It's in the bag: nutritious school lunches and treats that score A+

Vegetarian Times, Sept, 1998 by Nava Atlas

RELATED ARTICLE: Snacks & Extras

Snacks packed for school should be simple and neat. Explore natural food stores for quick and easy snack ideas. Their cookies, cereals, fruit bars and such are often naturally sweetened and low in fat. Similarly, natural chips, cheese puffs, rice crisps and other crunchy snacks have less salt and fat than their supermarket counterparts. Here are some suggestions for great-tasting school snacks:

* Natural fruit leathers

* Low-fat fruit and cereal bars

* Granola bars

* Fruit filled, non-frosted toaster tarts

* Dried fruit, such as apple rings, apricots and pineapples

* Trail mix (dried fruits with nuts and seeds)

* Rice cakes or mini-rice cakes

* Small wax-wrapped cheeses

* Mozzarella cheese sticks

* 4-ounce container fruit yogurt

* Individual container applesauce or other fruit cup

* Naturally sweetened cereal

* Graham crackers

* Sesame breadsticks

* Fruit-sweetened cookies

* Bagel crisps

* Baby bananas

* Small seedless grapes

* Whole wheat pretzels

Nava Atlas is the author of several vegetarian cookbooks, most recently Pasta East to West (Book Publishing Co., 1998) and Great American Vegetarian (M. Evans and Co., 1998). She packs lunches for her two sons, Adam and Evan.