Hard boiled eggs
Raisins
Dried apricots
Sweet potato fries
Carrot sticks
Hummus
Cucumber slices
Chick peas
Pita
Grape tomatoes
Triscuits or other whole wheat crackers
Soy "peanut" butter
Small bagels
Dry cereal (many are now made with whole grains and a lot less sugar)
Popcorn (for older kids)
Trail mix
Granola and yogurt
There are some food brands I have come to love:
Fruit2day: 2 servings of fruit, made up of small chunks of fruit and fruit puree, no added sugar and no weirdo preservatives. A little expensive...but great in a pinch.
Chicken strips: as opposed to chicken nuggets, taste delicious and are far less processed (my favorite are Nature's Promise)
Mild salsa: perfect for dipping anything, including chicken strips. An alternative to ketchup or ranch dressing. (Amy's organic is known for being very high quality and is delicious)
Amy's organic soups: Equally delicious, many options are gluten free as well as organic, vegetarian and all natural.
Apple and Eve juice boxes: biodegradable paper juice boxes, they also have a line that includes a serving of vegetable. Low in sugar and has recognizable ingredients.
Babybel cheeses: the wax packaging is great and children love, love, love peeling and eating them...and playing with the wax lol.
And my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE...
Back to Nature macaroni and cheese: I actually eat these at home when I'm having a mac and cheese craving. Super delicious, organic, but is only marginally better in calories than regular mac and cheese.
I'm a nanny and would like to add to this list. I'm looking forward to trying some of your suggestions and wanted to add to your resource.
ReplyDelete- banana chips
- freeze-dried fruit
- fruit leather
- muffins - if you have time to make your own, many have veg/fruit in them, and it's easy to sub whole wheat flour/oat bran in for ap flour. additionally, lots of muffins freeze well
- "homemade" lunchables with whole wheat crackers, and cheese/turkey cut to size
- veggie cream cheese (I microplane whatever is in the fridge and mix it in, but can buy ready-made) on a bagela, tortilla, or as a dip for pita chips or carrots
- halved cherry/grape tomatoes
- ravioli - filled with veggies/meat/cheese
- dumplings - ibid
- banana pancakes (no syrup = finger food!)
- wrap sandwiches, cut into little pinwheels
- Yo Baby makes meal yogurts with fruit and veggies
- guacamole
- yogurt or homemade (what? tofu and veggies?) smoothies
- kefir
- meatballs
- sweet potato latkes - applesauce makes a nice dip
- veggie burgers
- cheese sticks (aka string cheese)
- fish "nuggets" or fish cakes
- lox
- quesadillas - we do a lot of beans and cheese
- mini blueberry waffles (four to a square)
- oven roast carrots/parsnips/potatoes
Awesome ideas. I'd like to hear some of the dumpling and pinwheel combos.
ReplyDeleteSure! For dumplings, you can buy them frozen (Whole Foods has some natural, organic options - pineapple chicken was a big hit at "our" house) or use wonton wrappers to make your own. Because it's pretty piddly and involves raw egg, I make them while the kid naps versus with him. I usually fill them with leftovers - cooked ground beef/turkey, tofu - and then steam or shred (I am such a fan of microplanes) some veggies in - carrots and broccoli stems work well, along with some scallion and spices to make them a bit more flavorful. I use the mini food processor mix it all together. If I need extra moisture, my preference is to use broth for extra flavor. These freeze pretty well. They could be panfried, but I steam them.
ReplyDeleteFor pinwheels, I use pretty much any spread - cream cheese, guac, baba ganoush, hummus, pb&whatever - and spread it on a whole wheat tortilla. I then roll it up (hence the spread, so it "sticks" to itself better) and cut it into approx .5" slices. I like making pinwheels for lunches out on days when breakfast was carb heavy. They are just as easy/portable as sandwiches, but with less bread.
Dinner leftovers in a wonton wrapper...I never thought of that. Lunch for my kiddos is whatever is in the fridge because it's not their big meal. But I do have about a 3 hour napping period where I can cook just about anything. I've been working my way through a cookbook for kids so keep an eye out for those posts.
ReplyDeleteYeah, "my" kiddo eats a ton at lunch - probably equal to what he puts away at breakfast and dinner together. Like you, mine take a big nap in the afternoon, which is when I do a lot of meal prep. I'm big into not wasting food, so try to find fun ways to re-purpose and re-present things. (Although admittedly, we do use a fair amount of convenience food - it's just options like in my first post.)
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you want to share suggestions for cookbooks or recipes. I checked out a bunch of cookbooks from our local library last summer and also have some websites I follow. I found that my kiddo tends to prefer more "adult" food and also likes to participate in its preparation. He'll eat pretty much any carb and fruit, so my focus is to make protein and veggies more fun.
My kiddos are six months and almost 2.5 years, by the way. We probably take lunch "on the go" twice per week and he eats dinner with his parents more often than not. I'm looking forward to seeing your cookbook posts!
I'm always up for trying new recipes. Especially things that can be made with the normal things a kitchen has, I'm not into all this fancy food that calls for saffron and specialty items.
ReplyDeleteA.) You've motivated me to put together a post in the near future (probably Tuesday or Thursday) about cooking with kids for my own blog - Thanks!
ReplyDeleteB.) Briefly, I've had a lot of luck with: Barefoot Contessa, epicurious.com, and thepioneerwoman.com/cooking . For cookbooks, I like Petit Appetit and How to Cook Anything best. I really wanted to like Annabel Karmel, but the kid didn't go for that - similar results with weelicious.com . I do most of the grocery shopping for "my" family and the kids and I also go to the farmers' market, so there is a fair amount of "Oh, that looks good! I'll google something to do with it." that goes on.
C.) Ha, I do work in a house with a "well-stocked" kitchen and we go to a large grocery store. I've been introducing less common spices to the kid one at a time. We haven't gotten to saffron yet or anything, but I'm not ruling it out. I am also pretty much the queen of changing recipes - both for nutritional content and also so that I think they will taste better. Of course I have a food allergy, so can't always taste the stuff that I make, but whatever - the kid is happy and healthy.