Cedar Approved Healthy School Lunch Food

My eight year old Cedar is actually a fan of healthy food. Like most kids he likes to splurge, but most of the time he chooses to eat healthy. Example: Yesterday we were at the store and I said, “What should we have for dinner?” Cedar says, “Can we have steamed carrots, steamed broccoli, and organic french fries with ketchup?” I kid you not. This is a kid who’ll ask for sliced red bell peppers and applesauce for breakfast.

Am I just lucky? Maybe. I’ve gone with no force feeding since Cedar was born and he was raised vegetarian. It likely helps that I’m always spouting off about organic benefits too. Who knows though. The downside is that he’s also way picky. While he’ll eat any veggies in sight I have trouble getting him to eat typical kid stuff – PB&Js, mac n cheese, pizza, deli meat sandwiches (because he says NO meat), and so on, so choices for packed lunches are limited. In any case, here are some healthy school lunch picks that Cedar actually approves of.

Healthy foods that can go into reusable baggies or containers that Cedar will actually eat:

• Any raw sliced veggie or fruit. You can mix it up by spreading organic peanut butter on celery, or including a low-fat veggie dip too. Sometimes I’ll steam veggies for him, but he has access to a microwave at his school, if your child doesn’t steamed veggies don’t taste as good cold. I also sometimes send frozen berries like blueberries or raspberries – they thaw a little by lunchtime. Cedar likes raw citrus fruit like sliced lemons, which sounds odd, but lots of kids like them and they make a good desert.
• Santa Cruz Organic Fruit Sauces or other organic applesauce.
• Homemade organic pudding.
• Leftover pancakes.
• Homemade cornbread or muffins. I add flax to make them healthier and we always use reusable muffin liners.
• Smoothies like the Organic Halloween Smoothie – if you have a stay cold container, like the one that comes in some reusable lunch kits you can send a smoothie to school.
• Homemade Organic Fruit Snacks – if we don’t have time to make fruit snacks we’ll buy Stretch Island products, which are healthier than other commercial fruit snacks, but the packaging sucks.
  
• Bagel with organic cream cheese. If your child doesn’t like cream cheese try organic jam or a slice of regular cheese.
• Pita bread with hummus or PB&J for other kids.
• Whole wheat cereals and crackers. Most can be found in bulk.
• Granola. Cedar likes the vanilla cherry granola we buy in bulk, but they have lots of types at any grocery bulk section. You can also try trail mix (Cedar won’t eat it, but most kids will).
• Cooked noodles or brown rice with veggies.
• Cubes of organic cheese.
• Almonds or organic soy nuts.
• Tortilla and cheese – again, Cedar has a microwave to cook his. Some kids like them cold though. Really you can put lots of stuff on tortillas.
• Homemade or organic bought cookies – Cedar won’t eat many sweets but he likes lemon cookies or Newman-O’s which unlike Oreos have zero Partially Hydrogenated Oils and Trans-Fatty Acids

Packaged stuff Cedar likes: I don’t love these items because they’re one, packaged, and two, not as healthy as other whole food type items, but we sometimes keep them on hand…

Organic Just Raspberries – Cedar LOVES these. I don’t see how freeze dried fruits are better than fresh fruit, although they are more portable, but since I won’t buy store bought fruit snacks, and since his school banned high fructose corn syrup, these are a decent alternative. Just Healthy Products also makes just veggies and other just fruits.

Organic Apple Cobbler Cereal Bars

YoKids Organic Yogurt Squeezers – I HATE the packaging on these. I try to send organic yogurt in reusable containers instead, (I buy a large container) but sometimes Cedar wants these. We wash the tubes and recycle them.

Of course I always send a huge reusable bottle of water.

Later I’ll try to post some other organic and healthy ideas that go beyond what Cedar will eat. Your kids might be willing to try something new.

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