My oldest daughter is about to start kindergarten (just 9 more days! ack!). She has always been a very picky eater and continues to dislike most foods. With our switch to Paleo, her eating has improved greatly and she is now more willing to eat at least a little of a food she doesn’t particularly like. However, I still find myself anxious about just what to send her with to school. She has trouble keeping her blood sugar levels up during the day, so she needs to eat dense carbs, protein and fat every time she eats. My plan is to pack both her snack and her lunch for kindergarten (she is picky enough that even if we did eat the kinds of foods they will serve for the school lunch program, she is unlikely to eat most of them). This morning, we sat down and discussed foods that would be healthy choices that she enjoys cold that she would always eat if I packed them in her lunch. She decided to write them down and make a list that I could refer to when making her lunch. This is what we came up with:
Even though many of these foods have caveats (like she only eats big blueberries and not little ones), I’m actually happy to see as much variety as there is here, especially with protein and fat sources. I will definitely be branching out from this list (and probably also including some little treats like variations on my Chocolate-Date Squares), but I feel much more confident that I will be able to pack her a balanced lunch that she will actually eat that will provide her with good, steady energy throughout the very long kindergarten day. Yay!
Teriyaki-Inspired Poached Salmon
