Vegetarian Preschooler Meal Ideas?

[BCattS]

My 4yo is in FT childcare, and we substitute a veggie option for the entree each day. They will accept a ready-to-heat option but it's a PITA to coordinate, so we try to send cold or room temp meals. We're in a serious rut of cheese sticks or soy butter & honey sandwiches.

Any thoughts on how to change it up?

Thanks, mamas!

[Justmee]

My kids will eat lentil burgers cold.I also make tofu with a splash of soy sauce, some garlic powder, mixed veggies & rice. It takes about 30 second to heat up, but again, I've had it cold before and it's still good. Rice salad you can make in a big batch and freeze. Falafal? Chummos sandwiches? Hard boiled eggs? You can also do things like french toast sticks & pancakes.

[eepster]

Hummus, either with pita to scoop it or as a sandwich.

PB&J if you're allowed to do peanut butter.

Cold soba noodles with sesame seeds and nori. And a hard boiled egg cut into quarters with soy sauce (this is my 3 3/4 yo DS's favorite.)

[kavitha]

i need ideas too, but one another thing we do is spread leftover black beans on toast.......

[EviesMom]

My DD in particular prefers some things cold that I wouldn't eat cold. This was my meal list for DD to choose from for summer camp lunches- no heating available:

Edamame-cooked, salted, chilled
Hard boiled egg
Cheese quesadilla
Jelly sandwiches-kept 3 kinds of jelly as these were pretty frequent here
Fast Pasta salad-chilled pasta with broccoli lemon juice, olive oil and parm cheese
Mini bagels and veggie cream cheese
Veggie hot dog, no bun

She doesn't like hummus (she did 2 years ago, then suddenly no), but hummus and baby carrots would be easy/fast.

With any of these, I would add crackers, fruit/veggie cheese stick.

When it was a camp where she could take nuts/nut butter, we added mixed nuts or apple slices/pear slices and peanut or almond butter in a little container with a spreader.

[MountainMamaGC]

They make this stuff called pea-butter and its peanut free. That would be good for snadwiches and you can make ants on a log with it or put it on crackers. Oh my new favourite lunch is a chickpea salad sandwich. You mash some chickpeas with a fork, add a bit of mayo, mustard and relish. Its so good and a perfect replacement for egg/chicken salad sandwiches.

[Gator-mom]

We have to bring our own food to daycare too. Our regular (though boring I admit) for meals is:

cheese or pb and homade jam sandwhich with carrots and ranch with a couple mandarins or grapes

left over pasta, yogurt and fruit

left over soup and crackers (as long as I blend any soup, he pretty much eats it)

hummus and rice crackers, yogurt and fruit

veggie nuggets, carrots with ranch or sweet potato fries with ketchup and fruit

quinoa pilaf, yogurt and fruit

I also tried a cold black bean burger this week and he ate about half of what I sent...so that seems like a new option we have now.


Thats about it..I know it can be a bit boring, but he eats about all of that at least. Ds is almost 3 and a fairly picky eater. I am in nursing school and work part time..so I don't have a lot of time to invest in meals! I try to utilize left overs as often as possible though as that saves on time and is usually pretty healthy.

[klt]

I check this blog out time to time, and will use it more once I need to pack a lunch for my little one.
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

Check out her posts from several years back when her child was younger to get ideas for your child's age! Enjoy!

[klt]

Hey Gator-mom-
I'm in Nursing school too! Just subscribed to Veg & Veg Living thread! See you around here & best of luck!! Karen

[dachshundqueen]

Suggestion for lunches

How about something you heat up before you leave and drop into a thermos? Then you have the option of sending whatever you happen to have on hand in terms of leftovers rather than being forced to come up with a meal. They don't have to reheat it either. Add a piece of fruit or cheese and you're done.

Liz