Eating a healthy lunch is important as it fuels your learning day, says Christine Callaghan, a registered dietitian with the Middlesex-London Health Unit. "Healthy lunches provide energy and nutrients for learning and playing at school and at home," she adds.

Television personality and Chef Kary Osmond (Best Recipes Ever on CBC) agrees and adds, "Getting kids to help make and pack their lunches means that they will eat them."

Callaghan recommends sitting down with your child(ren) and making a list of five to 10 lunch menus. "You can rotate through those because variety is very important. No one likes to eat the same thing every day."

After you have the list, getting the groceries into the house for easy prep is important. Assembling lunches the night before is one way to avoid 'the morning crazies.'

Callaghan says that it will be easier to enable your child to make his/her own lunch if you assemble a lunch drawer. "It should contain all the supplies: insulated containers, baggies, napkins, cutlery, etc. all in one drawer or area," she explains.

Echoing Osmond's sentiments about getting kids involved, Callaghan says that even very young children can participate by giving input to the lunch menu and helping with assembly, eventually gaining the skills to make his/her own mid-day repast. "If you have the lettuce already washed, they can tear it and put it on the sandwich," explains Callaghan. "Kitchen safety is very important, so be sure to supervise." Other small tasks will help build skills and confidence, like buttering the bread for a sandwich or sliding fruit onto popsicle sticks.

The latter is Osmond's idea for how to engage children and get them to eat different kinds of fruit. Have your child (if age appropriate) cut up various kinds of fruit. Make fruit kabobs by pushing the fruit chunks onto popsicle sticks or plastic straws. "If you make a bunch at the beginning of the week, they can put one in their lunch each day," she says.

Assembling a kid-style ploughman's lunch is also a great idea, according to Osmond. "They can put together carrot and celery sticks, pickles, slices of meat and cheese and some grapes," she says. That way all the food groups are covered and it's easy as well as tasty. Osmond offers more recipes from her show below.

Deciding if your child is old enough to come home to make and eat his/her lunch is specific to each family. But if your older kid or tween is tired of brown bagging it every day, he/she might have the skills to fly solo if making a to-go lunch has been on the menu for most of their childhood.

Reheating leftover pizza or last night's stir-fry in the microwave, instead of cooking on the stove, will take some of the trepidation away from both of you. Slicing up a chicken breast that you cooked the night before is also a stove-less option.

Emphasizing safety and responsibility, as well as healthy food choices, is part of the growing process.

Here are some suggestions for delicious quesadilla recipes, courtesy of Kary Osmond and Canadian Living:

The easiest of quick bites to make, these will be just about the most popular since there's a myriad of fillings from which to choose. Coloured or flavoured tortillas add extra whimsy.

Kid-friendly quesadillas

Ingredients:

4 large flour tortillas

1 cup (250 mL) shredded Monterey jack cheese

1/4 cup (50 mL) chopped pickled jalapeño peppers

Directions:

Lay each tortilla on work surface. Sprinkle 1/4 cup (50 ml) shredded cheese on half of each; top with one-quarter of the jalapeno peppers. Fold uncovered half over filling.

Bake quesadillas on greased baking sheet in 400°F (200°C) oven, turning once, for about 8 minutes per side or until golden. Cut each into 8 wedges. Makes 32 servings.

Variations

Instead of the cheese and jalapeno try any of the following fillings.

Pesto Quesadillas

1/4 cup (50 ml) prepared pesto or tapenade and 1 cup (250 ml) crumbled goat cheese.

Salami Quesadillas

1/4 cup (50 ml) grainy mustard, 12 thin slices salami and 1 cup (250 ml) shredded Swiss cheese.

Mango Apple Quesadillas

1/4 cup (50 ml) mango chutney, 1 apple, thinly sliced, and 4 oz (125 g) Brie cheese, sliced.

Bruschetta Quesadillas

1 cup (250 ml) prepared bruschetta topping and 1/2 cup (125 ml) shredded Asiago cheese.

Barbecue Chicken Quesadillas

1/2 cup (125 ml) barbecue sauce, 1 cup (250 ml) chopped roasted chicken and 1 cup (250 ml) shredded mozzarella cheese.

Spinach Quesadillas

1 pkg (300 g) frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry and chopped, 1/4 tsp (1 ml) dried dillweed and 1/2 cup (125 ml) each shredded mozzarella and crumbled feta cheese.

Artichoke Quesadillas

4 slices prosciutto ham, 1 jar (6 oz/170 ml) marinated artichokes, drained and chopped, 1 cup (250 ml) shredded provolone cheese and 2 tbsp (25 ml) grated Parmesan cheese.

For more lunch ideas:

eatrightontario.ca

dieticians.ca