We realized that we've been in a total rut with packing the kids' lunches. One likes 'meat and cheese' sandwiches and the younger one is down to only accepting something with peanut butter and jelly. We're not about to go avant garde on their lunches, but we'd like to introduce them to some other flavors and some more fun at lunchtime.
In some ways kids are easy: they'll eat pizza for every meal for a week and be happy, or they'll decide they only like one thing (hard boiled eggs) and it takes the guess work out of preparing meals. But for lunch, we're committed to expanding the kids' palates and introducing them to slightly new flavors, slightly new ideas of how lunch can be. Here are some great jumping off points for breaking that PB&J rut:
TOP ROW
• 1 Year of the Tiger Bento: If you really want to spend some time and surprise your little one with a fantastic lunch, follow Happy LIttle Bento's lead with this tiger themed lunch. Our kids are definitely in the stage of not liking it when their food touches on a plate, so a bento box is perfect and fun for lunchtime. Skip the sandwich and fill the boxes with veggies, cheese, nuts, popcorn and a little treat.
• 2 Ploughman's Lunch: Disassemble that sandwich and instead give the kids slices of bread, pita, or crackers with some good quality cheese, some dip, some meat and some sliced tomatos or cucumbers and let them assemble them at school. As they get used to it, add goat cheese, hummus, radishes and some mustard.
• 3 Biscuits are a great alternative to regular bread and more kid-size for sandwiches. Pack them with their own butter and jam, or fill them with regular sandwich toppings to ease your child into eating something new.
• 4 Chicken Soup or any soup really. At the moment, Dora Soup is a favorite but they'll eat homemade soup too as long as it doesn't have pepper in it (it freaks them out). A nice mild chicken soup is perfect in a thermos when it's cold outside. Plus some teachers will heat up soup for the little ones (at least our kindergartner gets that royal treatment).
• 5 Fun Fruit Salad gets some fiber and a healthier dessert into lunch and with spring and summer around the corner, fresh fruit will be easier to come by.
BOTTOM ROW
• 6 Leftover Pasta: We recently discovered that the older one will eat sausage and loves pasta so we're trying some leftover pasta with extra sausage for protein in her lunch. She likes getting a tupperware container and a fork in her lunch--it makes her feel grown up! For more ideas, check out oodles of noodles, 4 things to do with leftover pasta.
• 7 The Spanglish Sandwich: It's a take on a classic BLT and might have enough familiar ingredients to not freak the kids out.
• 8 Different Bread: Try opening up your child's palate to rye, fresh no knead bread or a thick country style loaf. Even if it is still pb and j inside, they'll be expanding their horizons.
• 9 PB and Fruit Sushi: A great way to mix up the traditional pb&j and introduce them to at least the shape of sushi (we have dreams of the kids trying it, just trying the real thing) and incorporate more fruit into their midday meal.
• 10 Lots of small snacks can replace the need for a sandwich and can introduce kids to new flavors in small packages.
For more inspiration for cooking for kids, check out On Cooking with Kids: Cookbooks.
(Images: Top Row: Tiger Sandwich Bento from sherimiya's Flickr, Brown Bag Wednesday: Fruit, Nuts and Cheese, Sarah Rae Trover's 15 Minute Biscuits, Faith Durand's Chicken Noodle Soup with Curry and Spinach, Making Fruit Salad Fun
Bottom Row: Elizabeth Passarella's 22 Fast, Fresh Pasta Dishes, Shari W's Flickr under Creative Commons, Emma Christensen's No Knead Sandwich Bread, Joanna Miller's PB and Fruit Sushi, Emily Franklin's Granola.)
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I love the sushi idea. My daughter will eat about anything (except beans!) wrapped in a tortilla, including veggie wraps and quesadillas. My challenge is to try to get more veggies in her lunch on a regular basis.
My daughter loves sushi, but won't eat but one or two bites of pb&j sushi. My son is going to be my problem child when it comes to food - pb&j is fine, but forget about anything else. I have a feeling that his school lunches are going to be a battle.
My son is the opposite- will eat anything at home but his school lunches- PB&J, fresh fruit and a string cheese.
It has to be the same every time or he won't eat it. Then if I try to make him his school lunch at home, he won't eat it.
Yea no kids here but I always need new ideas for MY lunch, not that I will be heading to work with a tiger sandwich but maybe a Spanish one!
http://single-girl-gourmet.blogspot.com
My favorite source of kid-friendly lunch inspiration is vegan lunch box, she posts such amazing ideas, and includes recipes inspired from all different cultures. Lots of bento ideas using the laptop lunch system, as well as reviews of various lunch bag solutions.
I'm a big fan of lunches comprised of dinner left-overs, myself. The small people in my life have always had lunches like that, and so I suppose are used to them. A good life skill to foster, I think, eating left-overs ;)
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/
Is it common in the US that you have to prepare lunch for the kids? Don't the schools and kindergartens offer lunch? I seem to remember High school canteens from a lot of movies. Puzzled greetings from Europe.
i so don't get the bento craze...who has that kind of time???
herzsprung: Most public schools do offer school lunches, but many of them are not overly healthy or appetizing, leaving many parents scrambling to pack an alternative.
Yeah, all public schools are required to offer school breakfast and lunch. Unfortunately, the implementation of the school lunch program really is lacking. You can actually buy better food for cheaper from a local gas station. And it would taste a lot better. Sad.
I think I may pick up a bento box for little dude when he starts kindergarten. They're so cute and he might actually want to eat something other than jelly sandwiches, bananas, and crackers for once. *sigh*
LovieDovie - correction, schools in the US are NOT required to offer breakfast. This is subsidized in low-income areas with grants but otherwise is totally optional.
As for 'picky eaters', watching a few episodes of Super Nanny on TV may help with this. Yes, I concur transitions and comfort foods play a role, but it is also about ensuring healthy eating habits overall. Childhood nutrition experts say a child may need to try new foods up to 20 times! before they realize they like them...keep this in mind when considering how to incorporate foods into their meals. It's not about forcing, it's about offering.
Here are some things I used to put in my kids' lunchboxes:
Leftover meat from previous evening's meal (roast chicken, sliced duck breast, roast beef - any meat that is good eaten cold)
Poached salmon (with soy, mirin and scallion dressing)
Rice balls, plain or filled with a small amount of salmon - use vinegared rice to be on the safe side, and pack some squares of dried seaweed to wrap around the rice balls when eating
Noodles with stir fried veg, dressed with sesame oil and soy sauce
Tortilla
Couscous/pasta salad with veg
All tasty, and safe to eat at room temperature.
No nuts of any kind are allowed in my daughter's schools, so we've had to get creative with her lunches. A big hit has been "taco bowl." I put shredded chicken, black beans, and diced bell pepper in a container and pack shredded cheese and crumbled up tortilla chips in another. She combines them and chows down.