When Jackson first turned 1 and his schedule for eating at daycare needed to be adjusted (getting rid of bottles, adding in snacks), I was completely and utterly overwhelmed. I felt like I had just gotten the hang of feeding him on his original schedule, and now it was time to shake it all up!
Jackson loves to eat, and we’re lucky that he’s a pretty awesome eater so far. We’ve been sending him solid food lunches to daycare for about five months now, and been sending snacks for two, so I feel like we’re finally at a point where we’ve got a system that works for us, and food for daycare is no longer a stress.
If anyone else is in the same boat as I was and is totally freaked out at how to transition to a toddler schedule, I thought I’d do a quick post to show what 1 week of lunches for Jackson looks like. While I wish I was creative enough to make the adorable bento lunches that I see all over Pinterest, I’m doing good to throw together a healthy-ish meal for him each day…maybe someday when he cares a little more I’ll try making the lunches cute!
Before I jump into the food photos, here’s what Jackson’s eating schedule looks like during the week:
6:00 – Nurse
6:15 – Breakfast and a small glass of whole milk
10:00 – Snack
12:00 – Lunch
3:00 – Snack
4:30 – Glass of whole milk
5:30 – Dinner
6:30 – Nurse
He eats a lot less than this during the weekend when he’s at home – his naps are longer so he sleeps through both of those snack times, and he just eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a glass of milk before dinner.
Day 1
Lunch today is some chicken sausage, chickpeas cooked with garlic and seasonings, squash (cut into sticks because that’s the only way he’ll eat them), and watermelon. For one snack he has a clementine orange and for the other he has a Babybel cheese along with a small handful of berry-flavored yogurt melts.
Day 2
He didn’t like the beans yesterday so I gave him some leftover pasta with pesto from the night before. He’s got chicken sausage again, roasted cauliflower, and a clementine. For snack, he has a fruit pouch and an Ella’s kitchen snack bar.
Day 3
Today was chicken sausage, squash, watermelon, and half of a whole wheat english muffin. For snack, I sent a clementine (he would eat three of these every day if I let him!) and some puffs.
Day 4
Lunch was chicken sausage (once again), pasta with pesto, blueberries, and cauliflower. I packed broccoli and cheddar sticks and a Babybel for one snack, and a fruit puree pouch for the other, but he ended up staying home with pink eye this day, so the snacks went uneaten.
Day 5
The protein is pork chops, and he’s also got some butter beans (cooked in chicken stock with some garlic), carrots, and cantaloupe. For snack, we’ve got some granola and a fruit puree pouch.
. . . . .
Our lunch preparation routine is super simple – we choose a protein, 2 veggies, 2 fruits, and a side when we go grocery shopping for the week. On Sunday we cook the meat, roast the veggies, and chop the fruit. Then, it’s just a matter of putting together a quick lunch every day when we get home from work. It takes a bit of planning over the weekend, but it makes the rest of the week a total breeze!
I feel like we’re finally in a groove with this whole eating thing, and thankfully it should be a while before his eating schedule changes too much! I’m looking forward to the days when Jackson can eat a bigger variety of things (like sandwiches and other foods that are just too messy to send to daycare for now) and I can get a little more creative with his lunches.
I’d love to hear any ideas you have for toddler lunches – I’m always looking for new things to add to our list of go-tos!
guest
we go through a lot of chicken sausage with my 18 month old, too! for protein, we also do: pieces of sliced turkey, cut up chicken (i’ll roast a couple legs or thighs ahead of time), cottage cheese, cut up dumplings. other mainstays are mini cut up ‘sandwiches’ with hummus, cream cheese or sunbutter inside, tj’s organic mac & cheese or tortellini (“nini!”) with sauce, sauteed spinach or kale with garlic, edamame, black olives… and a ton of fruit (cut up apples, blueberries, pears, banana, clementines, strawberries, etc.). always looking for more options too!
kiwi / 511 posts
Your lunches look cute to me
I send lunches for a 2.5 and 4.5 year old. I used to get creative and send in left overs and they ate them, now they don’t eat them as much. I send what they eat because they need to eat and it isn’t a battle I am about to fight.
Lunch for the elder 99% of the time is a soy nut butter and jelly sandwich. That is all he wants no fruit, no crackers no veggies. So I make him a whole sandwich and he gets milk with it. He gets fruit for a snack, and he loves his fruits and veggies at home. The younger will let me get away with leftover sometimes but he is turning into a soy nut butter fiend as well and usually has that about 65 to 70 percent of the time. The daycare staff laughed when I voiced concern that I send in the same thing over and over and over again, and said if they eat it that is what you send.
I really don’t feel badly about it anymore since they eat such a wide variety of things at home, so much more than I ever did as a kid and more than some of my nieces and nephews do. I don’t think either boy has met a fruit or veggie that they don’t like. And I do feel badly when I have to tell them no more fruit (because I am not cleaning up that mess! and I think we all know what I am talking about.).
grapefruit / 4187 posts
I’ve come a long way as well. I used to do all of the cooking on Sunday, but this was totally exhausting and wouldn’t even get us to thursday since DH and I also count on leftovers for our lunches. I now make two complete dinners on Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays. I find that it isn’t that much more work and doesn’t take up any more time than 1 dinner usually does. These 6 meals usually provide all of us with enough food to make it to friday, which is (frozen) pizza night! Saturday we normally go out or order sushi.
nectarine / 2521 posts
Great ideas, thanks for the post! I also LOVE the containers in the pictures. Where did you get them?
pomegranate / 3414 posts
We do a lot of cheese quesadillas (tortillas with cheese zapped in microwave and then cut up).
apricot / 409 posts
Thanks for this post! Your lunches look great! I’m feeling overwhelmed and my daughter is only 9 months old. It’s so much harder sending her to daycare with food/purees rather than just her bottles. Im definitely feeling stressed out thinking of transitioning to 1 year old food. Are those special pouches for older babies? I have a bunch of those Plum “Just Fruit” ones that say 4+ months so I wasn’t sure if they were still appropriate at 1 yr old..
pomegranate / 3225 posts
wow, your baby gets a great variety! I have let my toddler get away with too much snacking. Sigh.
cherry / 190 posts
Our lunches are somewhat similar. One protein, one grain, one fruit, one veggie, one dairy. I use leftover meat from dinner or peanut butter for the protein, puffed millet or leftover rice/potatoes for the grain, fresh sliced fruit, veggie chips (okra is a huuuuuge hit!) or steamed veg, and then cheese or yogurt for the dairy. It’s pretty easy to mix it up. Lately we’ve been doing a lot of pomegranate seeds since they’re in season. I also use fruit puree and gelatin to make homemade fruit snacks. It’s a lot of fun!
blogger / apricot / 378 posts
@Tanjowen: The square one we got from Amazon – (http://amzn.to/1GqXLK1) and the other we got from our local grocery store in the baby/toddler feeding aisle…but they have it on Amazon too (it was cheaper in store, though) – http://amzn.to/1FqwdmY
blogger / apricot / 378 posts
@purrpletulips: J LOVES quesadillas too!
@tiramisu: It’s definitely overwhelming at first! Once you get into a routine, though, it’s so much easier. We still buy the Plum ones every once in a while (as you can see in this post) but typically I just get the organic fruit purees for older kids… in our grocery store they’re next to the applesauce and fruit cups! You just want to be careful to make sure the ones you buy don’t have a lot of added sugar or other crap. I only buy the ones that just have straight fruit puree. I think any pouches are fine as long as your baby will take them! We still buy the “baby” puree pouches for him every once in a while – now they’re just a snack instead of a whole meal, haha!
@Killer b: We haven’t tried okra yet! That’s a great idea! Pomegranate seeds sound fun too!
blogger / persimmon / 1225 posts
These are great ideas, will have to remember for when my little guy starts eating more solids!
apricot / 409 posts
Good idea, I never thought about looking by the fruitcups! I was always so stuck in the baby food section. Funny, I haven’t even seen the Plum Mash Ups in my local grocery store, but I’m sure BRU must have it.
That’s so true that just when you get the hang of feeding, their schedule changes!
guest
I’m so jealous your baby eats. It’s like seeing a unicorn when my daughter eats something
luckily she eats mostly at daycare what they offer…sometimes. It’s quite stressful and has literally brought me to tears! I will try the chicken sausage and hope she eats that.