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??

Oh yes long-term I’d definitely be looking to move her to a nursery with meals included. Way too much stress and hassle on top of working full time.

This is how I used to fit in an instant hot meal when they got home from nursery. Still do it now, all teens/young adults, everyone needing a meal at different times.

I have older DC, dashing straight from school, college to various sports and activities, -sometimes not home until 10.30pm. Often eating in the car between drop-offs - food flasks are great. They have pasta (with pesto or various tomato based sauces and grated cheese on the top), butter chicken and rice, risotto, macaroni cheese, chilli, jacket potato and beans, lasagne and sweetcorn, cottage pie and carrots etc. All keep well for about 4 hours, so I would ak for that to be given at lunch and then prepare a small sandwich/snack box for nursery tea. Dinner at home and leftovers in food flask next morning. If your DD is happy with her childminder, I wouldn't move her just because of the food arrangements. It'll soon becone routine.

*become

A nursery like that will basically not provide hot food. Even if you send in with a flask of hot food they are not going to guarantee to heat it up. You just need to make sure that your child gets hot food in the evening.

The point of the flask is that it won’t need heating, it’ll be warm and can just be given to her to have for lunch.

How is this going to work with food hygiene?

Eating own meal from lunchbox fine. But reheating- who is going to check temperature is hot enough, and then check it is cool enough to consume. What about allergy transfer, will the microwave been cleaned between meals.

If a child gets food poisoning is that because of incorrect storage, incorrect heating?

I would also go for a food flask - remember to preheat it by rinsing it out with boiling water. I have one from Klean Kanteen that has a silicone divider - if your meal doesn't fill the flask, it stops the air at the top from making it colder.
I'd go for leftovers, soup, pasta, and when it gets warmer you can send pasta salad, sausage rolls etc.
I would not send pasta pouches or similar made for adults because they are very salty for a toddler.
You can make up everything the night before and just heat the meal in the morning.