Back-to-School Lunch Options

t's been many years since I had to prepare lunches for schoolchildren. But I did do it for more than a decade, and mostly on a budget. With hot lunches at many schools being costly or of poor nutritional value, it is certainly wiser and healthier to pack your own. While there is a proliferation of individually packaged lunchbox items, they are rarely a good value and rarely the healthiest option for your child(ren). I realize that time constraints need to be weighed, along with health benefits and nutrition, so I'm hoping to bring some fresh perspective to that age-old chore of packing school lunches. Feel free to chime in (using the comments section) on items that you have found work well. The more, the merrier.

They say variety is the spice of life, and it can be important to youngsters as well. While there is that occasional child who will only eat pb&j with barbecue potato chips every day for six months, most children like to see something different and have new surprises in their lunch bag. And speaking of bags, if at all possible, try to convince your child that a reusable lunch bag (thermally insulated) or old-fashioned lunch box is the way to go. They even have plain metal lunchboxes that children can decorate and personalize. If they are feeling really adventurous, you could buy them a bento box (like this one) or tiffin (a 2-tier one or 3-tier) to use for lunch (some kids just like to be unique). These are all earth-friendly options.

Main Course
Think outside the box on this one; deviate from that turkey, roast beef, salami sandwich. Find interesting breads to use, like marble rye, cinnamon raisin, pita, tortilla, or bagel. Maybe your store has a great bakery with some really tasty whole wheat sourdough dinner rolls, which make great mini-sandwiches (think 2 or 3 in a lunchbox). Mix up the fillings by preparing a batch of egg salad, which is cost-efficient and tasty. Another family favorite is cream cheese and chopped olive, which I make with a block or two of softened cream cheese and a can of chopped black olives. This goes well on a tortilla that you roll up, or any kind of bagel. Instead of PB&J, try PB&Honey or PB&Banana on whole grain or cinnamon bread.

Most children have no access to a microwave at school, so leftovers do not always work so well. But you can get creative with leftovers. Take that extra plain pasta and make a cold pasta salad with cut up carrots, celery, cheese cubes, and any other veggie your child will eat, toss with a vinaigrette and you have a healthy lunch. Cold barbecued chicken can be packed in a lunch as is, or you can cut off the meat, chunk it up and add it to a pita with some lettuce and Ranch dressing. Kids also like finger foods, so cubing cheese and salami/hotdog/cooked sausage and packing them with pretzels to spear the cubes is a good substitute for a sandwich.

Side Dish
Most of us grew up having chips in our box lunch. The salty, crunchy complement to the sandwich works really well. But there are more creative options. My kids love Chex mix, and I make double and triple batches and store in big Ziploc bags. Also on the salty side are edamame, which are fun to pop out of their shells and eat. Trail mix is salty, and can be combined with raisins, dried fruit, or sweetened with chocolate chips. We also like the Japanese snack mix, with white crackers shaped like flowers, dried peas, sesame sticks and the like. If there is a way to keep things cold, yogurt (with or without granola), carrot/celery sticks, cucumber rounds, and jicama sticks all work well (a little seasoning salt adds a pop of flavor). Hard-boiled eggs were a favorite of mine (with those little wax paper packets of salt and pepper), as were black olives and big dill pickles.

Sweets
My kids always liked fresh cookies, especially in their lunch box. Realistically, it can be hard to make one or two batches of cookies a week, and to keep them fresh and lasting. I found a way that makes life easier. I make a double batch of my kid's favorite cookies, Tollhouse chocolate chip (with some healthy oatmeal added), triple ginger, peanut butter. (Double batches take only an extra minute to make but yield twice the benefit.) Then I bake two trays full in the oven for more immediate consumption. While those are baking, I line two cookie sheets with wax paper and take my small ice cream scoop and scoop out balls of dough onto the wax paper. Once the tray is full (and they can be quite close together), I stick them in the freezer for 30 minutes. Once frozen solid, I put the little balls into a Ziploc or plastic storage container, marked with the type and cooking time/temp and put it back in the freezer. Anytime I want fresh, hot cookies for guests, or cookies for that lunch pail, you just preheat the oven, take the balls out to defrost on the cookie sheet and within 20 minutes you have piping hot goodness. For a healthier option, you can make your own granola bars, which will no doubt be healthier and more cost conscious than anything you will find in the store (recipe below). These can be customized to your children's tastes or to what you have on hand in the kitchen. The batch I made yesterday had pecans and dried cranberries and they were such a hit, that I'm gonna have to make a second batch!

Fruit
How many times do your children return home with that whole apple in their lunch bag? Large pieces of whole fruit can be intimidating and time-consuming to eat, and not very interesting at that. And with so many children wearing braces, whole fruits can be difficult to eat or leave significant residue in the brackets. I've noticed that several companies now make sliced apples packaged in bulk or in snack servings. There are several organic brands that use a combination of calcium and ascorbate to keep the slices from going brown. I also like to make fruit kabobs. I cut up pineapple and melons into squares over the weekend and keep them in sealed containers for use during the week (breakfast, snack or lunch). Using wooden skewers, wooden chopsticks, or even popsicle sticks, I thread these and stemmed strawberries onto the stick. Makes it easy to eat and keeps the fingers clean, too. Alternately, cut-up fruit of any kind can be put into a plastic container, and drizzled with some lemon juice to keep it from going brown. Periodically I will sprinkle with raisins, mini chocolate chips, or grated coconut to add some interest.

There are a million ways to get creative with the lunchbox, and I know I've only touched on a few, but kick the school year off right with healthier lunchbox options.

Granola Bars
These are easy, take only about 15 minutes to make, and are not the rock-hard, break-your-teeth variety. You can substitute almonds, cashews or most any kind of nut for the peanuts, and use almost any kind of dried fruit-raisins, apricots, mango, pineapple, apple, cherry, cranberry. You can also add in carob or chocolate chips at the very end (mini chocolate chips work best).

2 cups oats
3/4 cup flax seed
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup peanuts, chopped
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz. dried fruit. chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the oats, flax seed, sunflower seeds and chopped nuts and place on a baking sheet with sides. Toast for 10-12 minutes, turning periodically. Meanwhile, line an 11x13 pan with wax paper (with an extra length coming up the sides of the pan) and spray with nonstick spray.

Combine brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Into a large bowl, pour oat mixture, dried fruit, and liquid mixture and stir quickly, making sure to coat all the ingredients with the liquid. Pour the mixture into the prepared 11x13 pan. Spread out as evenly as possible with a spoon, and then fold over the extra sides and use to push the mixture down and compact it.

Cool for 2-3 hours, then turn out onto a cutting board and cut into individual bars (smaller for the younger kids, larger for the older ones). You can wrap them individually in plastic wrap, so they are ready for the lunch box. If you store in a container, make sure to layer the bars with wax paper so they do not stick together.