Healthy Lunch Ideas - Albuquerque,NM

Here's a website that for free childcare or preschool lunch menus that you might find some ideas http://www.earlychildhoodlinks.com/providers/menus.htm

Try Familyfun.com Gobs of ideas for meals, and fun stuff too. I get a news letter. It helps when the kids are bored or want something to eat. Enjoy.

My son is becoming a picky eater. Once upon a time, he ate everything I offered him. Now, it seems all he'll eat is cottage cheese, yogurt, and cereal. He wouldn't touch sandwiches - even on days I thought he'd be especially hungry. That is, until I bought a cookie cutter! Now, when I make a sandwich, I use the cookie cutters to make the plain ol' square sandwich into a star. When he sees it, he sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and eats away!

Whatever food you decide to offer, try to keep it fun :)

Good luck,
P.

Lunch doesn't have to be traditional or boring. I pack several small items (kid-size) and try to change the variety often. Be creative...(if you ever spend any time around a school at lunch time, you'll find that most kids lunches go into the garbage (esp. as they get older).

trailmix
build your own..ant on a log..(pack celery, raisins, and peanut butter) and let him put it together. My daughter (13) still loves this.
cereal and milk
veggies w/dipping sauce
olives
oatmeal

Good luck!

For protien you could send cheese sticks, "lunchables" (not the purchased kind-- make your own), wraps (whatever lunch meat he likes with cheese and dressing or cream cheese on a whole wheat tortilla), yogurt (frozen gogurt keeps well and will help anyhting in the lunch keep a little better too), cottage cheese. Remember dairy is protien too.
For grains you could send healthier granola bars (my 18 mo. old loves Nature Valley brand), whole wheat pasta (with a little butter and salt it's great), mac and cheese for that matter. Those could be kept warm in a thermos just like soup.
Fruits and veggies are obviously always good options. Most of us don't get enough of them anyway. Buy baby carrots, celery sticks and broccoli or good old apples, oranges, bananas, plums, peaches, grapes. There are always individual applesauce packages.
My cousins always had to take their luches (charter school), and they never took a "traditional" lunch. They almost always took granols bars, a couple pieces of fruit, a frozen gogurt, a frozen juice box, and a couple of cheese sticks. It worked for them.

Hi my name is P. and I am a mother of two boys. My oldest just started kindergarten too and I have found the kraft foods web site very useful. It also gives me great ideas for suppers, some of which are wonderful and my whole family loves them. I think their web site is kraftfoods.com but just google kraft foods and it will connect you. Good luck P.

A great little cookbook I found was "Kids Can Cook". Check your library or bookstore for kid-friendly cookbooks. Check out the appetizer and snack sections. Several of these will make a simple balanced lunch. Go through it with him and let him pick out his favorites or ones he wants to try and then let him help make it. Also packing the night before is very helpful with the morning time crunch.

Hi A.,

My 11 year old is a picky eater too. He buys lunch at school when they have pizza, but that's about it. He prefers to take his lunch, however, I'm running out of ideas too. He grew out of the sandwhich stage long ago. He has been doing the soup in the thermos for about 2+ years now and is getting tired of it too. I started buying those Budget Gourmet/Michelinas microwave meals and sending those in his thermos. He loves the spaghetti and meatballs from Budget Gourmet. Also, you can try mac n cheese or top ramen noodles. My son will occasionally take the lunchables cheese and crackers or mini hamburgers (I don't know how he can stand them, but he says he likes them!). They also have chicken nuggets, tacos, pizzas, and nachos. Does he like tortillas? Can you do a roll up? Does he like meat and cheese? As long as he's eating something, I wouldn't worry too much because you can monitor what he eats at home and make sure it's all healthy and such. My main concern for my son was that he at least eat SOMETHING!

Good luck to you.

D.

Hi A.,
I think we tend to forget that kids don't really care for a complete meal. For a 5 year old, maybe some cheese stick with a bag of grapes would do. Or yogurt and fruit. Cracker with some sliced cheddar cheese, some diced turkey that he can just eat together or seperately. I know for my older daughter who is pickier than most, having seperate baggies of variety helps. A baggie of cut oranges, another of pretzels, or some banana chips. This way it is more fun to eat, rather than sit down for a "meal". Some other ideas are homemade pizza and cut up into "bites". Or mini bagels with cream cheese topped with turkey. Or turkey cheese rolls. Take tortilla and spread a cream cheese spread, put sliced cheddar, turkey, and lettuce. Roll it up and cut it like sushi. These little rolls are bite sized and fun. Another great thing is pita bread. Cut it into small triangles and he can dip it into hummus or whatever dip he likes. Hope this helps.

Hi A.,

Lunches can be challenging with picky eaters. However, to be successful and healthy takes some creativity but is pretty easy. At meal time, it is important to get at least 3 food groups represented - something from the grain/bread group, something from fruit and/or vegetable and something from meat/beans and/or milk group.

My son is also in kindergarten and does have the option of buying lunch, but for him it is too overwhelming, so I pack his very simple lunch everyday. It is usually a granola bar, fruit (banana, mandarin oranges, apple, strawberries), and a quarter to buy milk (either chocolate or regular). I have sent crackers, graham crackers, wheat crackers, or fish crackers as his grain since he does not eat sandwiches. I will also send deli turkey rolled up or string cheese. If he has cheese, then I send either water or 100% juice. Kids like routine and sometimes they like the same thing everyday, but if it is balanced, they are meeting their nutritional needs.

Please call if you have any questions.

L.

L. Kandell, MS, RD, IBCLC
Registered Dietitian/Pediatric Specialist
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant
AFFILIATED NUTRITION CONSULTANTS, LLC
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
###-###-####

also mother of 8 yr old daughter and 5 1/2 yr old son.

I was told by a nutritionalist that Pizza can actually be pretty healthy depending on your toppings. It's actually better than most breakfasts. Pepperoni is not one of the better toppings. We usually get ham and/or hamburger with veggies or tomato. You get all 4 food groups!

Does he eat wraps? or maybe send him just lunch meat rolled up with cheese. I'm a teacher and I have seen kids bring this stuff for lunch. The moms know the kids won't eat a sandwich so they just send the inside like a wrap but without the tortilla. Also pizza and chicken fingers are good cold as well as mini-pizzas made on tortillas. Hope this helps a little bit.

Kraft puts out a free magazine that has a lot of kid-friendly and very easy recipes in it. It come out quarterly and is totally free. You might be able to find some new ideas there. You can sign up at: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/FoodandFamily/
They also have some recipes there on the site that you can search through.

B.

Hi A.,
I'm not a mom, but I have a nephew who is also a very picky eater so I sympathize. How about putting the sandwich fixings in his lunch separately: bread or crackers, sliced cheese, plus some cut up carrots and/or celery. Slice some apples or a prepackaged little cups with applesauce in it. (don't forget a spoon) Put in some grapes or dried fruit like raisins or apricots, or peanuts. Will he eat a hardboiled egg? (don't forget a little salt which you can get prepackaged at fast food places.) Will he eat a cup of yogurt? (don't forget the spoon again) I like mine with plain grapenuts. (you can put some icecubes in a ziploc bag to keep it cool) I'm a vegetarian now, but before I was, cold fried chicken was good (include napkin). Lunch doesn't have to be a sandwich as long as there is a good variety and enough of it. (my nephew only eats bread and peanut butter or honey with either sliced apple or strawberries for lunch every day. I hope your son isn't that picky.)

I had a few ideas:

Something like asian lunches might be a nice change. You can make bland-ish food that can be seasoned to his taste. Some rice for his grain (brown if he'll eat it, white if not), and a little bit of his favorite veggie--maybe with a dipping sauce, like ranch (delis often have little individual size sealed dipping sauces), and then a meat. One cool thing I've seen in Japanese lunches is to cook up some hot-dogs, cut them in half and then slice the cut end a few times curl it so it looks like an octopus.

Also more and more supermarkets are carring organic soups, if you want to stay with that route.

The lunchables suggestion might work--you can also make your own--let him choose a high-fiber cracker, and his favorite cheese and have the deli slice up some hard meet (pepperoni or hard salami, etc). Then he can have cracker-wiches.

Alternatively, If you have time, make a list of his favorite foods (that you approve of) in each food group. Then just mix and match. So he ends up with a banana, a yogurt, two boiled eggs and some triscuts--it wouldn't be a "meal" to us, but if he'll eat it and he likes it, why not?

My daughter started pre-school this year full time, and I have to send a lunch with her every day. I have the same problem you do, she's a picky eater. They aren't allowed to have PB&J due to children being allergic to peanuts. Some of the things that I've sent with her are yogurt, cheese sticks and crackers, lots of fruits and jello, mac and cheese, a hot dog that's been cooked-sliced up with ketchup, chicken nuggets not the healthiet, but it's variation). When I send her yogurt and things that need to be kept cold, I put one little ice pack in her lunch and it keeps it cold until lunch time.

I would pack what he likes, (with in reason, you know not all junk food) If he is not going to eat it, it really doesn't matter what you pack him, Take him to the store with you and let him pick some stuff to try. I also liked the previous response of peanut butter and celery with raisins. We like cheeseits and raisins seems more like a snack but is also filling. Good luck.