By Momma Chef

When it comes to packing school lunches, advance preparation is a parent’s best friend. Here are some tips for making the task that much easier:

Momma Chef’s Cornflake-Coated Chicken

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons water

4 cups corn flakes

1 tablespoon salt

6 boneless chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a large bowl, mix together eggs and water. Set aside. In a large Ziploc bag, add the corn flakes and salt, and then crush the corn flakes. Dip each chicken breast in the egg/water mixture and put it in the Ziploc bag. Shake to coat all sides of the chicken. Arrange the chicken in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes. Serves six.

1 Try out recipes on your kids first, rather than surprising them with a new lunch. As a food blogger, I serve culinary experiments all the time.

2 When I find something they like, I’ll make—usually on a Sunday night—enough to provide a few lunches during the week. My kids’ favorites are Banana Muffins, Hidden Zucchini Muffins, Bourbon Chicken, and Crispy Corn Flake Chicken. Find the recipe for the latter at left. See my blog, mommachef.com, for the others and many more lunchtime meals.

3 At the start of the week, we also bake up a batch of S’mores Brownies, which we individually wrap so they’re ready for lunchbox desserts. The recipe for them is on my blog, too.

4 For fruit, I like to throw in small bags of organic apple slices from Costco or Trader Joe’s. Of course, fresh apples are ideal, and autumn is a great time to pick them right off the tree. If you slice them up, do so in the morning, not the night before, so they won’t brown before lunch.

5 Freeze a box of yogurt squeezers (my favorite is Stonyfield Organic Strawberry), and include one in the lunch box. It’ll be defrosted by noon and keep other items cold until mealtime.

Karen Nochimowski, aka Momma Chef, is a mother of three active boys (ages 12, 8, and 5). On her blog, mommachef.com, find more of her recipes, all of which require no more than six ingredients and six minutes of prep time.