Food for Daycare

I know we seem to have a ton of food threads, but I need some new and different ideas. The boys just started a new daycare and now I have to send their snacks and lunch. For morning snack I am sending nutrigrain bars, cheerios, bananas, etc. For lunch: Sandwiches, lunchables (cut up), gerber meals, with fruit etc. I have sent plenty of afternoon snacks, that's no problem. I need some morning (small breakfast) ideas and most importantly lunch. I am having such a hard time figuring out what to send for lunch. They do have a microwave so any ideas would be greatly appreciated, especially healthy ones.

 

I work for a hospital and my kids go to our employee daycare. Our daycare emphasizes very nutritious meals since we are part of a hospital. Anyway, here's what their menu is this week in the infant/toddler room:

Lunch:
Monday - Tomato Mac Hotdish, corn, wheat dinner roll, peach half
Tuesday - Turkey sandwich, beef noodle soup, pineapple tidbits
Wed - Tator tot hotdish, california blend veggies, applesauce
Thurs - Baked chichek romano, sprial pasta w/ marinara sauce, zucchini, fruit cocktail
Fri - Cheese pizza, broccoli, mandarin oranges

Snack:
Mon - Graham crackers, strawberry creem cheese
Tues - Fresh oranges, teddy grahams
Wed - cheese cubes, pretzels
Thurs - rice krispie bar
Fri - Fig newtons

And that's just this week's menu. They have a different menu each week. Yes - my kids eat better than I do!

 

snack ideas: applesauce, fruits, mini muffins (I make them at home with some applesauce, bananas, raisins, etc), pancakes, cereal.

lunch ideas: sandwiches, cheese/crackers/deli meat, mac & cheese with burger and veggies, or any left over dinner from the night before (especially since they can heat it up for you).

HTH!

 

Often it is flattened out bread with pate and rolled into cigar shape or into small rectangles. Often I give them their own bowl for lunch and a bowl for snack. I add the sandwiches, shreaded cheese, raisins. In a separate container some sort of fruit.

I've made these savoury muffins. Put a small amount of shreaded cheese on the bottom of a greased muffin tray -- then cooked rice or couscous. Mix 3 eggs, cheese and cooked veggies, spoon into trays and bake. These were so yummy I loved them myself. Great way to use up left-over rice. I'm sure if I made them in the mini-muffin trays it would be even better.

Cheese cut into shapes. Grilled veggies. grated carrot. grapes and melons are easy.

Think cold pasta salad. Things cut into strips with a dipping sauce.

Heather

 

Thanks for asking...I am running out of ideas too. It doesn't help that they are becoming picky eaters.

 

I'm home mostly and when I'm not the girls still are. Here are a few things we eat that I would think would be easily packable.

Snacks: Cut-up fruit and cheese; smoothies (add granola or flax seed for extra boost in nutrition); whole-grain cracker sammies with almond butter (both of mine have been tested for allergies so we started nuts a bit early); frozen banana with a little yogurt for dipping (fun outside); pita and hummus; corn on the cob (my girls go crazy for a whole piece of corn on the cob for snack, I dress it with a little olive oil and add some garlic cloves to the water I boil it in for flavor and good fats)

Lunch: Chicken nuggets (homemade with ground-up steamed broccoli in the breading) - side of avocado (slice at home, but leave in the shell for the daycare to scoop out at lunch and squeeze a little lemon on top to preserve the color); cheese, turkey diced - side of peas or diced and steamed carrots; tortilla roll-ups with grated carrots, grated cucumber and hummus spread over the tortilla

HTH.