Do you have a daughter or son who attends preschool? Find it hard thinking of what to prepare for his/her snack? If you say YES to these questions then you are not alone. You know, my 4 year old is already on her second year in preschool. However, I still worry about what to put in her snack bag. The main reason that brings this perplexing situation is her being picky when it comes to food. Yeah, sounds pretty normal for young kids but aside from that, she is also allergic to chicken and egg. Most of all, my husband does not allow our daughter to eat anything and everything with pork. This is why I need to be very creative with her everyday baon, considering the factors that they must be healthy, delicious and something that she'll really enjoy eating during recess.
What my daughter had for snack yesterday.. pizza bread and fruit yogurt.
Homemade Pizza Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
two pieces of white bread
tomato sauce
beef salami, sliced thinly
cheddar cheese
any quick melting cheese
Preparation:
-Spread tomato sauce on bread.
-Top it with salami and shredded cheddar cheese, lastly with your choice of quick melting cheese.
-Put the the bread in the oven. Bake for 3 minutes or until cheese melts.
-Slice into small pieces and serve. For the baon, slice the bread, put in a container then let it cool for a short while before sealing.
More Baon Ideas for My Preschooler
1. Cake/ cupcake/ muffin/ bread/ biscuit/ cookies. These are the things that I either prepare myself or buy from the grocery store.
-regular pancake
-chocolate pancake
-pancake with cheese
-vanilla cupcake
-cheese cupcake
-chocolate muffin
-mango muffin
-blueberry muffin
-regular toast
-garlic toast
-French toast
-banana bread
-bread sticks
-cheese sticks
-Skyflakes biscuits
-Fita biscuits
-Eggnog
-coconut biscuits
-oatmeal cookies
-choco chip cookies
-butter cookies
2. Fruit Juices and Other Drinks. I always buy 100% juice for my daughter. I seldom buy artificial juices for her. Frankly speaking, I'd rather give her water than buy her a sugar-loaded Zest-O.
-apple juice
-pineapple juice
-kiwi juice
-vegetable juice mix
-yogurt drink
-ayran (Turkish yogurt drink made from a mixture of plain yogurt, water and salt)
-Yakult
-water
3. Fruit of the Day. My daughter's snack bag most of the time contains one kind of fruit and anything from #1 and #2. I like fruits a lot because they are easy to prepare. I just wash, peel and slice them into bite size pieces and they're good to go.
-banana
-strawberry
-apple
-orange/ ponkan
-grapes
-tomato
-mango
4. Vegetable. There's only one kind of vegetable that she eats for snack and that's cucumber. I peel a small cucumber, remove the seeds and slice them into sticks. She loves it!
5. Yogurt. Being half Turkish, my daughter doesn't have problem eating yogurt as snack while other kids would complain it's sour or smelling funny. I normally buy fruit yogurt in the grocery and combine it with my homemade plain yogurt to come up with a less sweeter mixture. Sometimes, I simply bring out the plain yogurt from the fridge then top it with small slices of fresh fruit.
-strawberry yogurt
-mango yogurt
-mixed berry yogurt
-plain yogurt
As you can see, chips, candies, and chocolates are not included in my list. Although I have a picky-eater, I consider myself lucky that my daughter isn't used to eating junk food. For example, give her a lollipop candy and she'll lick it for seconds then give it back to you. How about other sweets? Of course she loves chocolates and marshmallows and ice cream. I just don't allow her to eat too much. Once in a while, she would request for a chocolate drink, chocolate mallows or a candy bar and I give in. At home, I have jar filled with different kinds of sweets which we collected from parties and freebies waiting.
In any case, I am looking for more choices as my daughter's baon for school. She might have lunch instead of snack for next school year, too. I am excited thinking of bento lunches for her. I started collecting bento materials 2 years ago and use them rarely. By next year, I hope to practice my bento techniques and create not only kawaii but healthy lunches for my daughter. So if you have any suggestions when it comes to school snack or packed lunch, please feel free to comment them below.