Lunch Idea's for My 3 Year Old

Anything that they can pick up with their fingers and dip always is a big hit. When I cook dinner, I'll usally prepare extra pork, chicken, fish or whatever to dice up into little cubes and serve for the kids' lunch the next day. I also make my own healthier baked chicken nuggests and fish sticks but crushing up cornflakes, baked tortilla chips or potato chips, or crackers and rolling the chicken and fish nuggets in that after tossing the meat pieces in a egg/water bath.

Fruit slices are always good and, if your child can do dairy, you can give them some yogurt to dunk their fruit in. Bowtie pasta is a big hit with my daughter and, since she's a big vegetable rejector, I tend to hide pureed brocoli and cauliflower into the tomato sauce when I make it for her.

When I make pancakes, I'll put some of the batter aside and thin it out with extra milk to make my own version of flat bread, which I use to wrap up peanut butter & jelly, lunchmeat and cheese or whatever, before slicing the wrap into discs and serving.

Hope this give you and your little guy a bit more variety at lunchtime.

Here's some GREAT ideas:

http://www.laptoplunches.com/
http://lunchinabox.net/

Here where I live, lots of kids have these "bento box" lunch boxes. ('bento boxes' are of Japanese origin... and was used for traveling Samurai and villagers who worked in the fields or plantations). It has since evolved and become mainstream and modernized.) It's GREAT for any child or adult. VERY handy.

You can also find bento boxes on Ebay. And you can find them in all kinds of kid characters too!

Hope this helps!
Susan

Hi A. -

I've found the individual prepackaged crackers and snacks at Whole Foods to be a healthy and easy choice for my young son's lunches... he's four. Even the cookie choices at Whole Foods are super healthy and other than that I include fresh fruit and a meat sandwich. The Kashi brand at Whole Foods is really good and the he loves their strawberry fruit bars. Giving kids organic foods, keeps the chemicals out of their little bodies, and it is less expensive at WF.

Good luck and congrats to your husband. - L.

Keep it simple!

My son goes to a school that provides meals, so I don't worry about it anymore. But, I even look at their menu for ideas for the weekends.

It's usually very basic things that include some kind of protein, starch and a veggie. My son loves pasta and rice, simple veggies like peas, carrots and lima beans...for protein we do turkey meatballs, baked chicken, homemade chicken nuggets or something finger food like. Also, they do sandwiches and burritos or pita pockets with stuff inside.

Make sure it is foods he will eat, otherwise you could have a hungry little one on your hands.

Congratulations on your husband's citizenship!
Some fun foods for preschoolers are made with pea pods - the fat kind, I think they are called sugar snaps in the fresh produce dept. You split them open and stuff with tuna salad, or peanut butter. You could try other things too, like egg salad. A few of those in a baggy would replace the sandwich. Devilled eggs are always popular, and you could use the egg white the same way, stuffing it with alternate things. Grannysmith apples (the sour green kind) slices spread with peanut butter make a fun sandwich too. Then there is the ever popular "bugs on a log" - celery with peanut butter on top, with raisins stuck into th PB.

A., for some inspirational ideas...you'll love these 2 websites (my favorites):

http://weelicious.com/

AND http://wholesomebabyfood.com/

DELICIOUSLY YUMMY!!!

ENJOY!!! : )))

LOL,
L. (MAMA to 16 month old Dylan Orion....29 September 2007). : )))

Check out www.lunchboxco.com

Just don't forgt a ziploc or small container with his favorite dried cereal is always a favorite ! I'd say anything that he can pick up and feed hiself neatly. 'finger food'......Make his favorite sandwich and then cut in shapes of mini squares or triangles. You could also ask him to help you pack his lunch bag the night before. Kids are honest, listen to them. ENJOY !

Sandwiches work well - PB&J, tuna, or turkey work well. You can also do wraps with tortillas, turkey, and cream cheese or just quesadillas. Leftovers from dinner the night before work too. Pasta bake (pasta, sauce, ground meat/sausage, and cheese). Teriyaki chicken, rice, and baked beans.

Steamed veggies - green beans, broccoli, peas, and corn. Fruit - cut up melon, banana, apple, grapes.

Hello! Lunch for a three year old isn't too bad! My daughter loves the babybel cheese(round cheese in red wax) so that is nice to have to throw in. Also - the cuties ... the small tangerines - they are seedless, so that is even better.

Costco also has good prices on individual applesauce servings and fruit cups - although I tend to drain the fruit cups and put them in another container so they don't have the syrup.

Frozen veggies work well too - that way lunch is still cold - we do frozen peas.

As for sandwhiches, we do pb&j and also cream cheese - our daughter loves cream cheese, so we use a good wheat bread and put cream cheese on it - if you want you can toss on some cucumbers or other veggies.

The last thing we do is portion out snacks .... goldfish, craisins, raisins, and the fruit leather(all natural from costco - not fruit roll-ups) so that we have them in individual serving sizes to toss into her lunch box. That speeds up things in the mornings or even when we are heading to the car for a small trip or long drive ... snacks are readily available.

Good luck!

There are tons of lunch recipe ideas on weelicious, but in March we're devoting 2 weeks on the subject.-www.weelicious.com

My daughter loves boiled eggs, doesn't like the yolk so I remove them. Just make them ahead of time, peel them in the morning & put them in a container..... ready to eat!