Lunch ideas for preschoolers?

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Parents of Preschoolers

My daughter just started preschool this week and we have to send her with her lunch.

Her preschool has a policy that if it comes to school, it goes home. Meaning anything I send in her lunch that is uneaten comes home along with any waste. This makes the idea of yogurt, or anything that doesn't have a sealable lid unappealing.

Other restrictions are no juice boxes (drinks have to come in a thermos or sippy cup), no sweets of any kind, and nothing squeezable.

What are some creative ideas?

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Parent Replies to "Lunch ideas for preschoolers?"

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Tips:
• Peel fruit (except bananas), cut up larger fruits like melon, apples, pineapple into easy to eat sizes.
• Teach your child how to insert the straw into a juice box at home and how to open their own yogurt or fruit cups.
o I prefer to use a water bottle instead of juice boxes. Contigo brand makes a great small BPA free bottle that is insulated and drip proof.
o For yogurt, I like to use a small Rubber Maid container and fill it with plain whole milk yogurt, honey and fruit, sometimes even some chopped nuts or granola.
• Keep the portions small; remember their stomachs are only the size of their fists. If you use a juice box for their drink, choose the small version, about 5oz or less. Always include water in their lunchbox. ilunchbox.com/articles/keeping-your-child-well-hydrated.php
• Offer a variety of foods: color, taste, texture.
• When packing their lunch consider how they are going to eat it and what they will eat it on. Provide a spoon, plate, etc. so that your child is not putting their food on the table or eating everything with their fingers. Always provide a napkin.
Preschool Lunch ideas:
Cold Chicken Fingers, Piece of Cheese and Whole Grain Crackers and a bunch of grapes or other fruit (melon balls, pineapple chunks, sliced apples, Cutie Orange
If making the chicken fingers from scratch is not for you, there are some great off the shelf products: Kirkland brand all natural chicken tenders, Bell and Evan's chicken gingers and Whole Foods carries chicken finger products that are gluten free.
ilunchbox.com/recipes/tasty-chicken-bites.php
Meatballs, Cheese, Baby Carrots, Black Olives, Whole Wheat Crackers
Making traditional or turkey meatballs from scratch is easy and should be made in bulk for use later. But if that is not for you, Costco carries great beef and turkey meatballs in a re-sealable bag. Just heat and serve.
ilunchbox.com/recipes/meatballs.php
Pesto Pasta Salad with Mozzarella and Black Olives
ilunchbox.com/recipes/variations-on-the-recipe-of-pesto.php
Easy Peasy Pasta Salad
ilunchbox.com/recipes/easy-peasy-pasta-salad.php
The Ploughman's Lunch
This is like a homemade lunchable. Put in small amounts of foods your child likes and let him or her graze or make mini sandwiches.
ilunchbox.com/recipes/ploughman-s-lunch.php
If you can heat up food: Black Bean and Cheese Burritos is my children's all time favorite. ilunchbox.com/recipes/best-lunch-box-burritos.php

I send my 4 yr old daughter to school w/ her lunch because #1 she is very picky and #2 the school lunch costs extra. This is a list of what she will eat:

chicken nuggets,
mac n cheese (microwavable packs sold @ TraderJoes),
TraderJoe's Mini Tacos (microwavable),
White Castle hamburgers w/ Thousand Island,
Empanadas (sold @ TraderJoe's)

Yes, it's basically junk food so I always pack some fruit, string cheese or yogurt cups to make it more nutritious. Sometimes, she'll eat baby carrots w/ ranch. Also she just started liking Broccoli and Cheese soup.

TraderJoe's has a good selection of kid friendly dried fruit snacks and Kids Cliff Bars.

Good luck and I hope your little one has a blast!

Thanks for the ideas everyone! The first week went pretty easily as she asked for peanut butter and jelly everyday. I suspect she'll get sick of it though and will have to start getting creative. I do like the idea of using a cookie cutter to make the sandwich into shapes.

I'm going to purchase a couple small containers this weekend too (we already lost one that wasn't labeled).

Lockmama, I don't think apple with peanut butter sounds bizarre at all. It's one of my favorite snacks!

Ginzel, Go-gurts are a no-no at my daughter's school. Nothing squeezable is allowed.

well I would send her with go-gurts yogurts. My 4 year old sucks that tub dry so at least the smell will be a lot worse by the time she gets home.

They make you take the trash home? Ewwww. I'm just so glad no one has thought of that at my daughter's school.

I'd suggest things like string cheese, whole fruit, crackers, etc. Be willing to forgo bread for lunchmeat and cheese rollups (or rolled up in lettuce leaves if she'll eat that). If they are willing to heat up food, that opens up a whole new arena.

Be prepared for her to eat like a bird, even if she's a voracious eater though, because the excitement of leaving the lunch table to go play is always going to be there.

My daughter is 3.5yrs and is in a Special program Preschool called PLACE. She attends school 8-2 like our other children so I have to send lunch and snacks with her. She is VERY picky eater and sometimes goes through stages where she wont eat any food or will eat only specific foods for months.
Our solution - instead of her purchasing lunch from the cafeteria - we bought her a lunch box with a character she likes and a Combo cup that has a pull top on one end (like water bottles) and on the bottom it has a screw on cap that holds dry foods like cheerios, goldfish, etc. That is her drink and snack.
Foods we try - Non perishables such as gummies (made from real fruit), goldfish, Teddy grams, baby carrots, grapes, Peanut butter sandwiches (cut like dinosaurs with a dinosaur shaped sandwich cutter, or butterfly shaped, etc), Gogurt (we freeze these - so if she doesnt eat it - she always does though- then it is still cold when it comes home), add special shapes ice packs - we have a ladybug, butterfly, and a soccerball, to help keep food chilled, OH - and everything goes in zip lock baggies (her dino sandwiches go in a Crayola sandwich container).
This works well for her, and eliminates waste. As soon as she comes home, I unload her lunch box and backpack. Anything that needs refrigeration goes right into the fridge. Only a few times have I had to throw something out - she put her ice pack in her backpack instead of lunch box.

We also have to send lunch for our preschooler, but school doesn't start until next week for us. Our plan is to have her do as much work as possible when making her lunch. Our idea is if she gets to help make it she's more likely to eat it. (We'll see how well that works out next week). We did purchase a few sandwich cutters so she can cut her sandwiches into fun shapes in the morning. Also, she doesn't eat much in one sitting so eliminating the crust makes it more likely that she'll be able to finish most of her sandwich. Bottled water is allowed at the school, but we may just do a thermos with some ice water since I prefer she drinks floridated tap water. I'm toying with the idea of a few slices of an apple with some peanut butter (a rather bizarre sounding snack we recently discovered she really likes). It's healthy, which is certainly a plus, but it could be on the messy side. We'll probably try it once or twice to see if it causes too much mess. If you really want to send your daughter with yogurt, you might buy a large container and then send her with a tupperware container that has a few spoonfuls inside. It's probably more cost effective than individual servings and will definitely be less messy!

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Lunch ideas for preschoolers?

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