Good Food to Go

Good Food to Go is the ultimate guide to packing healthy lunch boxes with food that kids will enjoy and parents can feel good about. Back-to-school means back-to-lunch-boxes, and the daily quandary of what to put in them. With this new book, two working moms - one a teacher, one a pediatrician - offer creative ideas for balanced lunches and nutritious snacks, as well as up-to-date health tips that will make packing lunch a joy and not a chore. Given that children consume approximately one third of their daily calories at school, what goes into kids' lunch boxes is vital to their well-being. Yet it still needs to be hot enough, cold enough or crisp enough to withstand a morning in the cloakroom. (And with allergies on the rise many schools are now nut-free, eliminating that old standby: peanut butter.) Most important, the lunch needs to be kid-friendly and delicious because after all, the healthiest lunch isn't very healthy if it goes uneaten.

Good Food to Go fuses the how-to's of creating wholesome, homemade lunches with the latest information on food and nutrition. Practical tips will help parents make environmentally conscious food choices and eliminate lunch-box waste to ensure children are eating for a healthier planet. Many of the recipes outline what can be done the night before, while others may be made in bulk and frozen, facilitating easy, last-minute lunches. Handy meal planners help to ensure that kids are eating a healthy variety of nutritious lunches throughout the week.

\BRENDA BRADSHAW has been an elementary school teacher and is co-author of The Baby's Table and The Good Food Book for Families. An avid cook, she is a mother of two.

DR. CHERYL MUTCH is a consultant pediatrician with a keen interest in children's nutrition. The co-author of The Good Food Book for Families, she is the mother of two daughters.