By Dr. Joey Shulman D.C., RNCP

Sending your child to school with a nutritious and delicious homemade lunch is one of the most effective ways to ensure good nutrition outside of the home. When considering lunch options for your child, it is important to ensure that the meal you are sending is appealing enough that it is eaten rather then sent home, traded with other children or thrown into the garbage.

Consider some of the following kid friendly lunch tips that will entice even the pickiest of eaters:

1. Use cookie cutters to cut fruit into fun shapes such as stars, hearts or circles.

2. Instead of using cold cuts that contain cancer-causing chemicals called nitrates, switch to meatless cold cuts made from soy, such as bologna, pepperoni or hot dogs. These meats are found in the produce section of most grocery stores.

3. Make healthy homemade cookies out of whole grain flours such as spelt, kamut and whole wheat. These flours are available in most bulk food stores. Sweeten cookies with natural sweeteners such dates, apple sauce and maple syrup. Click here for a healthy and delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe.

4. Entice your children to eat their vegetables by packing tasty dips such as hummus, light cream cheese, guacamole and ranch dressing.

5. Replace sugary drinking boxes with small bottles of water. Invest in a tightly sealed thermos.

6. Pack homemade soups filled with pureed vegetables, beans or whole grain noodles.

7. Have your child take part in the grocery shopping. Allow them to voice their nutritional likes and dislikes.

8. For snacks, send baked nachos, pretzels, trail mix, apple sauce and naturally sweetened pudding.

9. Although they are tempting due to convenience, avoid packing pre-made, packaged lunches. Most of these are filled with chemicals, bad fats and refined carbohydrates.

10. Send a surprise note in your child’s lunch with a joke or words of love and encouragement.