are where it gets fun. I found turtle chips at Aldi (they taste almost identical to Goldfish, and since Bowser Jr is a turtle creature they fit perfectly), and I turned dipping pretzels into paintbrushes: dip the tip in melted chocolate, let it harden, dip again to build up the brush, then dip the wet tip in sanding sugar and purple sprinkles because his paint is very purple in the movie. A few spicy Cheeto balls went in too, and the sweet treat is a pistachio cupcake frosted green with yellow piping for his shell.

For the drink I picked up the special edition Mr. Pibb that is supposed to be sweet and spicy. It is called Punchin’ Peach, and McKenzie told me that sounded too mean, so we went with Bowser Jr Koopa Aid instead.

What you’ll need

• Bread, butter, lettuce, pepper jack cheese, buffalo chicken slices and crispy bacon
• Sriracha mayo
• Bowser Jr sandwich stamp and food writer pens
• Kiwi, baby bell peppers and carrots
• Cheese slices for the pepper mouths
• Turtle chips (Aldi) and spicy Cheeto balls
• Dipping pretzels, melting chocolate, sanding sugar and purple sprinkles
• Pistachio cupcakes, green frosting and yellow frosting
• A spicy soda or your own Koopa Aid

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2. Princess Rosalina lunch: guardian of the cosmos

I have already made Lily a Princess Peach lunch, so this time she got Princess Rosalina. Spoiler alert for the new movie: Rosalina turns out to be Peach’s long lost big sister, which made it an easy pick.

Her main is a PB&B&J. One half gets peanut butter and bananas, the other half gets peanut butter and peach jelly, which is such a simple twist on a classic and still feels special. I colored it in with food markers. I did not have the exact colors I wanted, so I made it work with what was in the drawer.

Rosalina is the guardian of the cosmos and her star wand is both a magic tool and a weapon, so the fruit is a star wand built from grapes and cantaloupe. For the veggie I started with a base of salad, added a thin layer of cucumber, then covered the whole thing in tiny colorful bell pepper stars to stand in for all those little lumas. Lily always needs her ranch.

Around it went ranch flavored space balls, a galaxy yogurt (vanilla Greek yogurt with galaxy sprinkles, star sprinkles and blueberry star puffs on top), extra star puffs on the side, and mini blueberry moon pies for something sweet. The drink is a glittery drink mix. The colors are a mystery, so I was hoping for blue or silver and landed somewhere near green, but either way the sparkles floating through it look just like the magic coming off her wand.

What you’ll need

• Bread, peanut butter, banana and peach jelly
• Food writer pens
• Grapes and cantaloupe for the star wand
• Salad mix, cucumber, mini bell peppers and ranch
• Ranch flavored space balls
• Vanilla Greek yogurt, galaxy sprinkles, star sprinkles and blueberry star puffs
• Mini blueberry moon pies
• Glittery drink mix

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3. Yoshi lunch: a dino nugget sandwich

This one might be my favorite. Griffin got Yoshi, and the whole lunch starts with a few dino nuggets in the air fryer, because Yoshi is either a dinosaur or a dragon depending on who you ask.

His sandwich needs to be sturdy, so I used the heel of the bread for the bottom piece. It is a little controversial, but it holds up. I cut both pieces into a Yoshi shape, added a thin layer of butter instead of mayonnaise, then lettuce and cheddar, and filled it with dino nuggets sliced in half. It gets topped with Chick-fil-A sauce, and then I decorated the top with food markers. In the lunchbox it looks a bit like the blocked warp pipe Yoshi was found in, which was not planned but I loved it.

Cantaloupe balls went in the last section because, according to my internet research, melons are Yoshi’s favorite food. Then a Yoshi yogurt, popcorn, and place-and-bake Yoshi cookies that I baked and let cool completely. Cottage cheese and a Kinder Joy egg with a yellow Yoshi inside rounded it out. The drink stays simple: a lime bubly, which happens to have Yoshi on it.

What you’ll need

• Dino nuggets
• Bread, butter, lettuce and cheddar
• Chick-fil-A sauce
• Food writer pens
• Cantaloupe
• Yoshi yogurt and popcorn
• Place-and-bake Yoshi cookies
• Cottage cheese and a Kinder Joy egg
• Lime sparkling water

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4. Mario & Luigi lunch: pizza sandwich and mac and cheese

Jackson is a growing teen who is already taller than me, so his lunch gets more food. The main is a preheated thermos of mac and cheese, and the pasta shapes in this one are all from the games and movies. Once it was mixed and extra cheesy I filled the thermos and decorated the top with a slice of cheese cut into a power up star.

The second half of his main is a pizza sandwich, because both Mario and Luigi love pizza. Crusts off, then a spread made of cream cheese, pizza sauce, pizza seasoning and a little ranch. He still does not like mayo, so I keep it out of his sandwiches. Pepperoni and mozzarella go on next.

For the top I did not go with a regular Mario and Luigi design. I used the baby Mario and Luigi stamp instead, because them accidentally getting turned into babies is one of the funniest parts of the movie. Green grapes went in since green is Luigi’s color, and red tomatoes since red is Mario’s, plus carrot coins because coins show up in every Mario game. Cheese cubes stand in for question blocks, and a little yogurt filled the last spot. To push the theming I cut cheddar and mozzarella into a fire flower over the tomatoes with a food writer pen for detail.

The sweet treat is strawberry galactic cereal treats. Instead of making them on the stovetop I tried the oven method: cereal, marshmallows and butter go straight into a big casserole dish and bake at 250 for 10 to 12 minutes until the marshmallows are soft enough to mix. They came out fun, but it took a lot of stirring to get everything combined, and next time I would make them the traditional way and honestly I still prefer a plain Rice Krispie treat. A few Feastables sour gummies went in at the end, and the drink is a sparkling peach drink to bring Princess Peach into the lunchbox.

What you’ll need

• Mac and cheese with fun pasta shapes and a slice of cheese for the power star
• Bread, cream cheese, pizza sauce, pizza seasoning and a little ranch
• Pepperoni and mozzarella
• Baby Mario & Luigi sandwich stamp and food writer pen
• Green grapes and cherry tomatoes
• Carrots for coins
• Cheese cubes and yogurt
• Cereal, marshmallows and butter for the galactic treats
• Feastables sour gummies
• Sparkling peach drink

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Get the sandwich stamps

All four sandwiches in this video were made with our own 3D printed cutters and stamps. Each set is $11.66 and comes as two pieces, an outline cutter and a detail stamp, so it works on bread, tortillas, cheese and cookies:

• Mario Galaxy Movie Bowser Jr. Sandwich Cutter and Stamp Set: the one on McKenzie’s lunch
• Princess Rosalina Sandwich Cutter and Stamp Set: Lily’s PB and banana sandwich
• Yoshi Sandwich Cutter and Stamp Set: Griffin’s dino nugget sandwich
• Baby Mario & Luigi Sandwich Cutter and Stamp Set: Jackson’s pizza sandwich
• Super Mario Sandwich Cutter and Stamp
• Princess Peach Sandwich Cookie Cutter and Stamp Set

Everything ships from Florida. Shipping is a flat $6.95, and free over $35 if you are picking up a few.

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Tips for making these yourself

• You do not need a theme in every compartment. One stamped sandwich plus color coded fruit carries the whole lunch.
• Food writer pens do most of the work. They turn a plain cheese shape into a character in about ten seconds.
• Preheat the thermos with hot water before the mac and cheese goes in so it is still warm at lunchtime.
• Bake the cookies the night before and let them cool completely, otherwise they steam and go soft in the box.
• Keep ranch, dips and yogurt in their own little containers so nothing goes soggy.
• Swap the fruit for whatever is in season. The color story matters more than the exact fruit.

If you make any of these, tag us on Instagram @thefamilyfudge so we can see them. And the full video is above if you want to watch each lunch come together.