Auuuugh! Lunchbox alternatives please!

[Smithie]

My dh wants to go bread-free for a month (I am content to eat sourdough, but he has a bread addiction and I actually agree with him that keeping it out of the house will help with his weight loss goals).

So far, I have tried hard-boiled eggs and mini-quiches as a sandwich substitute in the kids' lunchboxes. Totally rejected. (They are preschoolers, so it's not like I can ask them to make me a list of 10 things they will eat as I would with an older child.)

What goes in the box right now: yogurt, apples, cheese sticks. Individual portions of any cookies or crackers that Grandma brings over. Sigg bottle of water.

Apparently eggs are not going to cut it as a sandwich substitute. What else should I try?

[Rainbow2911]

Pancakes? How about small muffins or chickpea cakes - or would these be too tough for your husband to have around? My kids love cold bean or meat burgers. If you found tiny containers for ketchup or another dip I can see small children being really pleased - mine will eat many things if they can dip them in ketchup. Cold sausages are also a favorite.
Would they eat a container of leftovers?

Hope you manage to find some things they love.

[Smithie]

Thanks! Muffins he could not resist, and the kids eat no burgers of any sort. (Hopefully this will change as they get older.) Chickpea cakes in muffinesque form - that might work!

Another thought - maybe I cold just send them with two dairy sources, a fruit and water? Plus whatever random thing MIL brought over that week?

[TzippityDoulah]

would they eat eggs in a crustless quiche form?

also cold hotdogs (you can get good quality, nitrate free ones... not oscar meyer junk!) with ketchup to dip.

cheese and meet rolls (we do this as we are GF) jst roll up lunch meat (again, nitrate free real meat!) and cheese slices/strips you can cut up yourselves. my husband always calls them "tukery hot dogs" for my little girl. she loves it!

apples and peanut/almond/nut butter to dip in

my son doesn't like hard boiled eggs alone. but he loves it if I make egg salad out fo it and he just eats it will a spoon. same with tunafish.

[karliyanchus]

will he be tempted by frozen muffins? you could make them then keep them in the freezer until it's time to pop them into the lunch kit, then also you don't need a ice thing to keep things cold. this may work, or not..... i found out as a kid that the butter tarts my mom was trying to hide for lunches really taste better than thawed ones, hee hee.

[Peek-a-boo]

Would tortillas of some sort be okay? You could make wraps filled with all sorts of things--hummus, various meats, etc.

[guestmama9904]

how about natural beef/fish/turkey jerky or meat sticks.

[Millie Ivy]

Do they like milk? When my kids were trying out public school I put in a small kleen kanteen of raw milk. That way, even if they pick through stuff they were getting some good nutrition there seeing as though they always down the milk.

I put in cheese and meat (for ds) nuts(for dd, she doesn't care for most meat), fruit leather and dried fruits, carrot sticks and apple slices with hummus, boiled eggs occasionally (they didn't like them too often). Occasionally for a treat I would send mac and cheese (homemade) would he be able to resist if he had to go through the trouble of actually making pasta?
they also had quesadillas on corn tortillas (toasted up in the toaster oven, mmm.) if he could resist tortillas, or you could hide them in the back of the freezer or something.

[DannyPatterson]

English muffins are a light-weight alternative.

[Etoile]

Chicken fingers? Take strips of chicken, season (maybe toss with salt, garlic powder, any spices you like) and bake. these are even good cold. could have them with a dip of some sort.

[Ruthla]

What if you baked bread, sliced it, and froze it, and ONLY used it for the kids' lunches? Would your DH be tempted by bread slices in the freezer that are earmarked for preschool lunches?