Easy Lunchboxes

New lunch boxes and backpacks are my kids' favorite part of back-to-school shopping. But this year, I've discovered a new lunch box tool that will not only make school lunch more attractive to my kids, it makes school lunches easier for me to pack and healthier, too.

Kids like lunches that are organized into compartments, letting them sample small bites of food easily. If the different foods don't touch each other, all the better. That's why Lunchables are so popular.

Now imagine if you could send the kids to school with a healthy homemade lunch that was just as fun and attractive for the kids to eat, less expensive for you, and super easy to pack. That's what I like about Easy Lunchboxes.

These re-usable lunch boxes come in a set of four. They're organized into compartments, a feature that is guaranteed to please kids. But what I like best about these lunch boxes is that it makes it easy for me to assemble a well-balanced meal.

The sectioned containers are a clearly designed to hold a sandwich and two sides. But the shape of the side sections forces you to think outside the ho-hum chips and apple school lunch side dish trap.

For example, here are some of the fun sides I've put in my kids lunchboxes:

• hard boiled eggs
• hummus and pita chips
• carrots with peanut butter
• zucchini bread cream cheese sandwiches
• Mexican phyllo cups
• cherries, grapes, cantaloupe balls, almonds (in every flavor, from vanilla to sea salt), cheese and crackers and much more

Sometimes I get creative and cut cheese slices with mini cutters (compare prices), and put the cheese shapes in one container and the crackers in another. The possibilities go way beyond the standard cookies and banana I used to throw into their lunches, and they're healthier, too.

It's not something I like to think about often, but I swear the kids used to take two bites of their apples or pears or whatever fruit I used to pack in their lunch boxes, then throw away the rest. With the Easy Lunchboxes, the compartments force you to cut up fruit. And because the size isn't too overwhelming for kids, they tend to eat it all (at least I haven't seen any of it come home).

These lunch boxes are also dishwasher safe, so they're designed to be re-used. Less need for paper or plastic baggies or other disposable containers, so these lunch boxes are better for the environment.

And I like that fact that Easy Lunchboxes are free of lead, BPA, phthalates, PVC and vinyl.

If there were one thing I'd like to see improved with these lunch boxes, it's that you can't easily pack hot foods in them. Or, to be more specific, you can't pack hot and cold foods in the same lunch box container. You can probably pack a hot sandwich in an Easy Lunchbox container and it will stay hot or warm for a few hours. But you can't pack a hot sandwich or hot chicken nuggets with cold grapes or anything else cold in the other side containers and have everything stay at the proper temperature.

Easy Lunchboxes aren't alone in this design challenge. Virtually every insulated lunch box on the market is like this, from the Doggie Bag lunch tote to the stainless steel LunchBots. But it sure would be nice if Easy Lunchboxes had this feature.

The Easy Lunchbox containers come in a set of four for $13.95. You can buy the lunchboxes directly from the company's web site. There is also a cooler bag the lunch box containers fit into, which you can buy separately for $7.95.

I've found the cooler bag doesn't really appeal to the kids -- they seem to prefer using the lunch box containers in their own lunch boxes. But I did test the cooler with both hot and cold foods, and it insulates them well for several hours. You can also fit a water bottle and an ice pack in the cooler bag with one of the Easy Lunchbox containers, so it does make a nice lunch set if you prefer to go that way.