Air Fryer Grilled Cheese Heart Sandwich

Air fryer grilled cheese heart sandwiches are a Valentine’s twist on a classic sandwich of perfectly toasted bread with melted cheese and formed into a heart.

We love serving air fryer sandwiches with a warm bowl of tomato soup after a long day of fun in the snow. Nothing is more comforting than a perfectly toasted, buttery, cheesy sandwich.

We have been using our air fryer nonstop lately. There are so many things you can easily make and for a busy day weeknight meal, the air fryer is like a dream come true. I don’t have to turn on the stove or clean extra pots and pans, you just simply add food to the fryer basket and one delicious meal automatically appears!

To make our air fryer grilled cheese sandwiches just a tad more festive, I decided to add a few drops of red food coloring and heart food cutters into the mix .

And to be honest, after making these grilled cheese sandwiches in the air fryer, I don’t think I will be going back to the skillet version anytime soon.

Why prep lunches for school?

To make meal planning more consistent and practical in my house, I aim to include four school lunch preps for my two kids in our weekly meal prep rotation. This helps us save money and ensure that two days of the week, the kids have well balanced meals that happen to be fun and festive, yet simple enough to put together in less than 15 minutes. 

In these lunch preps I try to include a variety of colors as well as a good balance of the essential food groups so that my kids are getting exposure to different foods in a fun and exciting way!

Ingredients for air fryer grilled cheese heart sandwich lunchbox

To make this fun and delicious air fryer grilled cheese heart sandwich school lunch meal prep, you’ll need a few ingredients that you can get at almost any grocery store or even online!

This will make 4 lunchbox containers. I love these 3 compartment food containers that I found on Amazon!

Here’s what we are working with:

• white bread
• cheese slices
• avocado oil mayonnaise or slightly melted butter
• natural red food coloring
• heart food cutter, optional for sandwich heart cut-outs
• grapes
• strawberries
• oranges
• sweet treat

How to make air fryer grilled cheese heart sandwich lunchbox

1. Place two slices of cheese in between two slices of bread. Using a heart food cutter or knife, cut-out a heart shape.
2. Mix a couple drops of red food coloring with the avocado oil mayo or slightly melted butter until it is a reddish-pink color; brush onto both sides of the heart sandwich and place into air fryer basket.
3. Air fry sandwich at 370 degrees F for 4 minutes, flip the sandwich over and cook at 370 degrees for another 4 minutes or until desired toast is reached.
4. Place heart grilled cheese sandwich into main compartment of lunchbox and sprinkle grapes all around, if using.
5. In one side compartment add strawberries and an orange slice.
6. In the other side compartment add your preferred sweet treat; I used a Valentine’s Day frosted sugar cookie.

We sure hope you enjoy this fun and balanced air fryer grilled cheese heart sandwich school lunch meal prep as much as our little tribe has!

Did you make this food art lunch? Don’t forget to tag thetastefultribe on instagram @thetastefultribe if you create this fun air fryer grilled cheese heart sandwich lunchbox. We love seeing your version! You can also post your pictures to our facebook page!