Hi Moms,
My son is going to be going to school for a full day next year 9am-2:30pm and he's 4 years old. He's going to need to bring lunch every day and I was hoping for some suggestions. My son LOVES all breakfast foods and I usually make him hot food for lunch when he comes home now, but I can't see him picking up a sandwich and eating it without someone on time of him telling him to take bites. I also have never bought a lot of processed foods. What do you recommend for my picky eater that will work in a lunchbox?
He will love to eat yogurt, cottage cheese, and cheese and crackers and fruit but do you have any other suggestions that are a bit more substantial for lunchtime? He has a peanut allergy.
Thanks!
You might want to check out this website for ideas. I have saved tons of recipes from her site to use this year.
http://weelicious.com/school-lunches/
Aside from the website, I have found that my son LOVES to eat wraps. I make substantial ones for him and he devours them. Just get a lunch box that is well insulated, or something like the Pack-It to keep the food fresh.
My son is not generally a fan of cold meals or sandwiches. I bought a funtainer food thermos for my son last year. I would fill it up with hot water when I made breakfast in the morning (I use my kerig). I'd let it sit while we got around. About 5 or 10 minutes before walking out the door, I'd nuke lunch. Dump the water (dry it with a towel so food doesn't get soggy) and fill it with the food. We tested it. It works really well for about 4.5 - 5 hours. My son never complained about lunch not being warm. We used that thing to bring everything under the sun to school...chicken nuggest, dinner leftovers, fried rice, steamed veggies,cous cous, hot dogs (covered with hot water and assembled at school), cheese dip, soups. We even cut up pizza a few times and sliders fit in the container too. It works to keep things cold as well, my son liked when I put his fruit salad in there.
My daughter will be starting kindergarten so I am looking for ideas as well. I looked up Funtainers on Amazon and they have them from $10-$15 and I will be purchasing one for my daughter and filling it with spaghetti, ravioli, chicken nuggets, eggs, etc. My daughter is not a huge sandwich fan, either, but she will eat grilled cheese and pb and jelly so I will use those for lunches. I will also have 1 veggie and 1 fruit in her lunchbox along with milk or V8 Fusion juice and then 1 treat (fruit snack, chips, cookie, etc). I am taking her with me shopping so she can choose some of her lunch items.
I make my daughter turkey roll up - turkey slice with string cheese inside. She also loves baby carrots and hummus, and grape tomatoes. Hope this helps
My son's even pickier than your son. At least yours will eat cheese and crackers. :) I used to pack hot lunches for my son using a soup thermos and wrapping the contents in tin foil. Drove the daycare center workers nuts when he went to daycare, because the Teriaki steak and Soy Sauce marinated pork smelt too good. I used to pack pre-heated bagel bites and pizza bites too. I got the idea from my mom, who used to put taco meat in a thermos, so I could have a taco for lunch. (She'd throw a bag of dortitos in my lunch for me to put my taco meat in after I crushed the bag a little, then ate it with a fork.) My son did finally eat peanut butter sandwiches (no jelly, just peanut butter like me.) and peperoni sandwiches. Doesn't eat any sandwiches anymore....I gave up. It was easier to fed a picky 3 to 9 yro than when he became a preteen and now teenager. I just keep praying he'll start eating someday.
My son is picky and also loves breakfast food. I make very healthy pancakes every Sunday (ingredients include mashed banana, oatmeal, yogurt and applesauce, no sugar) and have enough leftover batter to make a fresh pancake for Monday - Wednesday (he doesn't care if he eats the same lunch every day, in fact he prefers it). I make a pancake in the morning and use a dinosaur cookie cutter, then pack a little syrup in a small plastic container for him to dip it. He doesn't mind that it's at room temperature at all. If yours eats sandwiches at home you might also try the cookie-cutter trick with those (mine will sometimes eat sandwiches if I use the Star Wars cookie cutters). I also send him sort of a smoothy-type drink which is just milk mixed with a blob of vanilla yogurt for some extra protein. Then fruit, a little pack of fruit snacks and crackers or something else crunchy. Sometimes I also send dry cereal -- you can find some healthier than regular kids cereals, like Cascadian Farms, which are lower in sugar and fortified with vitamins but still kid-friendly (like fruity-ohs). He has a bento box-type metal lunchbox and likes the little compartments. Also nutri-grain bars or something similar (hard to find ones without a lot of sugar but at least they have vitamins, unlike most granola bars).
B.
