Lunches

I have a relative who used to (and still does) second guess everything I ate. If I had a sandwich I ate the wrong kind of meat, if I had a salad there was no nutrition in it. As a result I became neurotic about what I ate, cycling rapidly between eating to an unsustainable vision of what “healthy eating” looked like and throwing my hands in the air and eating whatever sounded good in the moment.

It was only after living with my brother and sister-in-law that I got a good understanding of nutrition. Every time I’d say “there’s nothing in that”, poor Mila would pull up google and point out to me that “chicken nuggets aren’t empty calories, look at the protein and carbohydrates. These ones are high in salt, but we could even eliminate that if we did X”. Mila changed my relationship with food on a fundamental level.

I tell you this so that you understand that when I say that I don’t judge you for what you feed your kid, you know that I’m coming from both a background of being judged about nutrition and the careful building of knowledge about food. So long as your child is eating a variety of foods that they enjoy and are nutritious and safe for them, I’m happy.

Now, I know how hard it can be to create meals out of nothing, so here’s my special secret. Bento boxes. I like them because they have separate sections which facilitates me feeding this person multiple dishes. I love that you can get creative with them and make works of art or throw leftovers into the compartments and call it good. My perfect formula (from when I was a housewife) was a main, 1 or 2 things that came directly from a plant, and maybe something dairy or wheat based.  Below are some examples:

This is a great example of a variety of food. My only complaint is the way the hot dog and carrots are cut. Round shapes are a choking hazard, so I’d need to cut them up.

This is clearly a picnic lunch for two adults,but you can see a wide variety of options. Again, this box isn’t toddler safe because the grapes haven’t been cut up, but everything else is great. (And with that many options I simply wouldn’t offer the grapes.)

This is an absolutely adorable lunch that looks pretty safe for toddlers. The carrot has been cut in half lengthwise so it poses less of a choking risk.

Now, there is a list of foods that I will not serve to preschoolers.

1. Popcorn- This is an odd one. Once the corn starch has expanded, it’s too light to respond to the Heimlich maneuver.
2. Things that have a circular cross section- Uncut grapes, hot dogs, etc. (String cheese gets a pass because we work on pulling it apart)
3. Dessert items- We will occasionally do a dessert item for a holiday party, but on a standard day I won’t serve dessert items. Also, have you seen a group of toddlers when only one of them gets cake? That’s a bad day for everyone.
4. Beverages- We serve water for lunch. It makes life easier for everyone.

But there’s also a list of things that I absolutely adore serving to preschoolers.

1. Leftovers- If your child loved dinner last night they’ll probably love it for lunch today.
2. Edamame
3. Lunch meat
4. Cheese slices
5. Veggies
6. Fruits
7. Noodles
8. PB&J
9. Eggs
10. Oatmeal
11. Yogurt
12. Fish (tuna salad is a family favorite)
13. Beans
14. Avocados

Some basic guidelines are:

1. If I can pull it from the fridge and put it directly on the tray, my life is easier. I usually have about 2 minutes per lunch to get things ready. That’s not a lot of time to cut up grapes.
2. I usually only serve one fruit item per lunch.
3. I request that children eat protein first (and will occasionally only offer the protein until they’ve eaten enough to move on to other foods; usually 3 bites)