Five Days of Food to Tempt Children's Palates

Running out of healthful lunch ideas for your youngster? Try a school week's worth of suggestions from chef-restaurateur and mother of three Gale Gand. The recipes she's referring to are in "Food for Thought: From Parents to Children," a booklet of nutritious recipes collected by the Wheat Council (see "Resources," for ordering information):

DAY 1

Pita Pizzas (from the booklet; with tomato sauce, domestic mozzarella cheese and vegetables of your choice such as green pepper, broccoli, zucchini)
Black olives (enough to wear on their fi ngers; include illustration instructions in lunch box if necessary)
Fruit skewers made with canned or fresh pineapple chunks, green grapes and mandarin orange segments on toothpicks

DAY 2

Turkey Wraps (from the booklet; with romaine lettuce, roasted red bell peppers, tomato and balsamic vinaigrette)
Pineapple-dressed fruit salad: bananas, strawberries cut up and tossed with pineapple juice (from the canned pineapple used in the Day 1 fruit skewers)
Parmesan popcorn: popcorn, melted unsalted butter, Parmesan cheese, black pepper

DAY 3

Wheat Berry Tuna Salad (from the booklet; with celery, tomatoes, cucumber, hard-cooked egg, canned tuna, cooked wheat berries and Italian dressing)
Fruit yogurt with a granola bar to crumble into it

DAY 4

Chicken pot stickers
Edamame
Grapes

DAY 5

Crazy sandwich, made with 1 piece white bread, 1 piece whole-wheat bread, jam, low-fat cream cheese (or peanut butter if allowed). Cut in quarters; fl ip the 2 opposite-corner pieces to make a checkerboard sandwich
Veggie dip, with baby-cut carrots, snap peas and low-fat dip
Clementines, pre-peeled if desired

BONUS OPTION

Ham roll-ups: low-sodium or no-MSG ham rolled around 2-inch sections of low-fat string cheese (bicolored, if you like), secured with a toothpick
Whole-grain crackers
Apple slices