It's hard to feed a crew of 5 kids (plus your own) all of which get different foods at home. Everyone cooks a little different.

I feed healthy alternatives and it seems to work.

If I do pasta, I do whole wheat. If I do sandwiches its on whole wheat bread ( I often make myself) with lean meats, often chicken I cooked the day before. We do deli trays once a week. Some whole wheat crackers, cold veg and dip, lean ham or cooked chicken or turkey. Kids love it!

I make mac and cheese once a week. I make it from scratch and add cauliflour puree into the cheese sauce.

I make pizzas. With whole wheat wraps, real cheese, veggies and ham. Or I make zucchini look like pepperoni.

There are lots of ways to make great lunches that look and taste like what the kids are used to.

And if all else fails, stick to your guns. If they don't eat it, then they go hungry. That's life. Just wait until they get to school. Schools now have "nutrition breaks" not recess. They teach the kids to eat their healthy food first and discourage any thing junk like. We had a kindergarten teacher last year that wouldn't allow juice boxes in the class room. All garbage came home and my daughter told me she wasn't aloud to bring cookies to school.

I wouldn't go to a bagged lunch program. You would need to reduce your prices for parents to justify it. And you will get kids that have cookies and others that have all fruit. Johnny will want Suzy's cookie and will get upset that he doesn't have one. It's just a problem starter as far as I'm concerned.

Start involving the kids in the menu. Find out favorite foods, write them all down and work together to decide how you can make the food healthy.

Maybe hamburgers can be chicken burgers, or chicken wraps. Maybe French fries can be roasted potatoes, or home made sweet potatoe fries. Maybe spaghetti and sauce can be a home made sauce with roasted veg in it.

Don't stress about it.