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The school year has begun, and with it the challenges, and often accompanying complaints of what your child has to eat for lunch. With the dubious nutrition and taste of school lunches, and the cost and non-existent health benefits of having lunch from a vending machine, parents turn to that standby of the brown bag lunch. However, today\u2019s kids have far more experienced and sophisticated palates. While in years past many kids may have been satisfied with a simple PB&J, today\u2019s young gourmands have experience eating sushi, wood-fire oven pizza and a host of other gourmet foods. This leaves caregivers at a loss as to what they can pack for their kids that will be healthy, will get eaten and most importantly can survive the transport to school. The good news is that there is a wide variety of lunch ideas that can keep you going all year long. Here are some back to school lunch ideas-<\/p>\n
Be green and yummy at the same time.<\/strong> Once you have finished those single serve yogurts, don\u2019t throw them away. They can be washed and then filled with Jell-O, pudding, mousse, or even made into a yogurt parfait, for your school age child. This not only saves you money but lets you personalize your child\u2019s lunch to their taste.<\/p>\n Make some dippers! <\/strong>\u00a0Even the pickiest eaters love to dip their food. Slice up any cooked chicken into chicken strips. You can then pack them with your child\u2019s favorite dipping sauce such as: ranch dressing, salsa, barbecue sauce or even pizza sauce. This idea also works well with bread sticks. Another healthy dipping alternative is to cut up fresh fruit into bite sized pieces. You can then send along a cup of yogurt or pudding to dip the fruit into it.<\/p>\n Wrap it up. <\/strong>Kids love the taste and the ease of eating a wrap sandwich. You can even reinvent the PB& J on a flour tortilla. Simply spread the peanut butter and jelly on the tortilla and roll it up. You can leave it whole or cut it crosswise into pieces. The only limits as to what kinds of wraps you can make are what your child will eat. Be creative and you may be surprised at what becomes their favorite.<\/p>\n