Back to school time means packing nutritious lunches that kids will actually want to eat, five days a week!

The very thought of that sends shivers of fear down even the most confident and seasoned parents’ spines.

Not only do these lunches need to be fun and appealing to the kids, but they should also provide a good and delicious source of calcium and vitamin D.

Lunch Ideas from The California Milk Advisory Board

The California Milk Advisory Board has some great suggestions for incorporating dairy throughout the school year.

Pairing cubes of Real California cheese with sliced apple is a great way to get a serving of fruit and also boost calcium and vitamins. Remember to soak apple slices in lemon water to prevent browning. Get creative and use fun, cookie-cutter shapes to cut cheese out.

I thought that I’d share some of my favorite tips for healthy back to school lunches and snacks, too.

• My elementary schooler and pre-schooler are both big on bite size finger foods: I cube cheese and put it in one container, halve grapes and put them in another, roll lunch meat, cut it and put it in another container, and add baby carrots or broccoli florets to another container and pack all this with an ice pack in their lunch boxes.  They each have skim and 1% water available to them at their schools.
• I collect cookie cutters in all shapes and sizes and I use them to make puzzle sandwiches, heart shaped cheeses, flower sandwiches and more.  The smile on my kids’ faces when they open their lunch boxes, is worth the extra few minutes this takes – plus, their lunch boxes are always empty when they bring them back home!
• Coffee stirrer (mini straws) are a fabulous way to create colorful, fun lunches chock full of cheeses, veggies, fruits and more.   Kids love to help build these skewers, choose the patterns (hello learning tools) and eating them is just as much fun!

$1000 Giveaway – Share Your Ideas to Enter!

These are a few of my favorite tips for delicious and healthy back to school lunches, I’d love to hear y’all’s! Giveaway ends September 15, 2011 at 11:59pm CST so don’t wait!

Leave your favorite tip or trick to making healthy school lunches in the comments and you could win $500 PLUS $500 for your child’s teacher! In addition to the ONE BIG WINNER – we’ll have 5 runners up who’ll win California Milk Advisory Board Back-to-School Fun Packs that include a Bag, flavored milk straws and more.

Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment with your favorite healthy school lunch idea! (Make sure we have your email address)

Optional Entries:

1. Tweet about this giveaway – “Enter to win $500 for you and your school from @BlissfullyD & @RealCalifMilk http://bit.ly/CMABLunch” (Leave a comment)
2. Subscribe to our Newsletter (Leave a comment)

Need some inspiration? Check out the tips at Back to School with Real California Dairy, get a .55 printable coupon and delicious recipes and more!

You can get more daily deliciousness by following on Twitter @RealCalifMilk and on Facebook

Contest ends 9/15/2011 at midnight eastern.  Winner chosen at random.

This giveaway is part of a promotional campaign for the California Milk Advisory Board. See official sweepstakes rules.