Daycare lunch ideas (no microwaves)??

MaggieF516

Hi everyone, My son is 2 and is starting a new daycare on Monday.  We were informed that they don't provide lunch and "don't heat lunches" so you need to bring food with icepacks or a thermos.  I'm somewhat irritated by this as we are paying $417 for only 3 DAYS A WEEK and they can't heat up or apparently refrigerate a meal?  At the daycare's rate, he should be provided a catered lunch of his choosing IMHO, but that is besides the point LOL. 

He's used to eating things like pizza, chicken nuggets, pasta, vegetables, rice, hotdogs, fruit, etc. for lunch. I'm not sure what to feed him now.  Yes, he can have sandwiches, but it will be a transition to get him to eat any with meat and he can't have almond butter (no peanuts allowed) and jelly sandwiches every single day. A lot of the foods he likes should technically be warmed up.  He is a VERY picky eater for the most part and has no interest in trying new foods. If I heated up the things he usually eats in the morning before we left and put it in his lunch box, would it stay ok until lunch without icepacks (i.e. I don't want him to eat cold food)?  Maybe I'm over thinking this, but I need help LOL! 

Any suggestions would be great!  Thanks for your help!

 

 

djm31012

In a good thermos food will stay warm, not hot , for a few hours. What about like Yogurt with cheese and crackers and some berries? or a bagel with creamcheese?

aglenn

These Thermos Funtainers are awesome for things like pasta, rice, etc.  I put boiling water in the empty container for a few minutes to warm it, then dump the water and fill with hot food.  It stays warm in lunchboxes until lunchtime.

https://smile.amazon.com/Thermos-Funtainer-Food-Jar-Purple/dp/B00CBFAE5I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1413477902&sr=8-3&keywords=thermos+funtainer

alli2672

I have a kindergartener that I pack for, but maybe some of these will help:
Proteins:
cubed chicken/ham/turkey/trail bologna
cubed cheese
ham or turkey and cheese roll-ups (roll turkey around cheese)
ants on a log with cream cheese and raisins
Yogurt with granola to mix in
apple slices with almond butter
trail mix with raisins, walnuts, and M&M's
string cheese

fruit (pretty easy):
apple slices, grapes, berries, pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, banana  

veggies: 
usually raw, whatever we have on hand.  For a 2 y/o, I might send cooked ones (aka dinner leftovers) in a Tupperware container. 

starch:
crackers, rolls, dry honey nut cheerios, granola, bread

sweet:  
oatmeal cookies, banana bread made with ww flour, muffins made with ww flour, piece of cake, whatever is literally sitting on the counter while I am packing lunch

Protip: Get two ice packs.  Because sometimes you will forget to unpack the lunch and put the ice pack in the freezer.

dashofreality

Personally, I would be more concerned about foodborne illness than whether or not my kid had to eat cold food. Kids adjust. Thermos' are an option, but I would just pack food with an icepack. If he is hungry he will eat.

There are tons of ideas on pinterest for lunches. I have a picky eater, so I do understand the pain, but unless there are other concerns I would pack a healthy meal and not stress over how much he eats.

SunAndRain

garbanzo beans - no prep!

bite-size pasta with butter and mixed with cottage cheese - keep/serve cold

we almost always pack cut up fruit. 

I don't always send veggies.  DD eats enough veg at dinner time.  Sometimes we send corn or green beans that are good packable food.  I know she likes these.  Our attempts to send uncooked, cold veggies have been largely left over.

74dragonfly

I got the bento box type containers and i make my own lunchable thing. I put crackers, cheese, meat, a treat.

We also do bagel with cream cheese. Our preschool didnt heat things up and neither does kindy. 

MommyAtty

Our school has the same rules, but we aren't nut-free so at least I can do pb&js. Hilariously, what she really loves is a slice of plain whole wheat bread. So we will do that or a bagel with a sliced up turkey hotdog or ham, turkey, or rotisserie chicken. Then we add fruit (berries are a great favorite) and a sweet thing like graham crackers or animal cookies. We also have to send a snack. We often send an applesauce pouch or mini-muffins or a different fruit for snack. Some days she eats almost everything. Other days, almost nothing. We don't worry about it. She won't starve in 6 hours.

aliandchris

Ugh, lunch packing is my biggest enemy! I'm shocked your center allows almond butter; most are peanut and tree nut free. The Thermos someone recommended is awesome (you either put hot water in it for a few minutes before you put hot food in or refrigerate it before putting it in the lunch bag) because my oldest (3) says his grilled cheese is still warm at 11:30. It claims to maintain temperature for 4 hours. Tortellini is a good one as room temperature is still super tasty. My kids like sliced avocado and leftover taco meat too. It's a daily struggle

HobbityBarb

My son's also a picky eater - he likes pizza, and luckily likes cold pizza. So he gets (and is happy with) a couple of slices of pizza for his lunch every day! I make it at the weekend and keep it in the fridge at home, but he's in heaven whenever we get takeout and he can have leftover takeout pizza for his lunch!

Try your son on cold pizza - since it's not actually new, he might like it

litzo27

We love this thermos: it's stainless steel and works really well! (you fill it with hot water for 5 minutes before putting in hot food and they stay nice and warm till lunch).
https://www.amazon.com/Thermos-FOOGO-Stainless-Steel-Ounce/dp/B0025Y6742/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1413550273&sr=8-3&keywords=thermos

jetgrrrl

We moved over to a daycare last year that didn't heat or refrigerate food, and now that my oldest is in Kindergarten we wouldn't have that option anyway. We do a mix of sandwiches with ice packs and leftovers in the thermoses others have recommended. I've never actually put boiling water in, I do warm them with hot water before. They've never complained about lunch being cold although certainly they've complained about the content of the lunch!

skibunny59

My DD loves hummus with crackers and veggies. 

I also really like this blog for school lunch ideas.

100daysofrealfood.com

2chatter

Most frequent here include:

Sunbutter sandwich/jelly

Pasta/meatballs/marinara

Raviolis (no sauce)

rolled up lunch meat plus a piece of bread (he totally will not eat it as a sandwich)

All the solid stuff in soup, no liquid

Yogurt (usually send two veggies on this day)

Crackers, cheese square

Sunbutter on crackers - I make them as sandwiches to get there, he takes them apart

Cold cheese quesadilla or tortilla wrapped around cheese, heated and placed in fridge night before

Meatloaf

Every day he gets a veggie (leftover roasted veggies or peas or green beans), a banana and another fruit (berries, melon and natural applesauce are the most frequent).  If that were truly all he ate I would be OK with that, you know?

I send Gerber graduates + fresh fruit on the days that things just fall apart (like some DB throws a 7:00 meeting on my calendar the night before).

rubber_chicken

I understand your frustration.  My 2.5 year old is a picky eater - won't touch a sandwich - and has multiple allergies to boot.  Every day, we send the following for her:

Lunchbox with two icepacks, containing the following (lunch + 2 snacks):

• crackers, pretzels and/or cheerios
  
• coconut milk yogurt in a refillable pouch
• cut up fruit
• applesauce pouch

Thermos with hot lunch, kept out of the lunch box.  (We preheat the thermos with boiling water for 10 minutes before putting in the food, and it stays warm until lunch.):

• pasta (either with redsauce or without) with a vegetable and a meat
• rice (sometimes plain, sometimes made with broth) with a vegetable and a meat
• paella
• chicken soup
• beef stew

For vegetables, we tend to stick with the basics - steamed peas and carrots, roasted broccoli etc.  She likes bok choy, surprisingly.  For meats, we're able to get a little more diversity in there - salmon, sliced deli ham, roasted chicken.  She won't touch beef, although we keep trying ground beef in meat loaf and pasta sauce.

She never eats EVERYTHING we send - but she eats enough of it.  Better to send too much than too little in my book.

MaggieF516

Thanks SO much everyone for the great ideas.  I have no idea why I haven't thought of some of these things before.  So excited to try them!!