'Tis the season...to pack lunch for school!

Ah yes...I love the second half of the year. There are the holidays...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year; the weather...dry (Okay it's usually pretty dry here in California), sunny (also pretty sunny most of the time), cool (to be fair, Nor Cal is cool...70% of the time); and the abundance of food! Pumpkins, all kinds of root vegetables, turkeys...But before we get that far, you know the first and biggest thing around this time of year...Labor Day, September...well, school starts again!

That means two things to me:

One, I will have the house back to myself again during the day! I work from home a lot, and this is vital to my sanity (deep breath).

Two, it’s time to pack lunch again (yeah...yikes).

So help me viewers, cooks and bloggers, what's in your kid's lunch box?

To kick off the lunch ideas exchange, I'll share some of my picky eaters' faves:

• Fried Rice - favorite versions in our house: crab fried rice; Chinese sausage fried rice; and Trader Joe's Chicken Fried Rice in the frozen food aisle;

• Pasta with basil pesto and chicken or turkey (deli meat, or leftover roasted chicken);

• Cheese and butter pasta (my version of Mac & Cheese), with cherry tomatoes on the side

• Muffuletta - sounds fancy? It looks fancy and tastes good too! This gigantic sandwich can be made the night before since it tastes better after sitting in the fridge for a few hours. Unbelievable but true! But of course any kind of sandwiches would do.

• Pot stickers or dumplings

There're more to come, but those should get us through next week. For today, I packed:

Cheese & butter pasta, sauteed broccoli, and chicken tenders

PS: the chicken tenders are from Trader Joe's frozen food aisle, once again.