Preschool Lunch Ideas

I’ve been getting bored with my lunch repertoire for C. and S. and can’t seem to think beyond turkey or ham and cheese, carrot, celery and cucumber sticks and fruit. Sometimes we expand into hot dogs or leftovers at home, but it’s hard to think creatively when they’re clamoring for food and I’m hustling around the kitchen like a short order cook.

C. goes to preschool three days a week so I need to pack him a lunch and they both go to an in-home daycare a couple mornings or days and this requires snacks and lunch. Help - I’m running out of ideas!

Fortunately, I have some very smart and creative friends who helped me out with their lists of lunch ideas. It was interesting to hear that many other toddlers, like mine, want nothing to do with a “sandwich” (unless it’s PB&J) and that inventive gimmicks work the best.

Main Course (sandwich alternatives)

• Sandwich Roll-Ups - Flatten bread or tortillas, spread with whatever, roll and slice to show spirals. May freeze slightly to make slicing into wheels easier.
• Raisin Bread Fingers - spread with cream cheese, may add apple & dates.
• Graham Crackers - spread with cream cheese or peanut butter or topped with cheese, raisins & app
• Meat Spread - combine 1 c finely chopped cooked beef, chicken, turkey or chicken livers and 1 c chopped celery or onion in a bowl. Add 2-3T mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

We make"homemade" Lunchables. I use a biscuit cutter and cut out rounds of bologna, thick sliced ham or turkey. I also cut out rounds of cheese. I put these in round, small Tupperware containers and then put crackers in a separate container.

• Leftovers that are ok chilled or room temp - pasta/mac n cheese/ cut-up chicken and rice
• Hummus and lettuce sandwiches
• Egg salad, light cream cheese on wheat bread (sometimes with jelly)
• Greek salad (grape leaves, olives, feta cheese with chopped lettuce
• Whole wheat pasta with chopped broccoli, olives, feta or parmesian cheese, touch of oliveoil
• Whole wheat pasta with chopped egg and a touch of mayo
• Lox, tomato and cream cheese on a whole wheat bagel or the english muffin;salmon salad on whole grain bread or on lettuce
• Ham or turkey and cheese, cubed, with wheat crackers

My youngest son loves cold pasta (after seeing my first child eating it I know a lot of kids started bringing it to preschool too)…I make wheat elbows or rotini and top it with a little parmesan cheese

• Mini whole wheat pitas or bagels filled with: - cream cheese and jelly- cream cheese and smoked salmon- cream cheese blended with raisins- peanut butter and banana- jam and banana- egg salad
• “Cracker sandwiches” with stone wheat crackers and turkey or peanut butter
• Breaded chicken cutlets (leftover from dinner) cut up and cold for lunch
• Small yogurts (the mousse kind by Danon sticks best to the spoon for less mess but only comes in vanilla)
  
  In the Winter I sometimes will give them Chicken Noodle or Tomato soup in a Thermos ( I didn't start this until Kindergarten).
  
  
  Snacks/Veggies
  
  
• Celery Sticks, Carrot Sticks, Bread Sticks, Pita Wedges or Rice Cakes spread with- peanut butter- cream cheese, raisins & sunflower seeds- cream cheese blended with apples and dates- a creamy dip or dressing- hummous
• 1/2 of a pitted avocado... I just squeeze a little lemon on it and send it in with a plastic spoon.
• Ants on a log: celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter or cream cheese, with a few raisins on top
• Cucumber sandwiches - sliced rounds with cream cheese in the middle
• Steamed broccoli or green beans (so they’re softer but still crisp) with Ranch or Caesar dressing or hummus
• String cheese, pretzels, goldfish, chewy granola bars, peanut butter crackers, yogurt or yogurt drinks (these can double as main course items if yours is picky like mine)!
• Sliced carrots/peppers
• Raisins
• Graham sticks (Earth's Best)
• Trader Joes rice and seaweed snacks and soy chips (high protein, low fat)
• Trader Joes dried apple rings or dry mango
• Veggie Booty, Pirate Booty
• Shelled edamame is a fun vegetable.S
• tonybrook Farm smaller sized yogurt smoothies
• Baby Bell cheese (cute and fun for them to unwrap the wax covering)
• Corn nuts, sesame sticks, yogurt covered raisins for fun snack
• Veggies fries or pita chips
• 
  Dessert/Fruit
• Cut up strawberries dusted with powdered sugar (they LOVE these), peeled apples with caramel (individual caramel sold in produce dept.- especially this time of year).
• Any kinds of berries in season
• Dried fruit: apricots, raisins—even prunes! I also pack cut up pears

I also find that any fresh fruit that is cubed and served with a toothpick for eating goes over well. It is the toothpick that is magical, I believe.

• Pudding snacks
• Rice crispy treats (pre-packed), sweet snack items
• Mini-packaged applesauce
• Cookies: Fig Newman’s, ginger snaps, chocolate chip cookies, Nilla wafers
• Mini muffins
• Homemade oatmeal cookies
• Fruit bites

Drinks

• Milk
• Small bottled water or low-sugar, high vitamin/calcium juice box/drinks
• Lemon or grapeade juice box (no sugar added)=
• Apple or grape juice
  
  
  Enjoy!
  
  
  

When the Pickin' is Easy

Yesterday's New York Times ran an article, "Picky Eaters, They Get it from You", about a study showing that picky eating is genetic. Yep, it's in your genes. And I'll admit I've harbored a secret fear since my kids moved off baby food that they would become (the dreaded) picky eaters and force me to cajole, trick and finally, cook multiple meals. If it's genetic, well, then I don't have as much need to worry. My siblings and I (all five of us) have had hearty appetites since childhood. My mother's a good cook, she didn't keep junk food or sugar cereal in the house, and she basically starved us until dinner time which was 7:30 pm or so after my father returned home from work. We ate whatever she served.

My children's appetites fall somewhere in the middle. They both ate well their first year or so, (S. is still going strong at 19 months!), but C. became pickier and pickier after age two. As it turns out, this is a natural occurance, according to the NYT article, and stems from a savvy protectionist gene inhereted from our cavepeople days. Hint: Once cavebabies could crawl or walk out of the cave, they needed a guarded instict not to eat every wild berry and plant in sight! This lasts until they can think a bit about what's edible - around age 5 or so. They grow out of it (yay!) So, don't fret nutrition-worried parents, it's okay if your toddler doesn't want to eat.

Toddler Food

What may not be so okay for your sanity, time management and patience, is a need to cook him whatever he wants. Or "toddler food." (My "toddler food" includes Trader Joes chicken nuggets, fish sticks and meatballs, pasta, and hot dogs). This choice is purely individual and dependent on you and your child's mood, that day's and evening activities and whether you had the time and foresight to prepare a meal ahead of time.


For my part, I'm using this Fall to get back to basics. In full disclosure, I got really lazy with my cooking for the good part of this year. We moved to a new house in April and getting settled with two toddlers just didn't leave time to prepare home cooked meals ahead of time. And it was just easier to prepare food I knew my kids would eat.


But, the truth is, my kids actually like most foods (okay, sea bass in Portugese tomato sauce is just pushing it). Lasagna, meat loaf (we're pretty generous with ketchup around here), baked chicken and frozen veggies go down easy. So it really comes down to whether I've planned and managed to cook a meal ahead of the 5:30 dinner hour. I'll tell you, my incentive increased recently after an illness scare by my father. After numerous heart, lung and stress tests; he was found to be in excellent health at 76 years. His reasoning: his regular cycling, which he continues to this day, and "your Mother's good cooking."

Eating Close to the Earth
This got me thinking. After all, (way back) in the 70s, we ate lots of meat, potatoes and gravy, whole milk, and eggs fried in bacon fat. Not exactly a light diet. But what it wasn't was processed. My mother cooked every meal. The food we ate was relatively "close to the earth" as opposed to heavily processed and packaged. So, I've decided to cook more and save "toddler food" for emergencies: Restaurants, busy days, and sanity relief when desperately needed (if you need relief every day, let's talk.)


Of course, I still have my tricks for helping healthy food go down. Here are some:

• Keep cut up carrot sticks, celery, red peppers, and cucumbers handy in the fridge. Serve with a generous dose of Ranch dressing (my kids' favorite), plain hummus, cream cheese, or peanut butter (not for children under 2 or 3 years based on your pediatrician's guidance). This is also good to pack in lunches. Put dressing, etc. in a little tupperware container.


• Sprinkle "crunchies" (honey coated wheat germ) on vanilla yogurt for dessert or a snack.


• Add ham and cheese to scrambled eggs or make an egg sandwhich on cut out round bread with egg, ham or bacon and cheese. My son finds this to be an adequate substitute for our local breakfast joint.

My general philosophy is, if it takes a little bad (ketchup, dressing, the promise of dessert) to help the good go down, go for it.

Bon Appetite!