Lunchtime is arguably the best part of school, so it’s a good idea to make sure your kids look forward to it. Our resident mom Nicole has gathered her best lunchbox tips so you can pack like a pro—plus, she tested out some of the internet’s most popular lunch hacks.  Put it on ice Kids don’t have the luxury of stashing their lunch in a fridge until it’s time to eat, so including an ice pack is key. Thinner ice packs are good because they save space. You can also just freeze one thing, like a drink, and the whole lunch will remain cool. Pack the ice first, at the bottom of the lunch box. Then, cover it with a napkin to prevent condensation, and place whatever needs to stay cold closest to the ice pack.  Pack fruit like a pro Invest in kid-sized plastic or glass containers for cut-up fruit, like melons or berries. They’ll get soggy in a plastic bag. You can also opt for fruits that don’t need containers, like clementines or whole apples—you can even slice apples and wrap them to save space, as Nicole demonstrates.  Switch up the presentation Even if you pack basically the same lunch every day, you can still spice them up to excite your kid. Take the sandwich: try wrapping your ingredients in a rollup, sticking them on a skewer, or serving them on a roll for some variety.  Space matters Bigger isn’t always better. Remember, kids don’t have a lot of time to eat, so keep it simple and strategize a bit. The fewer containers, the better. Try a streamlined approach like using resealable bags with the air squeezed out. 

This classic Southern-style squash casserole recipe is the one you're always looking for. It's got yellow squash, cheese, and eggs, and is covered with a buttery cracker crumb topping.   Get the Recipe: Squash Casserole

In this episode of Homemade vs the Internet, Ivy and Robin prepare their grandmothers’ recipes with a protein-packed twist: cricket flour. Also known as cricket powder, cricket flour is, yes, made entirely from crickets. It’s a more sustainable way of getting protein, as farming crickets involves way less work and land than farming livestock. It’s also packed with nutrients including vitamin B, calcium, iron, potassium, and all nine essential amino acids—you can’t say the same about beef or pork. Some even see it as the food of the future. But just because it’s called flour doesn’t mean it acts like flour. Crickets don’t contain gluten, so cricket flour has to be used in conjunction with another flour. Ivy, for example, mixes her cricket flour in with a few cups of all-purpose flour, while Robin adds bread flour to his cricket-chocolate cake. You will, however, still need to coat and flour your pan, especially if you’re using a cake or loaf pan. And even though your mixture will contain more glutenous flour than cricket flour, you’ll need to use cricket flour here. Robin’s recipe yielded two loaves, so he experimented with coating and flouring. The cake coated with a cricket crust fell out of its loaf pan easily, while the one coated with bread flour wouldn’t budge without a beating.  You’ll also want to consider the textural difference cricket powder will create. Not all baked goods work with a sandier texture, and let’s be real, you’re gonna want to bake something that tastes and feels good. Ivy’s tea cakes, for example, are similar to cookies and worked well with a little extra grit worked in. Robin’s pound cake, on the other hand, didn’t take as well to the cricket flour.  Homemade vs the Internet - Avatar Challenge Homemade vs the Internet - Orange Vs Black! Homemade vs the Internet- 75 Foot Pizza Drop  

No-cook veggies make this easy dish a weeknight favorite. Peeling zucchini and squash into ribbons makes them fun to eat for kids.   Get the Recipe: Summer Veggie Pasta