what are you sending in your kids lunches? i'm having a hard time feeding little even on the days he comes home for lunch (as often as possible, then i can make sure he brushes his teeth after!).

i have posted SO MANY kid suggestions here over the years, not many of which work for my own kid anymore. now that he's 6 and in first grade it's more of a challenge than ever to get him to eat veggies, raw or not. he sees me eating well but little people have different tastebuds than big people and he sees a LOT of different kinds of food at school.
don't get me wrong, he is very aware of healthy choices and the teachers always comment on his healthy, "litterless" lunches, he thinks fast food is total poison and wouldn't eat it ever and he's a vegetarian by his own choice. i have it good as far as kids go but he doesn't like salad, or very many raw veg at all and he's growing in new front teeth so a lot of fruit is too hard for him unless i cut it up (doesn't work for school lunches).

i'm frustrated. it has to last in a lunch box from 9 until 12, it has to be pretty simple, tasty, easy for me to make (hey, i'm still unpacking and have a new baby to boot!), and give him energy for his day.

any suggestions?

thank you!!

Cut fruit will keep very well with an ice-pack in a lunchbox or sack. Stick to the cut raw veggies that he likes. Make your own wonderful dehydrated snacks and chips. Take advantage of the many receipes that the wonderful folks on this board and other resources will suggest to you. You'll do fine. All you can do is make the stuff avaialable to him.....and provide a good example. At some age, he'll have to have the option to make some of his own decisions....in an ever-increasing frequency.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I dont really have actual suggestions, but was just trying to think of what a child might find irresistable in the presence of junk food - maybe a sweet fruit dip for some cut up fruit chunks? I guess a small thermos of sweet green smoothie might not be great a few hours after it's made....

Some kind of wrapped or rolled sanny with raw tahini dressing? too messy? or use as a dip?

Date-based something or other?

It was a huge struggle for my kids, back in the day....

You could try freezing a smoothie the night before (eaten with 24 hours is still better than nothing!) and then it can thaw out in the morning in his lunch pack. You might need to experiment on the timing of this, but a smoothie can pack in a ton of stuff, keep you full awhile, and break up the monotony of the typical lunch. Plus, those would be easy for him to eat with those new front teeth! I just remember growing up and my mom would freeze our juice boxes so that they would still be cold by the time we drank them with our lunch.

This may be dumb, but have you asked him for suggestions or what he's seeing out there that he'd like to try in a raw form? He might be able to steer you in the right direction of what he'll actually eat.

Probably the most important part is that he feels confident enough to support this diet in the midst of all the other cooked food kids. Sounds like he is, but I can't imagaine its easy for him to have to explain to the other kids his age why he's eating vegetables instead of Cheetos.

thanks guys, keep 'em coming...

he doesn't like smoothies which is a drag because he USED to like them. oh well, i just have to keep trying, he changes his mind about what he likes all the time.

get him to help make them and do a short - for his food only - shopping trip so he'll 'engage' in his lunch before he eats it and might actually get really good at finding the right foods for his lunches.