I think there is a certain sense of relief parents feel when their children return to school in September. No more worrying about how the kids are going to fill their days, no more dealing with babysitters or shuttling them to and from summer camps. Life simply returns to normal. However, it seems that somewhere over the long, hot summer months we tend to forget the day-to-day dilemmas of our kids being back in school, and for me that always means once again dealing with what to send for lunches.

When my daughter was in kindergarten or elementary school it was easy - I packed pretty little sandwiches, a piece of fruit, a juice box and a small treat. She never questioned or complained about what I sent. To be honest, she probably gave it very little thought - she was fed, and that was all that mattered. In junior high / middle school though, that all changed.

Over the past few years we went through what I like to call the various stages of brown-bag hell, and though not every one of the items below specifically happened to my family, these are all true stories from either my daughter, her friends, or from my own personal experience. I'm sure at least some of these will sound familiar to the parents out there, and if you have younger kids, this is what you may have to look forward to in the coming years:

Lunch is often overlooked by busy, working adults, but school-age kids have time in their day set aside to make sure they eat. Sometimes they might buy lunch, but the best lunch is always going to be a homemade one. Making lunches day in and day out can be challenging, especially if you don't want to make the exact same thing over and over again. Most cookbooks are not set up to offer recipes that would be appropriate for school lunches, though they have plenty of lunch recipes. These books are, on the other hand, geared only towards brown bag lunches are a great way to get some ideas - for your own lunches, as well as for kids.

Brown Bag Lunch Cookbook is packed with healthy recipes that can be prepared in advance with easy to find ingredients and minimal fuss. It's as good for kids as it is for working adults.

Brown Bag Success has lots of menus to help you plan and creative ideas to put twists onto old favorites to make them more appealing and add some variety to lunch.

There's still a little time left before kids have to head off to school, which means that you might still be packing a lunch. Without debating whether or not kids should be packing their own lunch - which depends entirely on whether they realize the value of having a meal that is more than Pringles and chocolate chip cookies - MSN has a list of foods that you might want to tuck into that brown paper bag on a school day. Most are convenience foods, but they are convenience foods that are healthy choices. Their suggestions include:

• Propel Calcium, for a healthy dose of calcium that doesn't need to be refrigerated
• Yves Veggie Deli Slices, which are soy-based (meatless) and low in fat and come in many varieties for sandwiches
• Sara Lee's Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread
• 100 calorie packs of pretzels, crackers, chips and cookies

Don't forget to include a piece of fruit or some raw veggies and dip (hummus or black bean, which doesn't need to be refrigerated) so the kids get something fresh in their lunch, too. In fact, why not include some in your own lunch box?

After finding out that microwave popcorn bags could contain potentially harmful PFOAs, I worried that it would be some time before I was eating popcorn on a regular basis. It’s a little too much trouble to pop in on the stove top all the time because of the cleanup required; I’m spoiled by having used the microwave for so many years. Fortunately, I came across Alton Brown’s tip to use a brown paper bag to pop popcorn in the microwave. Alton’s directions called for using a stapler to seal the paper bag, but I did not want to take any chances by putting metal into my microwave. I used Scotch tape to seal my bag. By tossing kernels in butter or oil and then sealing them in a brown paper bag with a bit of tape, the kernels will pop up just as usual – with very little mess and a convenient eating container, to boot!

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

A healthy lunch can be one of the hardest meals to achieve because most people eat lunch out. Most restaurants offer potato chips, French fries or other fattening sides with their lunch offerings, even if the main dishes are fairly healthy, not to mention that the portion sizes will most likely be larger than anything you would prepare yourself. The best thing you can do to make sure you have a healthy lunch is to bring one from home.

A home-packed lunch can include the same sandwich and chips that you could have purchased, but with you controlling the portion sizes. If you find that you either don’t have time to prepare a lunch or forget to do so on a regular basis, make sure to pack up some dinner leftovers in small containers to bring in to the office with you.

Here are som tips for a healthier, sandwich-including lunch: