The Alexander the Great veggie pita pocket takes a few minutes to prepare. But it's worth it. Have your child help and this can become a short ancient history lesson, as well as a cooking lesson.

Mix up a half-cup of low-fat cream cheese and a teaspoon each of chopped chives, parsley, basil, or rosemary, (or other herbs that your child likes) in a food processor. Keep pulsing until you're sure the herbs are distributed throughout the cheese.

Spread the mixture inside a pita, about two tablespons per pita. Remember: this is a lunch that not only your child will like but it also will be tasty for you and others in your family. So you'll want to use the excess herbal cream cheese mix for more pita pockets. Grill up veggies in olive oil--carrots, cauliflower, celery, broccoli, onions ... whatever your child likes. To give the pita pocket a little sweet taste, chop up about a half of an apple or pear and add them into into the grilling. Stuff each pita evenly with the grilled veggies and fruit. You can keep the completed pita pockets on had  for up to about a week in refrigerated, tightly sealed container. Your child can heat them up if there is a microwave available at school. If there's not ... they taste good cold. Photo: A baker making pita by hand in Istanbul.

A bit of knowledge and history to share with your child:

Pita pockets are popular in the Middle East, Greece, Mediterranean region, Balkans, Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, and parts of India, and have become popular over the last decade in the U.S.

A pita pocket is created by steam that puffs up the dough. As the bread cools, it flattens out and the middle is left as the pocket. In the United States, pita pockets are commercially made by machines, but the food is still made by hand in many parts of the world. The English word "pita" is borrowed from the Greek language. Aristophanes, a comic playwright in ancient Athens, referred to the food in the 3rd century B.C. He wrote that the bread was a side dish but also was a bread filled with jam before being baked, making it similar to a pie. The popularity of pita pockets outside of ancient Greece may be due to Alexander the Great, who is considered one of history's most successful generals. As Alexander's army moved in about 334 B.C. to conquer the Persian Empire (now the nations of Iran, Turkey, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries), and then India, his soldiers spread the use of pita to local populations. Photo: A bust of Alexander the Great

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