Some super sandwich ideas

Most adults have distinct memories of their grade school lunches.

The infamous sack lunch commonly included a sandwich with stale crusts, a warm fruit-on-the-bottom yoghurt, a juice box that inevitably squirted all over the lunch table, and a leaky thermos of soup.

Food preparation professionals such as Nancy Siler of Wilton Enterprises have some new ideas in the old standard.

"Brown bag lunches have the potential to be appetizing and exciting treats for children during the school day," Siler said. "The problem is that most parents concentrate so much on making the lunch well-rounded and healthy, that they forget to make it fun."

She recommends cutting off the dreaded bread crusts and using animal-shaped cookie cutters to make a memorable lunch treat. "Make a charming turkey and cheese bear sandwich. A cream cheese sandwich with strawberry preserves, shelled sunflower seeds and dried cranberries or raisins will be an enormous hit when it's shaped like an elephant. Or prepare a tuna salad sandwich in the silhouette of a fish with an olive slice eyeball," Siler suggests.

Put a new spin on the classic peanut butter and jelly by baking peanut butter and jelly cookie bars. Just by spreading seedless raspberry jam over a crust, sprinkling extra crumb crust and savory peanut butter chips over the top and baking for 15 to 20 minutes, you've created an appetizing treat.

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