Tasty and Nutritious School Lunch Ideas

Soups would be an ideal lunch to send in with your child. You could make a variety of homemade soups on a weekend. Freeze some and keep a few servings in the refrigerator for lunches throughout the week. By making your own soups, you eliminate a lot of the added sodium that is typically found in canned soups. You can add more vegetables and even make your own broth, instead of using store bought. By controlling what goes in your soup, you make sure that the soup is healthy and nutritious for your kids.

The same goes for casseroles. Instead of making one casserole, find another casserole that uses similar ingredients so that you can pack it as a lunch for one or two days during the week. Even leftovers from the night before would keep plenty hot by time lunch time rolled around. Who wouldn't like to have a hot lunch on a cold day?

Here are some other delicious and fun lunch choices for kids.

Let's Get Mediterranean
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup couscous salad
• 6 tablespoons organic vegetable broth (such as Swanson Certified Organic)
• 6 tablespoons water
• 3/4 cup uncooked couscous
• 3/4 cup canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
• 1/3 cup chopped seeded plum tomato
• 6 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
• 2 tablespoons minced red onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Dash of freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons hummus
• 8 whole-wheat pita chips
• 1 cup fresh grapes

• Bring vegetable broth and 6 tablespoons water to a boil in a medium saucepan; gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat; cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
• Combine cooked couscous and remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

• 1/2 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 chives, 1 sprig of dill, and/or 3 basil leaves (optional)
• 2 eight- to ten-inch flour tortillas
• 1 tomato, seeded and sliced into thin rounds
• 6 spinach leaves

• Place the cream cheese in a small bowl. For herb cream cheese, use scissors to snip the herbs into tiny pieces, then mash them into the cream cheese with the back of a spoon.
• Spread a little cream cheese on each of the spinach leaves, then spread the remainder in a thin layer onto the tortillas. Place three tomato slices in a row down the middle. Top with the spinach leaves, cream cheese facing up.
• Roll up each tortilla tightly into a log. Pinch the seams shut. Use a serrated knife to slowly slice each log crosswise into 5 or 6 pinwheel sandwiches. Serves 2 to 4.