We're in a lunch rut and the girls rut is rubbing off on me as well. I loved the bento box post from yesterday but to be honest, my kids wouldn't eat so much of that. Sure, I'd like to offer them those things on occasion but I'd also like to feed them something they will actually eat! What's a typical lunch for your little?
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Following because I am in need of new ideas.
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What does she love? Cheese, fruits?
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@808love: she has cheese, turkey and some kind of fruit everyday but won't always eat any of it but the cheese. The fruits are hit or miss and I can never predict which ones she might actually eat.
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Following because I want ideas, too.
We often do leftovers for lunch. Sometimes I do a green smoothie. Sometimes veggies and hummus. I'd love some thoughts on what other people do.
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@ottilie: most of the time she won't even try dinner and goes to bed without eating so I'm hesitant to use leftovers for her lunch. I do all the things you're "supposed" to do but she will only eat what she wants.
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@Mrs. Sunshine: How about items with melted cheese? Like grilled cheese. Also mac and cheese.
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I always feel like I'm in a rut too but here's what we do:
- PB sandwich (this is most common because it's pretty much a guarantee he'll eat it). I do try to switch it up like different breads, using cookie cutters, use rice cakes, put it on a hotdog bun (he loves this for some reason), etc. But at the end of the day it's always just bread and PB
- soup (earths best makes an Elmo noodle soup he looooves)
- Annie's stars (like spaghetti-o's) and after I heat it I mix in Parmesan cheese
- yesterday and today I finally tried turkey sandwiches (used cookie cutters to make finger sandwiches). He did eat them only after I made hearts and stars. Ah, toddlers.
- frozen meatballs
- hot dogs
- grilled cheese (for some reason he isn't a fan which is weird because he absolutely loves cheese and bread, but I try every few weeks)These are all "sides" or snacks I offer but sometimes I just do a bunch of them and call it lunch...I guess that's the idea of bento? Idk, I'm not fancy, haha.
- chick peas
- cut up cucumbers or carrots
- steamed carrots or peas
- cheese
- crackers
- rice cakes
- fruit (recently obsessed with watermelon but also loves blueberries, grapes, apples)
- apple slices with almond butter (that's a new one that was a hit)
- yogurt
- cottage cheeseI should add, I OFFER all of the items above, he definitely doesn't always eat it. I throw away a lot of food. The first 3 things I listed are the ones he is GUARANTEED to eat so I do those the most.
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I pretty much give him whatever he will eat. We eat a family dinner where we require him to at least try what we are having, so I save the meal time battles for then.
For lunch we have PB and J, cheese and chips or crackers, bread and hummus, wraps and hummus, hot dogs, muffins.
Other stuff is hit or miss: carrot sticks (only if he can dip them), fruit.
He loves applesauce and yogurt pouches (I'm too lazy to make a full smoothie but sometimes I'll throw some veggies in there.)And lets be honest, there's been days where he's asked for bread with mayonnaise on it for lunch and I give it to him because I'd rather he eat something than nothing and not sleep for his nap.
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We mainly do leftovers. Today the girls had pulled chicken (because we don't really do pork), and I made theirs less spicy by doing more ketchup and less bbq sauce. Then they had a side of this quinoa stuff from Trader Joe.
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The night before last, I made "riced" cauliflower and it was a surprise hit. The girls ate an entire head of cauliflower between the two of them, spread over two meals. We had it for dinner Monday night, and they had it again for lunch Tuesday.
I did lie and tell the older one it was "potato rice" though. =)
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Does she mind being in a rut? I wouldn't worry too much about it if no - kids don't need a ton of variety and excitement in their lunches. My daughter isn't picky, but over here we're all happy to generally eat the same things for breakfast and lunch. So she'll have a sandwich (pbj, turkey, ham or salami), a piece of fruit or two, and then a few dried snacks - goldfish, graham crackers, seaweed snacks. Whatever. It's basically the same each day and it works really well.
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@sarac: I guess she doesn't mind. I just worry that she doesn't eat enough of the right things.
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My 3 year old is so picky and often doesn't eat dinner too. For lunch, I kind of stay with whatever he's eating until he starts to get tired of it (usually a couple weeks) and then I switch to something new, instead of doing something different every day. For instance, right now he is really into hummus and bite-size crackers he can dip into the hummus. I serve that with cheese and fruit. Sometimes we are in a chicken nugget and fruit rut. Other things he's liked in the past are pb&j, pb& graham crackers, cheese quesadillas, and cheese and chips.
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