Does anyone have any no reheat lunch ideas for a toddler who doesn't eat eggs, cheese, pasta, tomato sauce or meat? The daycare is tired of me sending peas, beans, fruit, yogurt and hummus and asking for more "main dishes." He has recently started rejecting nut-butter sandwiches as well. I'm happy he eats healthfully, but I'm stymied about packing his lunch. Thanks mamas and papas in advance for any thoughts.
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Did your son like those things you currently pack though and eat them? If so, it seems weird to me that they would request other food. Can he not eat pasta or he just doesn't like it?
-Tortilla rollups with hummus or hummus sandwiches.
-bean paste/pate sandwiches or tortilla roll ups
-have you tried vegetarian lunch meats and fake meats like hot dogs? You can put those in diced and cold
-pasties with potato and veggie fillings (super tasty warm and cold) you can do a curried potato mix but mild and others. I just did a mashed potato, grated carrot, onion, fake bacon, and cheese mix yesterday and made a butter pastry to cook it in. Gear it towards what you know he likes and will/can eat.
-veggie stirfrys can be served cold
-roasted veggies mixed with vegetarian sausageIt's hard because toddlers often like all these things but separated so they can pick and choose!
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Would he eat fish - maybe a tuna sandwich? What about falafels? Soups in a thermos so they don't have to be heated?
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@Mrs. Goose: Hi, those are all great ideas! We are lucky as we are not aware so far of him having any food allergies or discomforts. He is allowed to eat pasta, but just won't - either regular or gluten free. As you noted, like many toddlers, he doesn't like things mixed together. And he just won't put many new foods in his mouth, so it'shard to expand his palate. These ideas are all ones I hadn't thought of though and I'm excited to give them a try! Thanks!
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@erinbaderin: We are a low fish household - we should try that more. Falafels haven't made the cut, yet, but that's another thing we should try more. He has constantly rejected all soups - never gotten one past his lips. But will keep trying. Thanks for the good ideas.
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I was wondering the same thing as @Mrs. Goose:, does your son seem disinterested in eating the food or does the daycare just think he needs more choices? I'm all for expanding the range of what kids will eat, but if he's happy with the food and it's healthy that's pretty important.
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Man, that's tough! I would maybe toss in a heartier pouch if he will eat one of those to appease them? I don't know how old your LO is but when my LO was in daycare around 12-18 months she was mostly getting snack type stuff for lunch because that's what she would eat, and I would add one of those "main dish" baby food pouches just to make it look like I wasn't starving her
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What about quesadillas? I love making them for my kids, because I can throw anything in them. My go-to is refried black beans and cheese. My son's old daycare didn't heat up, and he'd eat them cold with no problem. I buy a can of refried beans, portion out into an ice cube tray, and then I can just warm up one cube of beans for one quesadilla.
ETA: oh, shoot, just saw no cheese. Well...beans and sour cream or guac works!
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What about more carbs? Slice of bread, pita, crackers, pretzels, or even trail mix or granola.
I don't see what's wrong with him getting his fill on healthy snack foods. You could try cold veggie salads. Think cucumber tomato in Greek dressing or broccoli kale in Poppy seed dressing. I wonder if your little one would notice a grain like quinoa or orzo mixed into one of those.
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What about some sort of baked potato or potato salad? Some sort of home made pizza?
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@Chuckles: I guess the problem is two-fold. He is not usually willing to eat the same thing two days in a row. But we have things he will eat at home, but not at daycare, so lunch is usually the place where this is a bigger problem. Also, daycare serves meals but (1) they are not very nutritious imo and (2) he has rejected them, not least because most contain cheese. We have offered cheese in various forms at least 20 times and he just wasn't interested, so I think he might just not like it. Also I have a dairy allergy, so only dad can lead by example in the cheese department.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Mixing in grains is a novel idea. I will definitely try that! and he likes cucumber so....
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@Kemma: Thanks for these ideas. Won't eat potatoes or pizza, but we will keep trying.
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@daniellemybelle: Hi, Did your little girl start trying more foods after 18 months? Along with peanut butter sandwiches he has recently been reluctant to eat pouch food, as well. But we do usually include a meal pouch for him. Our guy seems skinny to us, but he's certainly not starving.
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@Rs Mom: what about corn fritters or savoury muffins? Sushi? Wee bacon and egg pies? Noodles with added bits?
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My toddler might be weird but he will eat veggie burgers and Dr. Praegers veggie bites (broccoli, spinach) cold. He really likes the Don Lee brand veggie burgers/bites from Costco.
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@jape14: mine loves those too but they heat them up. I guess they'd be ok cold?
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@Rs Mom: honestly I would not rule out meat and cheese and pasta for an 18 month old. I would just keep trying. It sounds like you use maybe a bento style box. So just offering a feeble things can't hurt and he will still have plenty of options to fill him up.
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Crackers with SF butter, healthy muffins (you can find toddler muffin recipes), quinoa & black beans, tabouleh, hummus, & pita?
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Can you buy a food thermos and pack more entrée-with-sides types foods in small amounts, but also include your son's familiar foods so he has some choices? Maybe repeated exposures will get him to try some new stuff at daycare?
Tonight I served my girls a mixture of fried rice (with peas and small diced carrots) with mixed in rice cauliflower. I know you said he doesn't like meat, but you can throw in a couple of aidell's meatballs (they are dairy free and then you don't have to actually pack anything).
We used a bento thermos from when LO was 8 months-3 years old since she eats mainly hot foods and daycare didn't reheat.
We always did a meat main and 2 sides. I know yours doesn't like meat, but if you want to try adding a few bites at a time...
-meatballs with broccoli and corn
-link sausages with rice and broccoli
-salmon with cauliflower and potatoes
-fish sticks with roasted sweet potato cubes and a Dr. Preager's broccoli cake-butternut squash pasta
-roasted chicken with oven fries and peasetc. I still follow that formula and mainly use dinner leftovers. Tomorrow my kids are having roasted chicken with the leftover fried rice/cauliflower mixture.
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We had a bento thermos kind of like this: 3 compartments and 2 are thermoses that stay hot for about 6 hours. The 3rd compartment is just room temperature for snacks or whatever. https://www.amazon.com/THERMOS-Stainless-lunch-JBC-801-NVY/dp/B00M1ECQZ0/ref=pd_sbs_79_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00M1ECQZ0&pd_rd_r=2PN9PPTZE1W24GPNGJ2V&pd_rd_w=S1lgN&pd_rd_wg=g0hUk&psc=1&refRID=2PN9PPTZE1W24GPNGJ2V
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I use a thermos for many lunch main dishes! Soups, leftovers, noodles, sausage, meatballs, chili. If you fill the thermos with hot water then wipe down before the food the food will stay warm.
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@Rs Mom: Yes, she got more open-minded as time went on! I agree with others to keep trying. But she stopped going to daycare at about 20 months so I can only speak for packing lunches up until that point. When she went back to preschool at 3, our staples were much more "big kid" (sandwiches and so forth) and not the finger foods that are more popular with babies.
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@winniebee: sorry for the threadjack but have you ever had issues with food going bad? I keep searching the internet about what is safe to put in there and finding conflicting advice. I used to just stick whatever I wanted in there.
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