Back to School Macaroni and Cheese

Do you want your child to be the most popular kid in the lunch room? Try this macaroni and cheese recipe. I flavored the béchamel sauce with roasted red bell pepper, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes and of course a variety of cheeses. The color turns out more vibrant and the texture is perfect with both gooey and stringy cheese mixed together.

I packed the mac and cheese in a bento-style thermos lunch jar so the dish would remain warm until lunch time. My little 6-year-old sis-in-law has been going to school for less than a week but she's already made a lot of friends. When she came home, I found an empty box. She told me her lunch box is a great conversation starter!

Chocolate Pistachio Cream Pie (Easy Dessert Recipe)

I love the combination of pistachio and chocolate. These mini pies are made with a filling of pistachio pudding nestled in a chocolate-flavored graham cracker crust. To accentuate the chocolate flavor, I added a thin layer of Nutella in between.

For the pistachio cream, I made a hassle-free pudding using pistachio-flavored Jell-O instant pie filling. I've made pistachio pudding in the past using corn starch, half and half and pâte de pistache but the pistachio flavor doesn't come as well. So why go through the headache when the Jell-O product tastes better?

You could top the mini pies with meringue or whipped cream but I thought it wasn't necessary, so I decorated them with crushed pistachios. Voilà!

Tuna Pasta Salad Recipe

Tuna pasta salad is one of the easiest school lunches of all times. The pasta salad can be prepared a day in advance; I usually prep the ingredients the day before and assemble the salad the next morning. All you need is mayonnaise, tuna, boiled pasta (I used fusilli) and various grilled vegetables.

Back to school lunches have never been that easy! Fusilli pasta have a fun look and the corkscrew curl in the center traps the mayonnaise so you get a creamy pasta salad. This one dish makes a balanced meal for kids in your life.

Octopus Sushi (Cooked Sushi Recipe)

We've been setting up my little sis-in-law’s school lunch menu as she's about to enter 1^st grade tomorrow. She participated in the entire process. The little munchkin mentioned that she loves sushi and wanted to have some for lunch this school year. It's a fast and easy way for her to have a quick lunch, so I was happy to oblige. She also mentioned she loves baby octopus but she doesn't want to scare her friends away with weird food so I coarsely chopped them and used them as the filling along with other vegetables. I cooked each ingredient separately, let them cool completely and then combined then into sushi rolls. The sushi got an “A” from my sis-in-law, so I'll definitely be packing them for her this school year.

Involving children in preparing their own food encourages them to eat with more enthusiasm. Cooking in a fun environment is also a way to learn. If your kids aren’t adventurous enough for octopus, you can try some of my other school lunch recipe ideas.

SFChefs 2010 Event Recap