This is a topic I’m sure we all could use some help with! I remember when Emerson was 9 months old or so and she was eating EVERYTHING – olives, fish, beans. Basically, if it was on my plate, she was shoveling it in. Of course I thought that meant she was going to be an adventurous eater. haha. These days, she’s eating more than she was at 2.5/3, and she’s in a major snack phase. Pretty much every 15 minutes I hear “Can I have a snack?” She’s figured out that snack foods (aka foods that are easily transported) are superior to lunch and dinner foods.
When Emerson first started preschool, she wasn’t eating much of her lunch, and I’d often have to give it to her when she got home. But now she’s eating 80% of what I pack and I’ve just been keeping the same things on rotation. I’m sure many of you deal with the challenge of not being allowed to pack nuts – Em is a huge almond butter person, so that is hard! Her school also doesn’t have the ability to heat up meals, so this year, I got her a thermos and it’s been working well for packing warm quesadillas, pesto pasta, or her favorite ravioli.
Here are a few lunches from last week. I know the pouches are controversial, but if she’ll eat kale, broccoli, and carrots mixed together, then I’ll take it!! I try to stick to just veggie pouches with no more than one fruit, since she already eats a ton of fruit. She also doesn’t eat meat outside of chicken sausage, fish, and pepperoni, so I do the grass fed beef or chicken every once and a while. The bread above is naan bread because she also won’t eat regular sandwich bread:)
We love the Applegate turkey pepperoni, so that’s been a good addition this year. I wish there was an organic version.
We used to do hummus and beans a lot, but sadly, she won’t eat them. I miss the days of hiding beans and veggies in a quesadilla, but she has it all figured out now!
Please share your ideas in the comments and maybe we all can add a new toddler food to the list next week!
Cyndi
February 5, 2020 at 8:10 pmThat Spinach Ravioli looks promising for my crew – where do you purchase?
Laura
February 8, 2020 at 9:51 amWhole Foods
Jordan
February 5, 2020 at 10:50 pmHere are some go tos for my 3 yr old’s lunchbox. We try to avoid processed food which can be tricky!
Turkey roll ups in a tortilla with cheese, bell pepper strips, baby carrots, peas, edamame, roasted veggies, greek yogurt (plain whole milk) with berries, quinoa salads (can usually add lots of diced veggies in it)
Laura
February 6, 2020 at 3:21 pmThanks – so many good ideas!
Lauren R
February 9, 2020 at 4:02 pmMy 3.5 yr old is soooo picky now too. I love food so it kills me but I know this isn’t a battle to choose. I can’t hide much from him but I do grate carrot or zucchini/squash and cook it in with Mexican rice that I make. The tomato sauce and seasonings in the rice hide it pretty well. Otherwise the only green thing he will eat is avocado. I am just giving him a multivitamin and calling it good for now
Jordan
February 5, 2020 at 10:52 pmForgot another fave: cucumber slices topped with cream cheese. Also hard boiled eggs and avocado toast!
Elizabeth
February 6, 2020 at 6:17 amHave you tried sunflower butter? That’s what I use when I want to make a PB&J for my son for his preschool lunch. Admittedly, I don’t think it’s anywhere near as good as almond or peanut butter, but my son seems OK with it.
Laura
February 6, 2020 at 3:22 pmYeah – I even tried it in some protein balls and she could taste it and now refuses to eat all protein balls.
Krista Feldhouse
February 6, 2020 at 9:44 amWe do sunbutter as well! Other favorites are hard boiled eggs or egg salad sandwiches, yogurt pouches, cherry tomatoes, black olives and Babybel cheese.
Laura
February 6, 2020 at 3:20 pmThanks!!
Elizabeth
February 6, 2020 at 8:44 pmWow – Emerson doesn’t mess around!
A.
February 6, 2020 at 3:10 pmMy son is also 3 and a half and he prefers food mixed together, like rice bowls, full veggies mixed in with a protein, what makes the difference is the sauce! If there is sauce (like just yogurt+lime+little ketchup, salt and pepper), he will eat almost everything I give him. Lasagna, easy to put hidden mushrooms… But he would never eat these pouches, impossible, the texture, the fact that it is hidden in the pouche… I think wanting the food is also contextual for them… Some things he eats at school, he would never eat them at home, and vice versa.
Laura
February 6, 2020 at 3:19 pmSo interesting! Em generally likes the foods separate – she used to eat most things dipped in ketchup, but won’t anymore:(
Kristin
February 6, 2020 at 5:21 pmWhy are packets considered controversial?
Laura
February 11, 2020 at 3:00 pmI think just because when infants are learning to eat, they are supposed to use their hands or a spoon and not suck things out of a pouch…
Liz
February 12, 2020 at 10:55 pmIt seems like Emerson eats a pretty wide variety of foods. Give her another couple of years and just keep doing what you’re doing and she’ll come back around. Our kids are 5 and 7 and dinner time just became more enjoyable again within the last year.
As a mother of a child with life threatening peanut and tree nut allergies, there are other nut butter alternatives out there. Don’t Go Nuts makes some great soybean butter spreads that my kids really love. Wowbutter is also a good substitute. Our kids don’t like sunbutter either but love the soybean spreads.
Some lunchbox favorites around here are bagels with cream cheese, homemade lunchables with crackers and meat and cheese, pasta with meat sauce, mac and cheese, Hawaiian rolls with soybean butter and honey or jelly, Garden Lites muffins, yogurt tubes or pouches, and of course lots of fruits and veggies.
Laura
February 13, 2020 at 2:56 pmI think in the big scheme of things, she is a pretty good eater. And thanks for the nut butter ideas – it must be SOO hard having a kiddo with a life threatening allergy!!