School lunches have gone way beyond the PB and J.
There's no reason to rely on tired old bags of pretzels and mushed up strawberries in your kids' lunch boxes. There's no reason to rely on anything except your kids and their creativity.
Here are recipes so simple that your kids will be able to pack their own lunches, and so delicious that they'll never trade them for bags of potato chips.
1. Spicy pepperjack Mexican pinwheels
These sandwiches are perfect for the mini chile-head in your life. Use spicy spreadable cheese on tortillas, layer with cilantro, green onions and other favorite vegetables and cheeses, then roll up the tortillas and slice into neat pinwheels. Skewer them on a stick, add diced poached chicken or eat them as is. If, that is, your little one hasn't snarfed them down already.
Sometimes that 11:00 a.m. hunger pang is too strong to ignore until lunch. Your kids will love helping to make and then eat these breakfast cookies, which are as good after lunch as they are in the car on the way to school. They are packed full of muesli, dried fruit (go, fiber!) and chocolate chips. Sandwich them with your favorite nut butter for an extra punch of protein.
3. Pizza rolls
Every kid loves pizza for lunch. These make-ahead pizza rolls are comprised of crescent rolls, flour, sauce and cheese — that's it. You can jazz them up with your favorite toppings or keep them simple. Try alfredo sauce, spinach and Parmesan cheese for a take on white pizza, or let your kids take the lead on the toppings front.
4. Peanut butter and jelly biscuits
Okay, so one PB and J iteration had to make an appearance, and there is none cooler than this all-in-one biscuit. Make them ahead of time with your munchkins, throw them in the freezer and have the kids take them out one by one for lunch or a pre-soccer snack. Totally familiar flavors in a new package guarantee a lunchtime hit.
5. Heart-shaped eggs
A photo posted by @stronglola on Jan 24, 2014 at 7:14am PST
Give nature's portable protein a jazzy new ensemble. Nestle a warm, peeled hardboiled egg inside a paper boat, press a chopstick down on the egg for indentation and in 10 minutes you have an adorable heart-shaped boiled egg. Go here for step-by-step instructions. Try not to squeal with glee when you see how Martha Stewart you can get with just an egg and a chopstick.
The only time it's socially acceptable to be a narcissist is when you're a kid, so why not indulge a little love of self with personalized fruit? Take small cookie cutters and let the kids punch out their own names, or go rogue and have them punch their names out of a melon then eat the "frame." You can do the same with vegetables, cheese, bread and even cold cuts.