Sunday, August 7, 2011

Back to School…Lunches & Snacks

Tasty and nutritious school lunches can be one of parents' biggest challenges. To please the kids and meet the basic dietary guidelines, make them part of the planning and shopping. Within reason, try to accommodate their lunch requests, keeping nutrition guidelines in mind.

A nutritious lunch doesn't have to revolve around a traditional sandwich; consider different pita breads or tortilla wrappings filled with a favorite sandwich meat or salad, meat and cheese squares, or a macaroni salad. Salsa and chips, assorted pickles, or veggie sticks and slices with dip make a lunch box bonus sure to please most kids. Fun foods like ants on a log or jiggly gelatin desserts are good choices.

225226Ants On A Log: A very simple snack idea! Fill the center of the celery stick with peanut butter. Place a few raisins on top to be your ants. If you do not like raisins, try tiny chocolate chips.

confetti snacksConfetti Snack Mix:
4 cups Golden Grahams
1 cup dry roasted peanuts
1 cup dried banana chips
1 cup raisins
1 cup milk chocolate M&M's

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 7 cups.

Fruitn_Cheese_Snack_MixFruit 'n Cheese Snack Mix :
1 oz.KRAFT Cheddar Cheese, cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup whole strawberries or blueberries, stemmed, quartered
1/4 cup seedless red or green grapes, halved

Place cheese in 1 side of resealable sandwich-size plastic bag; loosely tie pie cleaner or twist tie around middle of bag. Place fruit in other end of bag; seal bag, then twist pipe cleaner tightly to separate cheese from fruit.
Curl ends of pipe cleaner to resemble antennae of a butterfly.
Refrigerate until ready to serve. Untwist pipe cleaner, leaving bag sealed. Gently shake bag to mix fruit and cheese. Open bag and enjoy!

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