My son started a new daycare this week and I will be providing his lunch. I've sent the basic; PB&J sandwich, fruit/apple sauce, carrots and crackers, with him. I figure I would get sick of the same thing all the time and was hoping to get some other ideas/siggestions on what to pack. It has to be a "cold" lunch, in otherwords, they will not heat it up.
As an FYI, he will be 3 in May :)
Thanks for the ideas!
invest in a thermos...that opens up the lunch possibilities wide open!! mac and cheese, hot dogs, hotdish, spagehetti...boil water, put in thermos for a couple of minutes, heat up food and put in hot...should still be warm by lunch. i have 2 schoolagers and have used a thermos since pre-school.
also good cold is leftover pizza or chicken chunks, hard boiled eggs?
My DD just turned three and I have always packed her lunch. What I've done is to pack hot lunches (I heat them up in a cooker on the stove just before we leave) and on cold days put little handwarmers in her insulated lunch bag. The lunch bag we have has 2 compartments so I'll keep one compartment just for warm things. She's never complained about having cold food and she finds things hotter than us anyway, so it seems to have worked.
But we eat a lot of rice and beans, so she gets rice and beans (black, garbanzo, lentils), steamed veggies, mac-n-cheese, pasta and sauce (we use protein-rich pasta, so even though it's meatless she gets a chunk of protein), bean chili, fruit (pear, berries, papaya), yogurt is always a good choice, other types of sandwiches (use fiber and protein-rich bread and think of other spreads, healthy sandwich meat, jam, cheese), healthy chips (kowalskis and trader joes both sell lentil chips, which contain fiber and protein, as opposed to potato or corn which only have carbs), clif bars for kids (less sugar, more nutrients). The nice thing about allowing yourself to send "warm" food is that it allows for more variety.
The one thing I won't do is send her with meat items, but that's more because I'm super paranoid about meat going bad! Good luck!
I love Laptop Lunches (Bento-style). Check out their website for tons of ideas!
If you're packing his lunch with an ice pack you may consider cottage cheese, string cheese, yogurt, and deli meat sandwiches.
grilled cheese, edamame, nuts, chick peas, hummus on whole wheat, brown rice crackers, veggies (steamed broccoli, cauliflower (cooked or raw), cucumbers, asparagus, carrots), yogurt with fresh fruit chopped in, seaweed salad, left over cooked/veggie sushi, fruit (bananas, apples, oranges, melon, mango, papaya, kiwi, strawberries, etc). We pack 1 protein/dairy item, 1-2 fruits and a vegetable each day.
I would second string cheese, and add go-gurt, granola or granola bars, rice cakes (my kids like the cheese ones), pretzels, popcorn, raisins (if you are comfortable with him eating them alone), fruit or jello (gelatin or pudding)cups, fruit snacks, chex mix, nuts or trail mix...just a few off the top of my head. It is a challenge, good luck!
How old is your son?
How about lunchmeat roll ups on a tortilla?
Cheese and Chicken Quesadillas? Make them up the night before and they are suprisingly good cold
Build or own pizza on a english muffin or mini bagel? Great cold also but can get a little messy that is why I asked his age.
Crackers, sliced cheese and cut up lunch meat? Make your own lunchable
Sliced apple and peanut butter?
I think it's better to think snacks than lunch... (you can put an ice block in his lunch bag)
cubes of cheese
cubes of left over chicken
crackers
pretzels
orange slices
yogurt
cottage cheese
granola bars
cereal
hard boiled egg
