Our daycare switched their policy this spring: kids over two bring their own lunch now, and the center provides snacks only. Theo and June turned two in early April, which meant I suddenly had two lunchboxes to fill three to five days a week, depending on my schedule. The first week, I made fresh sandwiches every morning at 6:15 a.m. while the coffee brewed and a twin hung on each leg.
That lasted exactly four days.
Here's what I've landed on after a month of trial, error and many lunchboxes coming home untouched.
The rules our daycare has (and yours probably does too)
- No nuts of any kind, including peanut butter. Sunflower seed butter is allowed.
- Grapes and cherry tomatoes must be cut into quarters.
- Food should be okay at room temperature or in an insulated box with an ice pack. They don't reheat.
- Everything labeled with the kid's name. Even the lids.
Check with your own center, and if you have questions about choking hazards or portions for your kid, your pediatrician is the person to ask.
My packing system
I pack lunches the night before, right after the twins go down around 7:30. It takes about 15 minutes for both. I use divided bento-style containers because the twins will eat almost anything if it's in a little compartment, and they will refuse everything if foods are touching. Toddlers are like tiny food critics with strong opinions about borders.
Each box gets roughly the same formula:
- One protein
- One carb
- One fruit
- One vegetable (optimistic)
- One "safe" food they always eat, so they're never hungry
The safe food was the game changer. For Theo it's plain crackers. For June it's cheese, in any form. If everything else comes home, at least I know they ate something.
A real week of lunches
This is what went into the boxes last week. Nothing fancy, and most of it came out of my Sunday prep.
| Day | Main | Sides | What came home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Mini turkey and cheese roll-ups | Quartered grapes, cucumber rounds, crackers | Cucumber (both) |
| Tuesday | Leftover pasta with butter and parmesan | Steamed peas, strawberries | Half the peas |
| Wednesday | Sunflower butter and jam pinwheels | Banana slices, shredded carrot, yogurt tube | Nothing, a miracle |
| Thursday | Egg muffins (spinach and cheese) | Blueberries, pretzel sticks | June's egg muffin |
| Friday | Black bean and cheese quesadilla triangles | Mango chunks, bell pepper strips | Most of the bell pepper |
My mom has the twins on Wednesdays, but they go to daycare for half a day first, so Wednesday still gets a lunchbox.
The egg muffins everybody asks about
These are my Sunday workhorse. Whisk 8 eggs with a splash of milk, a handful of chopped spinach, and a cup of shredded cheese. Pour into a greased muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, until set in the middle. Cool completely and store in the fridge for up to four days. You get 12, which covers two lunches for two kids plus a couple for Dan to grab on his way out to an early service call.
Things that never work for us
- Anything with sauce on the side. Dipping sounds fun. In reality, it ends up on the teachers.
- Soft sandwiches made the night before. Soggy by lunch. Roll-ups and pinwheels hold up much better.
- Brand-new foods. I try new things at home on weekends first, when I'm there to see what happens. The lunchbox is for foods they already know.
What it costs
I tracked it for a couple of weeks and it came out to roughly $2 to $2.50 per lunch per kid, most of which is fruit (berries are expensive, and the twins eat them like candy). Buying cheese in blocks and shredding it myself and buying big tubs of yogurt instead of tubes helped a bit. It's not nothing, but it's much less than I feared.
The honest part
Some days a lunchbox comes home nearly full, and I have to remind myself that toddler appetites go up and down, and that one bad lunch doesn't mean anything. The teachers say they eat much better when they sit next to their friends, which is humbling for someone who spent 20 minutes cutting grapes into quarters.
If you have a genius toddler lunch idea, I'm all ears. My current rotation could use some fresh blood.
