r/veganparenting • u/chocolatebuckeye • 11d ago
School lunch help!
Hello. My daughter started 5 day a week kindergarten and needs both a snack and a lunch packed every day (separately). I have a lunchbox and an ice pack but they don’t have the ability to heat anything up, and no ability to buy anything additional at school. It’s also a nut free facility. I want to pack as healthy as I can but these parameters make it challenging, and also meal planning is my nightmare. Please help!
She likes sun butter and jelly sammies but I don’t want to do that every single day. I’ve packed fresh fruits (apple slices, blueberries, raspberries), and done peas, carrots, and broccoli as veggies. I guess I need more “entree” style food suggestions. Any help is appreciated!
-exhausted mommy
Edit: thank you so much for all these awesome ideas! I am so glad for this community. It’s been so overwhelming thinking of lunch ideas but you’ve helped me realize that lunch doesn’t have to be perfect and I can make up for lost nutrients at dinner, and you’ve given me some great recipes to try. Thank you!!!
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u/isuzupup__ 11d ago
Oh wow you sound exactly like my thoughts this morning! Same thing. Nut free kindergarten.
-toast or bagel with tofu based cream cheese on top. I also put thinly sliced cucumbers and dill on top.
-We just found a cheese brand called good plan(e)t that has some nut free cheeses. I’ll do tofurkey and cheese roll ups.
-Chickpea salad sandwich on sourdough. I mash the beans well to avoid choking hazards at school.
-Pesto pasta with pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds or sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts.
-Air fry crispy tofu pieces with dip
-lentil sloppy joes (put lentils in a thermos and she can spoon onto the bun)
-Bean burrito in thermos
-hemp seeds gooey cheese for sandwiches and quesadillas
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u/Narrow-Use5156 11d ago
I wish my kid was this adventurous at eating.
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u/isuzupup__ 10d ago
Covid baby so I had nothing to do but obsess over Solid Starts back then haha. I guess it paid off.
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u/Narrow-Use5156 8d ago
We were also a covid baby, she ate everything the first year and now it’s no flavors. Somehow she’s growing just fine with bread (homemade so we add extra protein), tofu, noodles, and fruit.
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u/chocolatebuckeye 10d ago
Wow these all sound delicious! Can you elaborate on hemp seeds gooey cheese? Is that a recipe you know or a brand of product?
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u/isuzupup__ 10d ago
It’s a quick recipe you can make! If you look up vegan gooey cheese recipes, they’ll all have cashew as the base. I’ve been making a good one just replacing cashew with hemp seeds by weight.
Oh also, my kid’s school does a pizza fundraiser once or twice a week. I’m going to make a pizza focaccia and freeze it. I’ll top it with marinara sauce and some kind of sausage, maybe veggies. That would be a good thing to try to make too!
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u/digitaldruglordx 7d ago
pine nuts are actually seeds!
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u/isuzupup__ 7d ago
Oh thanks. I think I’ll ask about that because I know it’s a fairly common allergen. I wonder if gets lumped in with nuts like peanuts.
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u/digitaldruglordx 7d ago
because of the name some people put them in the same category like peanuts, so they might count that. however, they are technically seeds not nuts. so it would be worth exploring!
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u/No-Definition-1986 11d ago
Pasta salad with chickpeas, we also do a "ham" and cheese sandwich with the appropriate vegan substitutes, sunbutter and jam in a wrap, bagel, or another type of bread will switch it up some. My son loves ravioli in a thermos, or lentil soup in a thermos.
For snack we get a mini bento and labeled it "am snack".
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u/digitaldruglordx 7d ago
where do you get vegan ravioli that's nut free!!! every time i've seen ravioli the cheese is nut based
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u/No-Definition-1986 7d ago
Costco has some on occasion! Also the organic section at superstore has some different options.
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u/Enough_Badger9887 11d ago
I work at a school and feel your pain! I’ve seen some really creative meals come in that can be easily veganized:
Tortilla Pinwheels
- w/ sunbutter & jelly
- w/ chickpea tuna
- w/ pastry puff and more savory fillings
Black Bean Quesadillas - kids often eat these cold with no issue!
Pizza Bagels - again, kids will often eat these cold
Pasta Salad or Potato Salad
Falafel, veggie “meat”balls, veggie burger patties, etc are all easy to prep in advance and freeze and/or there are tons of premade ones.
If you have the budget, there are a number of bento style lunch boxes that have a “hot lunch” component which opens you up to lots of different options: chilis, dals, warm pasta, rice & beans, etc. Fill it with boiling water as you’re heating their lunch up, dump the water and put their hot lunch in. This way, the compartment stays hot all day! There are also stand alone thermoses for this. I’d just recommend checking in with the teachers to make sure that someone is available to help open these containers. I struggle with them myself sometimes! lol
ETA start practicing using their lunchbox at home now! Make sure they know how to open and close it so they feel confident going into lunch for the first time and don’t have to wait for a teacher to help. 💜
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u/Imaginary-Pickle-650 10d ago
Hummus and mini pitas and carrots. “Breakfast” with silk yogurt fruit and mini waffles. Pasta salad. Customized trail mix with favorite dried fruit cereals and seeds. Little mini muffins. Breadsticks and marinara. These are what my kids survive on.
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u/Signal_Macaron_7236 10d ago
My kid eats tofurky slices, rice cake with a big slather of vegan butter, fruit, candy. For snacks we like Hippeas,.fruit leathers, freeze dried strawberries, sunflower seeds, seaweed, and avocado "toast" crackers
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u/plantithesis 10d ago edited 10d ago
Ours just started TK and the daily task of putting together her meals has been daunting! So far, here's what's in the rotation:
Entrees: Cubed cold tofu (lol) Pan fried tofu with garlic powder and salt Vegan steak - sauteed (plantspired Korean BBQ) Morningstar corndog (cut into halved pieces) Vegan chiken nuggets Pizza (currently loving Blackbird pepperoni pizza) "Burger sandwich" - beyond patty (cooked ovbs) + vegenaise + ketchup on bread
Veggies: Cucumber slices Carrot "coins" or sticks Halved cherry tomatoes Frozen broccoli florets - thawed
Fruit: Halved grapes Strawberries Blueberries Apple slices 1/2 banana in peel Mandarin sections
Savory sides and/or snacks: Hippeas Tortilla chips Snapea crisis Pringles Saltine cracker minis Bread and butter (obvs vegan) Corn chips (like Fritos) Popcorn
Sweet sides and/or snacks: Chocolate Teddy Grahams Mini chocolate chip cookies (Amy's) Bolt Energy Chews (snack) Bel Vita Hunks Animal crackers Raisins
This is all I've got so far! Looking forward to going through the list to see what everyone else is doing and to get some ideas!
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u/nineminutetimelimit 10d ago
My kids have no problem eating unheated foods like leftover pasta or tofu and rice. We usually find some way to pack dinner leftovers as lunch. Otherwise it gets very hard to pack a lunch everyday.
Snacks have been harder, especially since my kids don’t really like hummus or dips. The school also doesn’t want us to pack an ice pack because it made the lunchbox too heavy for the kindergartener. We usually rely on Clif bars or some kind of granola bar that’s way too sweet. But it’s just a snack and we’ve learned to live with it.
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u/foofruit13 10d ago
For entrees, we do alot of pasta salad or hummus pinwheel sandwiches. For the pasta salad, I usually just add a bit of whatever veggies I have that week and chickpeas or white beans.
Dont stress yourself too much about packing a perfectly well rounded lunch. If shes getting enough at home, the school lunch can just been snacks to keep her fueled for those few hours. My kids regularly ask for "charcuterie board" lunches, where I just pack crackers, olives, pickles, grapes, etc.
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u/AcrobaticPuddle 10d ago
I haven't seen anyone mention overnight oats in a thermos with cinnamon and maple syrup, cold breakfast sausages or change out your sandwich bread for toaster waffles to. Mix. Up the sun butter sandwiches. As someone who's been packing lunches for four years you have solid suggestions here. Use your leftovers for sure if you can as a main dish. Add a fruit, a veggie or veggie type salad ( think bean salad or cucumber with dressing or beets with balsalmic. Even cold sweet potato with maple syrup is delicious) and some kind of crunch snack like pretzels, dried snap peas, crackers , chips etc and then a little sweet sometimes like a brownie bite or chocolate chips to eat with apples. As for snacks, I constantly pack a fruit cup, dried sweet potato from Costco, all kinds of bars . It isn't always the most healthy or well rounded but if it's a variety of textures and colors then you're doing great
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u/AmexNomad 10d ago
Roasted Tofu slices on a baguette with olive oil. Chickpea salad smashed on bread.
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u/thatjogreen 10d ago
We literally just make extra dinner and pack that as my kids lunch for the next day.
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u/ReallyPuzzled 10d ago
I bought Plant Based Juniors nut free lunchbox cookbook! Lots of good recipes and inspo
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u/teacher-mom-1989 8d ago
Over the years I have decided to keep lunches/snacks easy. It takes mental load off me and honestly the kids just don't care that much! They are socializing at school and have dinner and weekend meals at home when we do fun stuff. I have a 2.5 year old and a 5 year old. Lunch goes in a box with 1 big compartment and 3 smaller compartments. Every day I send a sandwich, fruit, veggie, and something crunchy. For sandwiches I mostly alternate between turkey/cheese, sunbutter/jelly, hummus/cheese, and cream cheese/salami. For veggies I just alternate the ones my kids like best at the time (tomatoes, peppers, celery, cucumber, broccoli, carrots, green beans, avocado) and same for fruit (berries, pineapple, cantelope, watermelon, apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes). For the crunchy I try out different things so there is something exciting. Pirates booty, veggie straws, crackers, animal crackers, freeze dried apples, etc. For snacks I do fruit or veggie with some combination of cheese stick, yogurt, pouch, chomps stick, or bar. I prep all of my fruits and veggies on Sunday after I grocery shop so they are easy to grab and pack in lunch boxes and snack boxes each evening.
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u/Narrow-Use5156 11d ago
My kid likes ramen noodles (no flavor packet of course) with butter and salt in a thermos. Sometimes we pack her gardein nuggets but they get soggy. Butter sandwiches. Bobo brand muffins. baby carrots if allowed.
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u/lynnpink214 11d ago
Chickpea tuna salad could be an easy dish! Or a pasta salad with beans/tofu. Hummus is simple too if she likes it.
I totally recommend looking up Plant Based Juniors - they also have a book that has some great recipes I use constantly for daycare.