• Topping peanut butter with raisins, apples, bananas, or pineapple instead of jelly.
• Rolling up a tortilla topped with refried beans, salsa, grated cheese and chopped lettuce and tomatoes for a lunchbox burrito.
• Cutting sandwiches for younger children into various shapes using cookie cutters.
• Filling pita bread with chopped chicken, apple, and celery, with a little mayo. Tightly wrap everything and chill until ready to serve.
• Placing thinly sliced turkey breast on a fat-free flour tortilla, along with tomato, shredded lettuce, low-fat sharp chedder cheese, and fat-free ranch dressing. Chill until ready to serve.
• Combining tuna, chopped celery, shredded carrots, tomato, lettuce, and fat-free Italian dressing on whole-wheat pita bread, with fat free Italian dressing.
• Making pinwheels out of cooked chicken, a dab of fat-free sour cream, Dijon mustard, minced celery, thinly sliced olives, and a slice of whole-wheat or oatmeal bread.
• Stuffing whole-wheat pita bread with slices of cucumber, tomatoes, scallions, fresh spinach, two or three mint leaves, low-fat feta cheese, and balsamic vinegar.
• Adding cashews, almond butter, dried cranberries, or walnuts to your children’s favorite chicken salad.
• Creating culinary delights with grilled veggies, goat cheese, and toasted whole-grain bread, or portabella mushrooms with melted Swiss cheese, avocado, and honey mustard.
• Discarding bread and use Boston Bibb lettuce leaves to wrap fixings.
Indeed, there are many, many alternatives to the tried-and-true peanut butter and jelly sandwich for your children's lunch boxes. As you plan what to fix your kids for the next day or week at school, think about the following:
