To ask you to help me with something that's stressing me out a lot... please?

[toddlermealideasplease]

I'm getting unnecessarily stressed about this and I need some ideas, please.

My 20 month old will be starting a new nursery tomorrow thar does not provide meals. I need to take a packed lunch and also something for tea since she will be there until 5pm and not getting home until 5.30 (her usual tea time is 4-4.30pm so she will be starving by then). Only issue is that this place doesn't have a proper kitchen - they have a fridge, kettle and microwave and thats all. Lunch will have to be sandwiches most days. What can I take for her tea, though? With there only being a microwave and no hob pasta will be no good. So I'm thinking i have to take something like tinned beans and sausages / spaghetti hoops etc, and maybe some crackers with cheese spread to go with it. But she can't eat that for tea every time she's there (4 times a week).

Any other ideas, please??

Forgot to mention they provide snacks and fruit etc throughout the day, but just no actual meals.

Can’t they microwave cooked pasta and sauce…basically any leftovers / whatever she normally has, heated up in the microwave?

What does she normally have? Precook it for the mic.

What nursery doesn't provide a hot meal?! How bizarre!

You can buy a food flask and put home cooked food in it... heat it up in the morning and they normally last for about 10 hours... worst case they can always heat up.

I thought about doing that but wasn't sure if things would heat up well... microwaving bolognese is obviously fine but reheating cooked pasta....?? Would it not be really mushy? I've never microwaved pasta before

Slightly undercooked it and mix with sauce, it’ll finish cooking as it reheats - no mush.

How odd! That's hard to organise for all the different children!

Cheese spread on toast
Houmos and veg sticks
Babybel and breadsticks
Ham spread with cream cheese and rolled up.
Celery sticks spread with peanut butter.
Cherry tomatoes and cheese cubes
Cubed chicken and sweetcorn

Anything you've eaten in a little pot to be microwaved?
Porridge?

Reheated pasta is absolutely fine, as is rice, potatoes, couscous

She won't be fussy about whether her pasta is al dente !

Cottage pie, lasagne... anything really.

Personally, I’d provide lunch and snack for later if she’s hungry at 4.30…then give her dinner when she gets home.

Use a thermos to take the hot meal in and ask that's that give you great lunch. Then sandwich later for dinner.

For this I would make a batch of veg soup that she likes.

put it into portions and send in a portion to be microwaved. Serve it with bread and sticks of cheese?

if you didn’t want to over do the bread, maybe switch the lunch for some
crackers or
quiche
pasta salad
ham/cheese/Tuna salad

etc

Personally I would just give her some more snacks to have at 4pm and then give her some tea when you get home at 5.30pm. Just change her mealtime - she’ll get used to it soon enough.

It makes your life a lot easier if your children are flexible with eating times in general as well!

Be careful with rice if you're not there to ensure it is stored and reheated safely. It's one of the major causes of food poisoning.

Frittata
those savoury muffins

All great ideas thank you!

I haven't tried her with pasta salad - she's only ever had pasta hot. I will try her with it as an alternative to sandwiches at lunchtime.

I didn't realise you could put a cooked meal in a thermos all day!

She loves boiled eggs too - could chop those up in her pasta salad.

I'd get a flask and give her warm left overs, etc for lunch them sandwiches for tea time

But, actually, just looking at yihr timings I'd have dinner at home, around 6ish!!

That seems like an awful lot of work for you to be organising lunches and dinners 4 days a week, especially when your options are going to be limited to things that can just be heated in the microwave. I hope that's reflected in their pricing because no way would I have been bothered with that when also getting myself and my child dressed and ready to go each morning.

... I'd change nurseries 🤷🏻‍♀️

@confusedlots

I know it's a nightmare and I could do without it tbh. Basically DD used to be with a childminder with all meals provided, but my childminder has set up (with others) in a little nursery now. The prices are the same per day despite meals now not being included - I'm assuming that's because of the overheads of it being a nursery instead?

Does nursery expect a “tea” or just a snack to tide them over til dinner?

My kids were in nursery (not UK) and they had all meals provided, but it was breakfast about 7.30, morning snack around 10, hot lunch at 12 and then afternoon snack around 3/3.30. This was usually fruit and crackers and cheese etc, but definitely wasn’t a proper meal.

I gave them dinner at home after nursery. Friends in the Uk seem to have a bigger nursery meal around 4ish though.

I use a food warmer at work just plug it in 20 mins before you want to eat
keeps stews mince pasta rice really nice