there seem to be a few more parents around right now so i'll try starting this thread up again.

i have trouble finding things to put into little's lunch that he will actually eat. the kids don't have very much time for lunch because they go out to play for part of the hour so it has to be quick and easy to eat. i want him to get enough calories to fuel his little, insanely active body so i always include lots of fruit which he loves but the "big" lunch item is a sandwich. he likes "salad" sandwiches so i can get away with lettuce, tomato, avo and cuke on whole grain bread. it isn't terrific food combining but that would make his lunch impossible.
smoothies are a waste of food in his lunch, salad and veggies sticks aren't something that he will eat without me coaxing him into it, salad itself is out.
he loves veggie sushi so i could find a way to send him with some nori rolls with brown rice or maybe quinoa or millet with salad in the middle but i think that would get oogy in his lunch box and be hard to eat. i'm going to try it though, it might work out great.

so, what are you feeding your kids? tell me about the different and interesting, i've tried all the basics and use a lot of them already but his tastes change from day to day so it's good to have a whole stockpile of alternatives.

thanks!!!

no salad?

=(

what about sliced veggies with some sort of veggie/nut dip to dip them in?

fruit of course is an obvious. some of my favs when i was a kid were grapes, banana, apple, and orange. the convenient ones that did not require much concentration to open. =)

honestly what is wrong with just giving them tons of fruits?

My kids are homeschooled. They eat all day long. I can't imagine trying to fill a lunchbox for them.

They eat lots of whole fruits. They eat several apples and bananas a day. They also eat alfalfa sprouts. My daughter made up an interesting recipe. You take alfalfa sprouts and swirl them around in a bowl with mustard to make a nest and then put grape tomatoes in the nest as eggs. They love nut butters on veggies and fruit. My boy will eat zucchini whole but he loves it spiral sliced with some flax oil on it. Does your little like Tahini? Tahini cheese? My littlest one does. We top cucumber slices with tahini cheese and also roll it in spinach leaves with olive slices. What about applesauce? Soups? All but one of mine love raw soups.

Good luck! I will try to think of more.

Think he'd eat these?
[goneraw.com]-

thanks for your suggestions you guys. i am having a hard time with this.
read ahead and you will see why.

jen, i don't know a lot of 6 year olds who like salad. i can "make" him eat it at dinner time but it's not fun for either of us and if there is any kind of dressing or sauce he won't touch it at all.
he doesn't have enough time to eat all that fruit, what i give him now sometimes comes home in the afternoon. he must have something quick to eat and "filling" that will keep him energized for four or so hours. he already comes home So Hungry after school, oh my.

pakd4fun, your kids are amazing. please tell me what else you prepare for them.
i don't consider little to be so very fussy compared to many children but he has zero fondness for alfalfa, mustard, zucchini, flax oil, spinach or tahini. the other day he accused his cherry tomatoes of being "too sour" 8{
he does like apple sauce, i put that in his lunch but it's cooked. raw apple sauce in a lunchbox for 3+ hours = apple sauce that comes home untouched. it turns a funky colour and tastes like bruises and goddess help me if i were to put lemon into any of his food. i would never hear the end of it. you heard what he said about the cherry tomatoes, right?
he likes olives but only the green kind with pimento since SomeOne introduced that to him (thank you grandma) and which i will not buy. plus i've had a hard time finding olives that don't have undesirable ingredients in them.
soup is the same as a smoothy, he's not into it.
i did send him with celery and almond butter and he ate it all but the nut butter was cooked. it's hard to find raw and very expensive. i haven't really had much luck trying to make my own yet.
i wonder if i could make a sunflower seed butter to go in celery that he would actually like? time to experiment.

greenie, no way in heck. but i would

i visited alyssa cohen's site, there is a spot for raw moms there with a food thread but it's Full of desserts and dehydrated food. made me wonder if that's all those kids are learning to eat, raw junk food. how that is any better than a healthy, properly combined cooked vegan diet is beyond me. just because it's unfired doesn't make it healthy!

i don't know, there just isn't much out there about feeding raw kids. i suppose jinjee and storm must have some info, maybe in one of the books they sell. actually, i seem to recall a lot of desserts there too.

the boutenkos kids have a terrific book (i have a copy) of their own recipes that would appeal to an older child but this age for me it tough. i think about transitioning him when he's older and i am scared of how hard it will be. but i hope that i am at least setting a good foundation of healthy choices and an understanding of nutrition that he will always have.
this is something that needs more attention i think.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2007 07:10AM by coco.

What a dilemma. I have Storm and Jinjee's books. I will look through "raising raw vegan kids" and PM you with anything I discover there. I have not figured out how to make nutbutter at home either. I get raw Almond butter at Kroger down here but it was $9 and it just went up to $11. Maybe you could find it online. Does he like dates? Dates are full of energy. Maybe he will become a salad eater. Mine did. I used to have to fight with them over a tiny little bit on their plate and now they eat two and three big bowls of it. My little middle eats raw spinach like chips. Since he likes fruit but doesn't have time, maybe you could experiment with some fruit soups at home. Take some of his fav fruits and let him help you blend them up. If he could drink his fruit it wouldn't take him as long. I will keep thinking and noting what mine are eating and post again later.

I've found Whole Paycheck -- I mean Whole Foods -- to be very expensive for raw nut butters. I've found much less expensive nut butters at smaller stores or food co-ops. Look around for a better price.

I started my stepchildren packing their own lunches when they were at the begining of 2nd and 3rd grade. We only had healthy food in the house and let them pack anything they wanted. Anything. That's the key. For the first few months it was a messy affair! Nut butter and squished fruit everywhere... veggies on the floor... oh man, what a mess! <LOL> I learned patience... but after a few months, they really took ownership of their own lunch situation. It has worked out really well.

Oh yeah, they also learned what happens when you don't screw the lid on stuff properly. Gazpacho galore all over the backpack contents! There will be mistakes and messes if you go this route, but believe me, there was no more complaining "I don't like what you packed for me." They now understand that they are responsible for their own lunch happiness.

Also, I let them use their own money to buy the crap lunches at school. That too was interesting. Initially, both used up all their money to buy absolute crap and found that their money was used up very quickly ...and they both felt bad (constipation or the runs depending on what kind of crap they bought). It was a painful lesson but one they both really learned from. You want greasy pizza or chemical chocolate chip cookies? Fine. Pay for it yourself.

Teach them to pay attention to how they feel when they eat. (I didn't lecture or nag about their buying decisions, just quietly pointed out that feeling nausea or constipated or whatever is what happens when you eat that stuff.) Eventually, they will make better decisions when they are away from you and old enough to eat whatever they think they want. I hope.

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

pfft, lee your post gave me a laugh, your kids are funny. brave you letting them pack their own lunches!
little and i used to do more things in the kitchen together but since the move and this new baby, well, not so much lately. there is someone coming this week to fix my kitchen cupboards though so i can finally unpack all the dishes and food stuffs from boxes on the floor. that should help i miss my fun kitchen gadgets. i have a spiralizer, it's nifty.
i did make nut butter once with a small measure of success. i ran nuts through the juicer (it's a press, somewhat like a champion but no grating thing, just a giant screw that crushes and squeezes things through) but it came out very crumbly. i read somewhere to add oil but that seemed like overkill to me so i added a bit of water. it did make a paste and i ate it but not sure how the wee man would feel about the texture and flavour. have to try it again and see.
there is No Where to buy any kind of health food around here, i am in nowheresville apparently. i stock up when i am in toronto and michigan and have the extra cash. i'll see what i can find.

i don't have a problem packing stuff he'll eat and it's pretty healthy just not totally or even nearly totally raw. i'd like to get that main lunch item to be high quality, nutrient dense raw. and some dinners that he will like as well that don't involve dehydrating and food combining that is too complex.
thankfully he likes healthy food, probably because it's all i've ever kept in the house, my mom brings over treats though. sometimes it's a pomegranite or an asian pear but other times it's corn chips or cookies she baked ("what?" she says, "they're made with organic chickpea flour!". she does respect my choices though, i can get her to only bring fruit with enough reminders.

i guess i'm after some variety. i'll have to at least try more soups and interesting salads for dinner.

thanks for taking a look at that book pakd4fun. i'm sure there's something in there that he'll like. i think a lot of raw cook books are written with some "flash" to make the dishes comparable to cooked versions but that so often involves so many ingredients and time. it doesn't have to taste like an actual egg salad sandwich, something else is fine. i like it when the aim is to create something new and tasty instead of making a raw version of pizza or what-have-you. i can't fool him with fake anything anyhow, he's way too smart for that ;D



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2007 04:58PM by coco.

wow lee I really like your approach - sounds very brave and patience - testing!

well done you : )

I like your stories and advise Lee. I am finding that type of route more and more as I get experience being a parent. Consequences can be the greatest learning tool.

Coco, does he like seaweed?

he used to love nori, and then he didn't. he does like vegetarian sushi still though so i can try the nori rolls and see how that goes. i need a GOOD recipe for the seed filling, i don't know what i'm doing wrong but every time i try to make it it tastes yuck.

coco,
what has been working quite well with one of my children is to cut/prepare the fruits so it's easy and quick for him to eat. Besides the fruits, I put a little container of nuts and a thermos of soup (not raw though but at least it's homemade). The bag is always empty when he comes back home.

love,
Cynthia

I skimmed through Storm and Jijee's book and most of it would be under the category of things he won't eat. There are some things in there that I thought "maybe." I'll Pm you. What about apple stuffed dates? You remove the pit and replace it with a piece of apple. I know he doesn't like salad but what about raisin and carrot salad? Things like that? Carrot cake? Raw carrot cake is so dense it would totally fill him up.

Since going high raw my kids are such grazers and I have often thought they would starve if they were in school.

"my kids are such grazers and I have often thought they would starve if they were in school."

that is how i feel too, hence the sandwiches. bread is heavy and fills him up. we have such high metabolisms, both of us. i graze all day, he has to stand up in line and gobble a snack midway through the morning. sigh. i do so wish that i could homeschool him but with the baby and unpacking, it's just too much. and he gets lonely for the other kids too, it's hard on him. we did it last year for a few months and he was so sad and lonely for other kids. it is nearly too much for me though when i get the fliers about pizza and hotdog days and campbell's dead chicken noodle msg soup being offered to the children. on those days i grit my teeth and remember how much he loves being around all the other little children all day.

i will try the carrot and date salad and some carrot cake too. if i can make him something like that that he will enjoy it would make a great lunch edition.

i saw in another thread a suggestion to put caulflower and soaked chia seeds into a food processor to make sticky rice for nori rolls, that sounded excellent!

cynthia, thanks for the suggestions. he usually eats all of his fruit (i have one of these [www.bananaguard.com]) but he doesn't like nuts except for peanuts and those i don't buy, they are not allowed in school anyhow.

i am starting to think that the way to get more raw food into him is to make the sweets, i don't think i'm setting him up for success with that though.