First, none of my kids here seem to eat casseroles of any kind. I LOVE casserole, myself, and I love to make it up ahead of time. I am devoting too much time to lunch preparations because pretty much anything I make ahead gets rejected.

Does anyone have some kid approved ideas for make ahead meals? So far, Lasagna is the only one that they eat that I have made ahead of time.

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Mine love tator tot hotdish and wild rice hotdish

Other favorites are speghetti pie and ham/cheese/hashbrown hotdish.

When I have a group of really picky eaters, I tend to stay with "Luncheable" type foods. Easy finger foods like fresh veggies and dip, cubed turkey, ham or salami, boiled eggs, cheese sticks etc.... If they can use their hands to eat it, it is usually well received.

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I agree with stuff with dip. Most kids if you give them some "dip" they will eat anything it seems.

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None of mine will eat any type of casserole. I love casseroles but no one in my family will eat them either.

My menus lean towards spaghetti, quesadillas, grilled cheese, hot dogs, smoked pork chops, ham, tostadas, chicken tenders, or left over meat from the night before along with noodles and a veggie. Mine love noodles and rice, but not mixed with anything else.

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Make your own anything....salad, pizza, quesadillas, tacos, roll ups, cracker sandwiches. Kids seem to compete as to who can make the craziest and tend to try more veggoes that way.
I also like to slip veggies in anything i can for the picky eaters so i get a good mix of veggoes in the food processor and then mix into my meatballs or my marinara sauce.

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The more work I put into meals are the most snubbed. I feel for you, especially when you think they'll love it. I've done ham and cheese roll ups with crescent rolls that were well received. I'm trying spaghetti tomorrow. My 2 year son loved cowboy casserole which is a tater tot hot dish but opposite, corn instead of peas, cheese and sour cream mixed into the meat mixture and crispy crowns instead of tater tots, I might try it for daycare. Because it's winter I was also thinking of trying some hearty soups because I think some crockpot meals would free up some time for me.

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My dck's will not eat casseroles. And it stinks because I would love to serve hot healthy meals.
I tried serving grilled chicken one day and they called it "dirty" chicken (due to grill marks) and no one would eat it

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I do a lot of plain proteins that can be dipped, paired with a grain, veggie and fruit. I also let the kids help menu plan and tell everyone "oh this is Susie's meal choice today!" that helps some!

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My dck won't eat anything. I think they live on bologna sandwiches, white bread, ramen noodles, hot dogs, anything packaged and disgusting. The only thing I've found that they all will eat is tacos and grilled cheese. Also I second the diy lunchables with wheat thins, sliced cheese, fresh veg and dip. I'd like to add that many of my dck who have these poor eating habits get excessive amounts of sugar filled beverages at home (even the 16 mo only "likes" chocolate milk). They are also the kids that have a hard time going bm and have to take laxatives and are often sick with a cold that my own children never seem to catch. I mostly just serve what I want my own family to eat and they can choose to eat it or not.

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I guess I am lucky because my dcks will eat most of what I put in front of them. Favourites lately are soups and stews, which is perfect because I am on a crock pot kick lately.

Also:
chicken parm
homemade mac and cheese w/butternut squash
turkey nuggets

They are all very easily reheated.

All reheat very easily

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mmmmmm! I want to eat at your house!

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Reading this makes me feel lucky for my current group of eaters.

Some of our favorites:

*Grilled cheese & tomato soup
*Cheese, chicken and black bean quesadilla
*Salad (Romaine lettuce, spinach, shredded chicken, cucumbers, carrots and croutons) with garlic bread and fruit
*Turkey sausage, brown rice, green beans and fruit
*Pinto beans and rice
*Home made lunch able
*Homemade mac and cheese
*Penne pasta, marinara with green peppers and mushrooms, turkey meatballs and side salad

All of these are easy to make quickly or reheat well. I really don't make casseroles as many call for cheese and two of the kids here are dairy free.

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Here is my daycare menu. I have no idea how to post a picture that doesn't have a URL so I copy and pasted from a word doc which is why it looks weird! My snacks are in here too. A great resource is weelicious.com For organization sake I try and have the daycare menu coincide with my family dinner menu. I just make extras.

Meatballs, rice & peas
Cashews and oranges
Cucumber & carrot
Spaghetti
Orange date muffin
Banana
Salmon and brown rice veggie noodles
Crackers & hummus
Chicken, quinoa and broccoli
Apple slices & sunbutter
Eggs & toast
Yogurt & Berries
Cheesy Quesadilla & salsa
Banana rollup
Pretzels & Blueberries
Hummus & breadsticks with cucumbers and tomatoes
Veggies Straws
Grapes
Chicken, potato & carrot
Rice cake with peanut butter
French toast with blueberry sauce
Ginger snaps & oranges
Tuna sandwich & tomato soup
Fruit smoothie

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On Monday when everyone was back and we started back into routine I did a quick circle time, spur of the moment, about eating healthy and choosing good food. I told them we all needed to eat healthier, me included, and that doing so would make us feel healthier and happier and it would make our body poop easily (nothing preschoolers like more than relating thing back to poop) Then we discussed what foods were classified as healthy and I introduced pictures of foods I want us to try over the next while.

So far this week, lunches have been a hit. Plates weren't necessarily cleared but new things were tried and old dishes revived.

Monday we had quesedillas with chicken, cheese and peppers with sour cream and salsa. On the side was celery and cucumbers with hummus and melon and pineapple. We've had quesedillas before but I don't usually bother to add more than cheese or serve sour cream & salsa with it. My good eaters ate everything and my picky ones ate more than I expected and tried everything offered

Tuesday we did breaded tilapia, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, cauliflower and corn plus raspberries & blueberries on the side. My pickiest child decided he did like broccoli and cauliflower. He couldn't swallow the potatoes (texture issue) but he tried a bite and he ate everything else

Wednesday was a favorite meal because it was quick and we had playgroup in the morning. We had peanut butter and jam sandwiches, peppers, carrots and grape tomatoes with hummus again (kids choice!) plus grapes and apples.

Today we had pasta with a homemade meat sauce that was loaded with pureed and chopped veggies, a garden salad, garlic bread and then clementines on the side. The salad was well received and they polished off everything else.

I'm not sure what tomorrow's lunch will be, maybe pancakes with sausages, yogurt and fruit on the side.

Next week I know we're having chicken-tortellini vegetable soup one day, a pork roast with roasted root vegetables another day and chicken parmesan a third day.

What's impressed me most is the conversation at the lunch table about healthy food, making choices (kids like to share the choices they've made at home, lol) and how good we feel already.

I'm not one to serve KD or hotdogs but over the last few months I got lazy and definitely have not put the effort into meals as I'd like or that I'm proud of. Fingers crossed we are successful with this for longer than 2 weeks, lol

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