Packing a healthy and nutritious lunch for your child can be one of the most valuable and important tasks you do encourage healthy lifelong habits. While it's easy to grab a processed, pre-made lunch from the grocery store, you can just as easily use convenience products to your advantage.  Examples of "healthy" convenience foods include:

• small (one-serving size) packs of baby-carrots
• grapes
• pre-cut apple slices
• 100% whole-grain rolls, tortillas, or "pockets"
• single portion-sized cups of unsweetened applesauce, mandarin oranges (or other canned fruit) in water
• individual serving-sized low-fat cottage cheese, yogurt, or yogurt drinks
• low-fat cheese sticks
• whole grain crackers and cheese
• trail mix with nuts and dried fruit

New products enter the market every week...many of these are full of fat and sodium, but there are certainly healthy choices in the mix as well.  Read those labels and choose wisely!