By Shirin Yadegar
Preparing any meal for 4 growing children and a foody husband is a challenge that I have mastered. My biggest obstacle was learning how to make healthy food taste good for all of their palates. Here are my two favorite, super easy dinner recipes that you can recycle for school lunch.

BBQ Chicken Dinner= BBQ Chicken Salad

  • Serving 6
  • Ingredients
  • 6 pieces of skinless chicken breast BONE IN
  • Your favorite BBQ sauce
  • Wash your chicken then marinate it with a bottle of your favorite bbq sauce. Leave it in a pyrex dish covered for 4 to 24 hours then cook on low in the crock pot for 4 to 6 hours.

Serve with a side of your favorite steamed veggies and a baked potatoe.

BBQ Chicken Salad for lunch
While clearing the table have your kids shread the left over chicken with their hands. (Mine love wearing gloves and doing it.) In a tuperware that you send to school cut romaine lettuce, canned organic black beans and canned organic corn. Top it with the shredded chicken. In the morning put a side of organic crunchy tortilla chips with a side of low fat ranch dressing. Kids will love this protein filled lunch!

Shwarma Plate Dinner= Shwarma Lunch Sandwich

  • Serving 6
  • Ingredients
  • 2 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken thigh
  • 1 onion
  • tumeric
  • cumin
  • 1 lemon

Wash and cut chicken into strips. Cut one brown or white onion into strips. In a pyrex dish mix chicken, onion, sprinkle tumeric and cumin and massage the chicken. Squeeze one lemon and mix it all together with your hands. If you are not wearing gloves make sure to wash your hands immediately because the tumeric will make your fingernails yellow and ruin your manicure.

Cover and leave in refrigerator for 2 to 24 hours.

Fry onions and chicken on a non-stick pan on medium heat uncovered, stirring frequently until fully cooked.

Serve with cucumber and tomato salad and hummus.

Shwarma Sandwich for Lunch
Warm the chicken in the morning in the oven on low for 20 min and put in a heat retaining tuperware dish for school. Cut one pita in half. Put both halves in a ziplock bag in the lunch box. Also, send a side of hummus and raw veggies to dip into the hummus. Show your child how fun it is to use raw carrots to spread the hummus on the inside of the pita and fill it with Shwarma meat. YUM!

Shirin Yadegar is creator of http://www.lamommagazine.com She takes pride in every meal she prepares for her family.