CHAMPAIGN – The challenge: make a healthy lunch that kids will like.

It's got to include all the food groups, and it's got to be inexpensive and easy to fix.

Here are some suggestions: Fresh fruit is a hit. So are tater tots, chips, and an egg-and-cheese sandwich.

The grilled cheese with pesto – not so much.

At Washington Elementary School, some healthy-lunch options got the kid taste test Tuesday night. Teams of Parkland College students faced off in an "Iron Chef"-style competition to create a balanced lunch that kids would like.

"I thought there was a very strong need to show you can offer healthy vegetarian meals for less than $3 that students would enjoy as much, if not more, than the school lunches they have now," said Toni Burkhalter, who created the challenge for the fundamentals of nutrition class she teaches at Parkland.

Kids were asked before the competition about their favorite foods. Pizza was mentioned several times, as was macaroni and cheese, nachos ... and avocado. Burkhalter told them they could still have their favorite foods, but by changing a few ingredients, they could be healthier.

The meals created by her students had to meet state nutrition guidelines for school lunches, with a specified number of calories and specified amounts of fiber, protein, carbohydrates and fat.

They also had to cost no more than $3 per student to prepare. Burkhalter said her students researched how much school districts across the country charge for their lunches and came up with an average of $3.

On Monday, a table of kid judges tried the Parkland students' lunches and rated them on taste. The lunches were:

– A grilled-cheese sandwich with a twist (it included bean paste made of chickpeas, pesto and olive oil), fruit with a yogurt glaze, carrots and cucumbers, and chocolate milk.

– An egg-and-cheese sandwich on an English muffin, tater tots, mixed vegetables, peaches, and chocolate milk.

– A cheese-and-vegetable quesadilla, chips and salsa, pineapple, and juice.

– A veggie burger, baked chips, fruit salad, and juice.

Fourth-grader Darrion Chatman loved the strawberries and pineapple with the yogurt glaze.

Fifth-grader Aashika Ashok also liked the strawberries, and the tator tots and veggie burger. But she didn't like the grilled cheese, saying it was "smooshed and mushy," or the quesadilla.

Anthony Kunkel, also in the fourth grade, liked nearly everything, except the grilled cheese.

"It has some weird taste in it I didn't like," he said.

Melinda Dragonuk and Ashley Hilt were on the team that made the grilled-cheese lunch. They went through several different variations of the sandwich – trying it with and without pesto, with cucumber, with peppers and with tomatoes – before settling on what they would make.

"We enjoyed the taste of all of them, but it was deciding what kids would like," Dragonuk said. "The thing that came up most was the texture. Kids have so many texture issues."

The winning meals were the egg-and-cheese breakfast-sandwich meal and the veggie-burger meal, which tied on taste.

Finding something kids like is important, said Washington art teacher Shauna Carey.

"I can't believe how much food these kids throw away," Carey said. "They look at the plate and they may eat one thing and throw the rest away. Then they spend the rest of the day hungry. The whole idea of making stuff that's visually attractive to them and that they like is huge."

If second-grader Daylin Wilson had to pick some of the foods he ate Tuesday night to have for lunch the next day, he'd pick the fruit and the chips and salsa.

"And some pepperoni pizza," he said.