need some ideas for toddler lunches

[soccerfreak_08]

Anything that is served with a dip is a huge hit. Ranch dressing, tartar sauce, honey mustard dressing, whatever. If they can dip it, mine would always eat it. Chicken nuggets, fish strips, mozzarella sticks, carrot sticks, celery sticks, string cheese, cheddar sticks, bread sticks.

Breakfast food at any time but breakfast is always a hit. Sometimes I will make scrambled eggs and serve it with sour cream and salsa and thats how you know its lunch instead of breakfast.

They used to seriously love mini-pizzas made on english muffin halves with a little bit of spagetti sauce and a slice of american cheese then slid under the boiler for a few minutes.

Sometimes I would make my own "Lunchables" and make cheese and crackers and lunchmeat cut into little pieces.

Other stand bys: Toasted cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese, ramen noodles with a handful of frozen veggies from the freezer thrown in the boiling water with the noodles, chicken noodle or tomato soup, bologna and cheese sandwiches with the mustard made into a smiley face, Rice a Roni in chicken flavor with a little leftover chicken chopped up and thrown in.

Wow. You are like a super mom. I wish my mom could make that kinda stuff without burning it... Don't tell her I said that though. lol. She would kill me and then make me make her dinner..

 

[TurboKitty]

My Older, almost middle school kid...

Demands! THE SANDWICH I made up. A PB and J... with cream cheese.

He took this to school for three weeks, with NO complaints. Asked for it after that.


We owed lunch money....he had to bring lunch, and he wanted to bring THAT.


Cool.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

How about cheese and pretzel sticks. Cube the cheese into bite size pieces and you use a pretzel stick in place of a tooth pick. My DS eats these up.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

My kids would eat PB&J every day if I let them, but I mix it up. I also make Mac&Cheese, ham, egg, or bologna & cheese sandwhiches, Top Ramen, cheese quesadillas, chicken nuggets or fish sticks.

 

[disykat]

tortilla pizza - refried blackbeans on a tortilla with cheese and salsa crisped up in a very hot oven

Easter Egg sandwiches - the name is very important, my kid's wouldn't eat "egg salad", but they loved "Easter Egg sandwiches"

 

[elismom]

When I ran the day care I often would buy frozen apatizers(spelling)
Mini meatballs,tiny springrolls with plum sauce, saugage rolls,mini bagel bite pizzas.
They would eat things that they would not even touch if it was in big form
but they wold eat the small little ones ,they always had the idea that these things were make for kids,because they were so small.
I don;t run they daycare anymore but I still buy them for DS's lunch box.

 

[MosMom]

Grilled chicken in strips, chunks of cheese, applesauce, cottage cheese, those new mini bananas, macaroni and cheese (usually with peas/carrots mixed in and sometimes tuna), grape tomatoes, bologna sandwich, chicken salad, ham salad

I know this will sound weird but my DS loves eggs so I will often make him a scrambled egg and a piece of bacon for lunch sometimes.

 

[paslea_pooh]

Not sure if this has been mentioned. I haven't read the Whole thread.

Biscuit Pizzas

Refrigerator biscuit dough (about 8)
Sauce (can/homemade or jar)
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
assorted toppings(if your child likes them)
Pepperoni
onions and peppers
olives, etc

Separate the biscuits.

I let my kids roll out the dough and make their own pizzas. This generally guarantees they will eat it SINCE they MADE it themselves.

Roll out biscuit dough on floured surface
once dough is rolled out to desired thinness, move to baking sheet

Add sauce and spread out...add mozzarella cheese, sprinkle parmesan cheese and add whatever toppings the kids want.

Bake in the oven. Once the biscuit poofs up and it browns and the cheese has melted, it's pretty much done.

Cool and slice into little pizza slices.

 

[southernbella]

A MAJOR delicacy is buttered noodles. I don't know why, but this the one thing they will eat anytime, anywhere.

What is up with buttered noodles? Mine DD's love buttered noodles with ketchup. My DH (who's Italian) feels soooo betrayed!

My tip- My oldest DD always asks for Lunchables (and doesn't get them- have you seen the sodium content in those things?) when we go to the store. So I bought some plastic plates that have the divided compartments. After I load them up with Lunchables lookalikes (but a bit healthier), I used Glad press & seal wrap on top. I, of course, tell her it's the real deal. This fools my 5 year old DD (so far anyway). It's better for her & it saves me money too.

Sbella

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

good thread just subscribing

 

[dolphinrescuegirl]

bumping

 

[figment52]

my favorite kid meal is octopus and seaweed. Don' be grossed out it's really hotdogs and spaghetti.

Split the hotdogs about 2/3 of the way into either 4's or 8's for the tennacles. Do this before you boil the. The tennacles will curl up in the boiling water as they cook. The part you didn't cut is the head. Place in on a bed of spaghetti that was cooked in green water (a couple drops of food coloring).

The kids get a kick out of it on their plate.

 

[Claudia1]

My kids love anything that I can make into "puzzle" food. Give they a safe cookie cutter or even a Play-Doh pizza cutter (washed, of course!) and let them make shapes from cheese, bologna, etc....

 

[lil mermaid]

Madeline loves the Morningstar Farms veggie bites, especially the spinach and artichoke ones. I have a hard time getting her to eat vegetables, so I am happy that she likes these! She likes almost everything that Morningstar makes.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

these are all really great ideas, i just need to print them out and have a kiddie lunch cookbook on index cards!!!