No matter how savvy a mom and cook you are, we ALL need fresh lunchtime ideas and tricks and tips to keep things fresh. Here are some to keep in your back pocket long after the initial back-to-school ambition wears off.

If you have a pantry closet or a snack drawer, put all non-refrigerated lunchbox add-on items in small bins and let the kids pick one from each bin to round out their meal. For instance, you might pack up a sandwich, and then the kids can pick one item from the beverage bin, one item from the healthy snack bin, and one item from the treat bin. No morning arguments, and you can restock the bins as needed.

Store your lunch beverages in the freezer and put them in the lunchbox ice-cold. They will defrost by lunchtime and do double duty by acting as an ice pack to keep the rest of the lunch chilled.

And beyond beverages, other lunchbox items can be frozen to act as an ice packs to keep everything else cool, and then defrost for eating by lunch time. Try single serve containers of apple sauce, fruit cups and tubes of squeezable yogurt.