Food Ideas for Daycare

If you don't mind spending about 30 minutes on a Sunday assembling meals for the week, you'll find that you can make a great variety of healthy, nutritious food that your son will enjoy.

I would make cups that consisted of whole grain rice or pasta, finely ground turkey or shredded chicken/pork, assorted frozen veggies, and a sauce. With these simple ingredients you can make a ton of different meals:

-spanish rice, taco meat, corn or mexi-veggies
-brown rice, chicken, green beans, gravy
-pasta, ground turkey, broccoli, marinara sauce
-pasta, shredded chicken or pork, mixed veggies, italian dressing

Get creative and the combos are limitless! Continue to include the fresh fruit and you have a wonderfully balanced meal for your child. You have the opportunity to switch things up, introduce different grains/veggies/meats, and really expand his palate.

The best part? You do all of this in one afternoon and then during the week when you're busy and tired from working, you come home and pop it in the microwave. The daycare providers will love the ease of these simple meals too.

Good luck!

Nobody beats Annabel Karmel for great baby/kid recipe ideas. I also just discovered weelicious. These should go a long way to helping with your dilemma. Also, websites like these help us feed our kids w/ a lot less stress while also helping us not to just throw a bunch of processed foods, cheese and crackers at them. Enjoy!

http://www.annabelkarmel.com/

http://weelicious.com/

I'm right there with you on this dilemma! My daughter is 18 months old and I go through the same thing. So it is great to read other comments to your post as well. But for me, these are the things that I have done.
Before my daughter decided that she did not like meat, (which makes meals even harder to figure out), I use to cut up some lunch meat and cheese chunks for lunch. Now, I do grilled cheese sandwiches. Both of these can be prepared beforehand. She will eat the grilled cheese at room temp. Also, I pack oatmeal and a piece of bread
(English muffin or toast) for breakfast. But this can easily be her lunch too, along with fruit. Finally, something that she does not usually get to go, but sometimes has, is that I pack hummus with pita chips or crackers for her to dip into.
Love the idea of prepared mac and cheese and stuff like that. I will definitely be buying these items to send along with her too!

not sure if you can have things heated, but the best thing is to just make a bit extra of dinner and give him some of that the next day.

Otherwise you can check out my daycare menu online
http://www.freewebs.com/tarastoyland/menu.htm

My daughter does not go to daycare but my husband is always looking for the easy things to make for her. She also hates the Gerber Graduates (including the cups). She loves beans wrapped in a tortilla. He then cuts them in thirds for her to easily eat. She also likes ham so I get ham from the deli cut in 1/4 inch thick slices. Then I cut it at home and mix it with peas and chopped carrots-cooked of course. She loves these. I also sometimes add a little shredded cheese. She likes crackers with peanut butter so she sometimes has these for a snack, though paired with fruit could make a lunch.

I have been where you are and I understand your dilemma. I have a 17 month old now, so it's getting easier. You said your son doesn't like the Gerber Graduates. Fortunately, my son loved the little ravioli's that gerber sells. I don't know if you've tried them. They aren't the meals in a tray, they are in a small cup. They are pretty bland and they can pick 'em up and feed themselves which is what they want to do! I also sent fruit cups (peaches/pears). He also love Mac 'n Cheese. It's probably not considered "healthy" but it's easy to pack, especially the Kraft brand which comes in the microwavable cup. Also, I would send veggies (green beans were a hit). My son liked scrambled eggs. So I would prepare them and send them in tupperware.
Good luck, I know it's hard to keep 'em fed, when you're not the one feeding them!

Ham with cheese rolled up in it.
yogurt
cottage cheese
cheese cubes or string cheese
crackers with cheese and pepperoni slices
cry cereal like cheerios
pb&j sandwiches or tortillas w/the same rolled up
tortillas with ham and cheese rolled up
tortillas with spag sauce and pepperoni slices
fruit cups
left over chicken breast cut into cubes
pasta with sauce like macaroni or shells so he can pick them up....small amount of sauce so they aren't as messy