Regarding Cooking........ Help

The 'Central Market' store has some great cooking classes. You can go to their website to see what classes they have scheduled.

I would suggest you go to allrecipes.com. They have a paid part and a FREE part. I'm on the free part and it works fine.

allrecipes.com had lots of kid friendly recipes and many videos on how to cook various american foods. You can even type in what ingredients you have and they will give you recipes for those ingredients.

Good luck to you and yours.

I am with the other mommies, why try to change your son's diet? Cook what he likes and he may actually teach other children more about your and his shared cultures. Trust me, he will be sampling more than a fair share of "american" food as he grows up.
As for you learning, there is really no rush. Sandwiches are bread with a spreading (check with your school before buying and using peanut butter, it is banned due to peanuts in a lot of pre schools). You have to figure out what he likes to put together a sandwich he'll eat. Pack yogurt, fruit, any kind of finger foods he can easily feed himself. Trust me, nobody will judge :) Good luck and welcome to Texas!

My parents only knew how to make Vietnamese food. I remember a few remarks but overall most people didn't care because my lunch always looked better. I don't wish upon your child what most parents send to school (including myself). =D

But if you must, to start just pack a sandwich and fruit. Simple bread with some lunch meat of some kind is pretty safe. For breakfast my kids love pancakes. I buy the Krusteaz box although I used to make the mix myself. Just try stuff and see what your child likes and doesn't like. If they like Indian food all the time, don't force other foods on them.

I usually make sandwiches (bread, mayonaise, turkey or bologna and cheese) with either a Gogurt (yogurt), fruit cup, fresh fruit, jello cups or pudding cups and a fun snack like cookies or chips. Right now, Lunchables are $0.60 so I'm packing those instead of making sandwiches.Put a snack in their backpack if they get hungry but honestly, kids (and adults) don't need to eat THAT much food and I think most people have no handle on what a serving is.

Welcome to Texas!
I wouldn't try to change your sons diet too much. I find kids are very interested in new and unusual foods, at least at that age (there was a Vietnamese girl in my class and I still have happy dreams about her egg rolls). Pack whatever he is used to 2-3 days a week, and the other days a simple selection of finger foods usually works, fresh fruit, veggies, crackers or some other kind of bread, cheese cubes, etc. Chances are there will be a few mothers wanting to take cooking lessons from you.

I think it is wonderful you want to expand on what your son knows. But in general, I think you don't need to be anxious about this. Just give him what he likes and knows. He will soon enough be exposed to awful American style kid food. Don't rush him :)

I personally am third generation American of Eastern European and Irish decent - and I avoid traditional kid food as much as I can. My kids get a lot of leftover chicken and rice or pasta in a thermos. I actually make chicken tikka and butter chicken occasionally which make good leftovers:) Soup too. They also get a lot of raw veggies and fruit, cheese and crackers, and yogurt.

A cooking class is a good idea, for fun, but I wouldn't worry about your son. He'll do fine, and all the other Moms will rave about what a good eater he is.

Is he in preschool all day? You can cook whatever you want at home but send him to school with things that are simple and not overly seasoned. If he is there for only part of the day, a snack will do just fine. If it is all day, ask the preschool teacher what she would reccomend.

Your traditional food is probably going to be much healthier than what most kids here in the States are eating so try not to change it too much. Preschoolers don't usually judge other kids foods. In my opinion, they are very curious about new foods and this can be a great learning moment for others to learn about the Indian culture. You could include some more traditional American fare such as cheese crackers or sandwiches on occasion but I wouldn't stress too much about it. Just make sure it is well insulated with an ice pack so it stays nice and cold.

I'm sure he would LOVE whatever you packed him! You can buy an insulated lunch box/bag and use a frozen gel pack to keep his food from spoiling. Anything that is healthy and tastes good cold would do! You could do a wrap (even with naan) add his favorite meat into it, some veggies (or even a little rice) a small amount of sauce or dressing so it's not too dry and then roll it up tight. Just wrap it in foil or plastic wrap and pop it into his lunch box with the frozen pack. Add an apple or yogurt or whatever else he likes and maybe a juice box or small bottled drink. He'll be all set for the day, and happy he has familiar food his loving mother prepared for him, and it'll be easy to transport and eat at school :)

I don't know about classes in your area, but how about a web site? There is a web site I love that has family friendly, healthy meals. It is: http://weelicious.com/
Best of luck to you!

Schools here will require that you have "no nuts" in your childs lunch. They have that rule in case a child shares his/her food. Anything else, I wouldn't change his diet. :-) The kids will usually eat together, and when my son went to preschool, he ate in the cafeteria with his classmates. I watch a lot of the FoodNetwork channel. They also have a website that will be of great help to you. It's www.foodnetwork.com
In the search bar, you can type, 'kid friendly meals', and there they will provide a lot of recipes for you to try. :-)
Hope this helps! Have a great weekend ahead.
PS: If you have a hard time with the website, send me a personal message and I will be happy to send you the link to where you need to be. :-D