The following is a post from our sponsor, Hormel.

Are you getting ready for your kids to go back to school? As you gear up and begin thinking about packing lunches and preparing dinners, it’s important to make sure we’re feeding our children’s bodies and minds. Along with fats and carbohydrates, protein is an essential nutrient that provides energy to keep us healthy and keep our bodies functioning properly. 

Each of Hormel’s Pepperoni varieties complements any meal idea with five or more grams of protein per serving, making it easy for you to keep your kids healthy and happy.

I seriously love the image to the right ... I really do. I have actually printed it out and put it up on my fridge. I know there is no way that every single meal in my house will match these new MyPlate guidelines — but just seeing the fruits and veggies in their bright red and green colors reminds me to try harder than I have been. And having it somewhere my kids can see it too gets them involved ... pretty soon they will be checking to make sure I am matching the plate in the picture!

Which brings me to school snacks and lunches. Ugh ... I know I said it just yesterday — but they intimidate me. So here is another easy to prepare suggested lunch from Cris Comerford, the White House Executive Chef.

School lunches and snack time stress me out. There. I said it. We are about to go back to school, and at my house, that means five days a week, for my two kids, I need to pack lunches that consist of more than just turkey thrown in between two slices of bread, and snacks other than pretzels. I know I can be more creative than that, and I truly want my kids to eat better than that. Plus, I am really into following the new MyPlate Guidelines, which recently replaced the food pyramid I grew up with (but never paid any attention to) to help make sure my kids learn to eat balanced meals.

So I was really excited when Cristeta Comerford, the White House Executive Chef, offered to show us how, with a little planning and, literally, just a little extra time, lunch can be healthy and delicious, unlike what I grew up on (sorry dad).

It can be enormously frustrating to get teens to understand the importance of a healthy breakfast, what with general bershon, the morning rush, and their deep need to avoid any sort of uncoolness (anything their parents want them to do just reeks of it). So they miss out on the much needed morning boost. Too often, that leads to noshing on junk at school with their friends or not eating anything until lunch. But teens need decent nutrition to carry them though busy days of school, work, and extracurriculars.

I'm a breakfast devotee now, but hated eating first thing in the morning as a teen. The key for me, and for many teens, was figuring out things that would appeal before I was 100 percent awake and wouldn't take too long to eat or prepare. Often that means thinking outside the box with meals that aren't necessarily traditional breakfast foods but offer a good balance of protein and carbohydrates and include veggies or fruit:

There are very few foods in life that kids crave more than PB and J. Is it really even necessary to suggest alternatives?

The simple fact of the matter is that variety in a diet is healthy, so if you can get them to eat other things for lunch, all the better. We can't promise the following items are as tasty as everyone's favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but at least they'll provide a little inspiration to shake up your lunch routine. Here are eight alternatives to the classic PB and J:

Dear Lunch Lady,

I want to tell you I have a lot of respect for what you do.

You stand in a glorified echo chamber and dole out dishes to whiny brats without blinking an eye. Just half an hour inside the din of Chuck E. Cheese and I'm begging for a wine glass, but you do it all sober. At least I hope you do.

And might I mention you totally rock that hairnet?

So it's with total love that I say this Madam Lunch Lady:

There's such an air of dread, mystery and misery about a school lunchroom.

The cafeteria is certainly not just a place to eat, but also a microcosm of kids interacting without the confines of a classroom.

It's the cafeteria workers of the school who are on the front lines observing and interacting with our children who get a glimpse into that life every day. Bless their hearts.

While each cafeteria is distinct and diverse from the others across the United States, I caught up with one lunch lady, Erin Austin who has worked at a grade school outside Orlando, Fla. for three years, to hear what goes on in her school.

You may be surprised at what she has to say ...

It's hard to believe a brown liquid that's not whiskey could result in this many fights. But a year after the dairy industry made a relatively successful new push on chocolate milk, parents and schools are pushing back. School districts in California and Florida have gotten rid of all flavored milk in favor of the plain white stuff.

But it's an uphill battle. Seems 60 percent of the milk served in New York cafeterias is chocolate, and that's pretty typical.

I picked up my own daughter from a public summer camp a few weeks ago to find her with a brown mustache, chugging a little chocolate bomb. She knew I wouldn't approve, and said the worst thing she could have: 

"It's low fat!"