Now that the school year is in full swing, I’ve volunteered to pick up anywhere from two to five (depending on the week) grandkids from school each Wednesday, feed them dinner and deliver them to their weekly youth group.

It’s a bit more complicated this year. One has volleyball practice after school. The other practices with her cross country team. And by the time they get to my house, they are all “starving.”

But I’ve learned something. These kiddos, ages 7 to 13, still know how to be picky about food … even when they are “starving.” So this is not the day to try a new recipe. And it’s easier on everyone when I make something quick and easy that I know they’ll like. And we’re not talking drive-thru.

This week, my brilliant plan was to make a slow cooker meal, so it would be ready for “starving” kids when I finally got them all to the house. Oh, and it had to be nourishing as well as tasty.

Chili and beans to the rescue! We raise our own beef so that was a no-brainer. It’s lean, so it requires a bit of olive oil to keep it from sticking to the skillet. Several farms in our area grow dry beans so I always keep a bag of local pintos or Great Northerns on hand. So into my slow cooker go two good sources of protein for these fast-growing kids.

Dry beans do require a bit of planning ahead. But even I can handle rinsing and soaking them a couple times the day before I cook them. And the great thing about beans, besides the fact that the grandkids like them? They count as a protein and a vegetable.

Still, I’m not happy unless I can sneak at least two veggies into a meal. And there, sitting gloriously on my counter, are tomatoes that our neighbors generously shared from their garden. Nothing better, not matter how you slice or dice them.

The rich red color of tomatoes comes from lycopene, a powerful antioxidant substance known for several health benefits including protection against certain types of cancer. And it’s a fact that our bodies absorb lycopene better when we eat tomatoes or other red foods with some type of fat, such as olive oil or avocados. Nice to know.

Tomato sauce goes into my chili, too. Interestingly, researchers have found up to 10 times more lycopene in canned tomato sauce than in fresh tomatoes. So why not use both?

Seasoned with my favorite chili seasoning, my starving grandkids lapped up their dinner before we rushed out of the house to their event. Oh, and in this part of the country, chili and beans goes best with warm cinnamon rolls. After that meal, I didn’t get one, “What’s for dessert?” from any of my little darlings. Life is good.

Barbara Quinn-Intermill is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator affiliated with Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. She is the author of “Quinn-Essential Nutrition” (Westbow Press, 2015). Email her at to [email protected].