Do you give your kids lunch meat? What do you give for lunch?

[olien]

If so, is there a 'healthier kind' out there I am unaware of?

What else do you give for lunch? I feel like my LO doesnt eat enough and he is hungry. Many things I give him he just doesnt like. I feel like He eats so much dairy. Dairy & fruit - not much else. I guess it could be worse.

My MIL gave me some ham lunch meat, so I made DS a 1/2 a sandwich just to see what would happen. He loved it & ate the whole thing (which is a lot for him).

I need ideas.

[katelove]

I can't help with the toddler feeding thing but for healthy cold meats could you use leftover homemade roast meat? Or chicken breasts? I wrap a skinless breast loosely in foil and cook in the oven for about 45 mins. It is lovely and moist shreaded up for sandwiches. If he will only eat ham then ham from the bone (freshly cut at the deli) would be healthier than the compressed loaf style "ham".

[Luke's mama]

How about peanut butter or peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Scrambled egg? tofu cubed, brushed with soy sauce and baked for 15 mins? Homemade hamburger? Gardenburgers? natural hot dogs or sausages? bacon? These are some of the things that my LO usually goes for. He also likes grilled chicken and sometimes pork roast. I am not crazy about all the meat eating, but worried about getting him protein and not just having him eat carbs. If your little one likes dairy and fruit, though, he is getting protein and a lot of nutrients, so it isn't the worst thing in the world!!

[mommariffic]

I am a huge fan of turkey sandwiches, and so I let DD have turkey. We do turkey roll ups, slices of fruit, cheese, crackers, grilled cheese, quesidillas, carrots with dip, hummus and pita, soup...mostly we pick

[MissMommyNiceNice]

We eat lunch meat. I don't see what the big deal is, as long as it's not like 3 or 4 times a day. YOu can find nitrate free varieties...BJ's has some, as does Boar's Head (if your store carries it, ours did, but wasn't selling enough so stopped). I honestly worry about water & sodium content more than nitrates.

Sometimes he'll eat a sandwich, but usually prefers a roll with cheese in the middle.

That being said, we've had tremendous success with chicken corn noodle soup around here. Veggies & all down the hatch.

Also noodles. And hot dogs and chicken nuggets and pizza. And corn on the cob. Pears, apples, bananas, strawberries, dried apricots, yogurt raisins. All the toddler favorites. And burritos.

For lunch, I'm willing to give a little more leeway about eating what we eat, b/c he's not always eating with us due to nap. It's usually a freeforall at our house, anyway, with leftovers & the sort.

[MaterPrimaePuellae]

I do, maybe once or twice a week-- but we only buy Boars Head (added nitrate-free) or Applegate Farms (which is nitrate-free and also humanely raised) or other "natural" brands.

Dh loves beef on sandwiches, and when he was brown-bagging every day I made London Broil or skirt steaks and sliced them thinkly for sandwiches during the week. That was cheaper and, I'm sure, in some degree healthier.

DD also likes soup. We have been eating a lot of soup w/ bread and butter this winter, and we both enjoy that. Other possibilities are hummus wraps, pasta salad, cold pizza, etc.

[LeighB]

We buy the Applegate Farms stuff sometimes too. And Dd eats a ton of hummus with veggies, or sometimes on GF bread. We are dairy free/gluten free and in the process of becoming vegetarians.
Dips are big around here- almond butter, hummus, etc.

[Hedgehog Mtn]

AppleGate Farms here too. I get it by the case from the co-op and it's cheaper by the lb than my grocery store meat!! I freeze any I don't eat in time since one of the co-ops delivers it frozen anyways.

[olien]

Originally Posted by katelove

I can't help with the toddler feeding thing but for healthy cold meats could you use leftover homemade roast meat? Or chicken breasts? I wrap a skinless breast loosely in foil and cook in the oven for about 45 mins. It is lovely and moist shreaded up for sandwiches. If he will only eat ham then ham from the bone (freshly cut at the deli) would be healthier than the compressed loaf style "ham".

I do on occasion make homemade RB. Shreded chicken is a good idea. I never would have thought of that.

Originally Posted by MissMommyNiceNice

That being said, we've had tremendous success with chicken corn noodle soup around here. Veggies & all down the hatch.

Do you have a recipie for that?? Do I have to worry about choking on corn at 17mo??

Its good to hear that there are some healthier choices out there (BHead/Agfarms). I will have to keep my eyes open.

[Violet2]

We are members of the dairy and fruit tribe so I know of what you speak.

Just wanted to warn you that just b/c they eat it once, doesn't mean they'll eat it ever again. So I wouldn't kill yourself trying to get him lunchmeat, kwim?

DD filched all the red cabbage from my salad last week and I got SO excited thinking she was finally going to eat another vegetable outside of baked beans.

It's was a one time thing.

We've had a lot of those one off eating experiences around here.

V

[SFam]

Originally Posted by Violet2

Just wanted to warn you that just b/c they eat it once, doesn't mean they'll eat it ever again.

DD1 went through a stage where all i could get her to eat was corn and now she won't touch it! i try to just keep offering. right now she'll eat broccoli, but only if i stir fry it and make a honey ginger sauce for it.

we do PB&J, organic whole milk yogurt (yobaby or sometimes yokids, which is low fat), various fruits (whatever she'll eat that day), grilled cheese, sometimes boxed mac & cheese (when i'm desperate, but annie's makes an organic lower sodium version which at least is a little better), spaghetti w/ ground turkey in the sauce. i offer vegies but am told they are "too yucky" and they don't get eaten.

thanks for this thread. i always feel like DD is not getting enough variety. and she's getting to be a skinny mini-- growing taller, but not gaining much weight. i've started buying ice cream just to plump her up a bit!

[AllisonR]

I find the best way to get them to eat is "some stability" plus "some variety" plus "a surprise" every day in their lunch box. If their lunchbox looks the same, my kids are less likely to eat it.

The "stability" is they always get either carrot sticks or cucumber sticks, and they always get brown bread, with butter. The topping on the bread is the "variety" - which changes evey day: sliced cheese, ham, beef, salami, or leftovers like sliced fish or fish pate, sliced potatoe or egg... They also love leverpostej on their bread - which is mashed up pig livers with bacon - you could not pay me to eat this sh*t but all kids here LOVE it, national dish). I also try to include a surprise item - raisins, nuts, orange slices....

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Originally Posted by olien

Do you have a recipie for that?? Do I have to worry about choking on corn at 17mo??

I forget not everyone is from PA Dutch Country & Chicken corn soup is not like a household standard!

DS corn. It's always been a favorite. We've never had a choking problem, as soup is cooked so long it is very tender. We freeze corn at the peak of the season, but you should be able to use any frozen sweet corn.

Here's the gist for a medium-large pot:

3 or 4 T butter
1 xl sweet onion chopped
4-6 ribs of celery chopped
3-4 large carrots, quartered & sliced
1 c frozen peas
2 c frozen SWEET corn
3-4 tablespoons each of chopped fresh sage & parsley
2-3 bay leaves
handful of fresh thyme on stems (fish out at end - the stems add a lot of flavor)
1 tsp or more to taste each of celery seed, sweet paprika, marjoram
2 T (or more to taste) each of granulated garlic (or flakes), salt, pepper
1-2 c mashed potatoes (if available)
3-4 cups of shredded chicken (usually what's leftover from cooking a whole chicken after a couple of days)
homemade chicken stock to cover
3-4 hardboiled eggs, chopped
1/2 bag of PA Dutch (or similar brand) of KLOSKI style noodles (most like the thin chicken noodle soup noodles, hold their shape & texture the best)


Add first 4 ingredients and sautee until onions are transluscent. Add frozen peas & corn & spices, sautee another 5-10 minutes. Add potatoes, chicken, & stock, cover bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, simmer 45 min - 2 hours. Add eggs & noodles. Bring back to a boil, cook until noodles are tender approx 10 min. Turn off, let cool slightly, fish out any stems.

Enjoy!

[BarnMomma]

I make big pots of soup on Monday AM and DS has that for lunch. I put all sorts of veggies in there and he loves it. Very healthy. Also he loves QUICHE! SO easy and healthy. I get a whole wheat org crust, use eggs, a touch of cream, then I add broccoli, zuccini, carrots, corn, and cheddar cheese. DS love sit and it slices nicely for travel.

Other variations I make are almond butter and fruit preserve sandwhichs on sprouted grain bread.

Leftover roast-whatever-I-made-last-night with frozen org veggies when I'm in a hurry.

[mamadelbosque]

Occasionally. Not on any sort of regular basis as we just don't eat it much. But if we have it around, then yeah. And yeah, there *IS* healtheir-vs of lunchmeat - organic/nitrate/nitrite free, but its expensive and not available around here, so I've not actually had it...

As for what we do for lunch, generally its sandwhiches or leftovers. DS eats a lot of pb & j. He loves it and its decent & cheap, so yeah. I eat pb & J occasionally but also make tuna fish on a fairly regular basis. We also do chicken nuggets & tater tots & frozen pizza about once a week, and occasionally (maybe 2x a month) soup - less in the summer, but as its getting cold it'll be more often again.And hotdogs (I buy applegate farms through my co-op) And we do crackers & cheese & pepperoni occasionally. And "nachos" - leftover beans spooned over a mound of tortilla chips w/ grated cheese, onions & jalapenos - whenever I have leftover beans. Or I just warm up leftovers if its something he likes. Thats our basic rotation

[lucifugous]

I give DD lunchmeat. We prefer one called "Ham off the bone" to anything reconstituted or waterlogged with crap... but she's had a piece of balogna here or there (yuk and yum at the same time :P)

[ellairiesmom]

We do Applegate Farms here...Oven Roasted Turkey Breast or Oven Roasted Chicken Breast.

[olien]

Originally Posted by Violet2

We are members of the dairy and fruit tribe so I know of what you speak.

Just wanted to warn you that just b/c they eat it once, doesn't mean they'll eat it ever again. So I wouldn't kill yourself trying to get him lunchmeat, kwim?

DD filched all the red cabbage from my salad last week and I got SO excited thinking she was finally going to eat another vegetable outside of baked beans.

It's was a one time thing.

We've had a lot of those one off eating experiences around here.

V

What is with the eating things once & loving them to never touching them again
It drives me crazy & seems to be more the rule than the exception around here.

Originally Posted by BarnMomma

I make big pots of soup on Monday AM and DS has that for lunch. I put all sorts of veggies in there and he loves it. Very healthy. Also he loves QUICHE! SO easy and healthy. I get a whole wheat org crust, use eggs, a touch of cream, then I add broccoli, zuccini, carrots, corn, and cheddar cheese. DS love sit and it slices nicely for travel.

Quiche - what a great idea. I must find some recipies - never made that before.

[Kaimamasan]

Veggie Nuggets are a big favorite here:

3 eggs
A couple of big handfuls of shredded cheese
3 quarters of a cup of whole wheat bread crumbs
Steamed broccoli or spinach, chopped fine
Any seasonings you desire

Mix together and form into nuggets on an oiled cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking time.

Serve with dip (I make a yogurt-mild curry dip).

DS LOVES them, I actually like them too.

Other ideas: Red lentils cooked with carrots, apples and curry
Meatballs with finely chopped red peppers hidden inside
Grilled cheese on whole wheat, cut into shapes with a cookie cutter

[Kaimamasan]

Oh, we also do the English muffin pizza thing. I try to use nitrate free pepperoni.
Lifechoices makes an organic whole wheat mac and cheese. We will have that in a pinch too.