Back-to-School Giveaway: $150 Lunchbox Builder Prize Package

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def put little notes in the bag - do this for my hubby when he goes fishing too, LOl! I pack a fav fruit and a treat along with a sammy, usually PB&J b/c she LOVES it

I'd love to be entered. For school lunches I like to add a fruit and a healthy snack such as a granola bar or muffin.

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My daughter is in high school and she eats school lunches, but I always try to make sure she has a special treat of her own to add to the sometimes boring lunches that the school provides.

Give the kids choices on what they want!

lots of veggies and fruit with dips

Don't keep white bread in the house and get those little tiny cartons of OJ to pack in the lunches and always have apples and bananas on hand as they are the most portable fruit. Baby carrots are good too

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I always let her choose a fruit for snack and then I peel the fruit.. she hates any skin on it... and I cut the fruit into fun shapes. I cut the oranges and put jello inside and refrigerate them for the next day. She loves it.

My best trick is packing bento style lunches. The focus is on making them colorful, which usually means lot fruits and veggies. And it helps with portion control as well.

The best way I make school lunches fun is to involve the kids! We have a list of school lunch ideas on our message board in the kitchen. Each night I ask the kids what they want for lunch the next day, and they help me. They are more likely to enjoy home lunch if they get to pick the lunch!

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I let them choose what kind of fruit they want and cut it up the ways they like. It makes the lunch THEIRS.

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I'm an email subscriber. My kids love fruit so I pack their lunches full of naturally sweet fruits since they both have a sweet tooth.

Leave notes in the lunchbox. Make most things from scratch.

Always include fruit.

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My favorite way to make lunch fun? Bento boxes. The Japanese do crazy things with their lunch boxes, and I try some of them out. Take apple slices, cut a V pointing toward the end of the apple slice and slice off the peel below it, also cutting below the points of the V. Soak in a little bowl of water with some lemon juice and you get "ringo usagi" or "apple bunnies". I usually add a mini tub of caramel or peanut butter. Take mini hot dogs and cut about halfway up into 8 sections to make "legs". Boil or microwave to make "tako weiners" or "octopus weiners". Serve with ketchup or mustard. I also like to make an egg dish called tamagoyaki. It isn't exactly authentic because dashi stock is difficult to come by where I live, but take about 3 eggs, add a 1/4 cup of water, a tbsp. of soy sauce, and a tbsp. of sugar. Mix. In a hot greased frying pan, add about 1/3 of the mixture. Let it cook through a bit and roll it into a log and push off to the side. Add another 1/3, let it cook pretty much through, and roll your "log" back through to add layers. Do this with the final bit as well. (Make sure you lift the "log" a bit so the fresh mix gets under the cooked bits.) When it's all done, transfer it to a cutting board and let it cool most of the way. Slice in 1-inch sections and pack away. It's really delicious, somewhat sweet, and great with something kind of salty like teriyaki chicken.

Fruits and veggies prepared in fun ways often help quite a bit. I often will take potatos and carrots and boil them until they're practically mush. I add a bit of rice flour and mix them until they're somewhat stiff. I make lumpy balls with them, add a leftover apple stem to the top, and bake them until they're somewhat stiff. They look like mini-pumpkins and are great in the fall and winter.

Still, there are FAST healthy options, too, like fruit and apple sauce cups, and even things like Chef Boyardee are okay now and again. I like to make my own snack-size versions of things, and sometimes experiment with well-known recipes. Even my husband loves it when I make Fruity Pebble treats with some real dried fruit mixed in. I can't keep them in the house!