Even as a toddler, he loved going to the market for strawberries.

In mid-June, the Tiny Kitchen Assistant will be starting a new child care program, one that’s based on the campus of his soon-to-be kindergarten. This presents a new set of lunch challenges.

1. There are no microwaves. For the first time in his life, we won’t be able to heat up last night’s leftovers.
2. Nuts are forbidden because of allergy fears.
3. All lunches must meet the strict “healthy lunch” guidelines of the program.

I’m not terribly worried about #3, because his lunches tend to be reasonably healthy anyway (leftover chicken fingers from weekend lunches notwithstanding). I’m a little bit stymied about what to send. So far, I’ve come up with the following TKA-approved lunches:

• Yogurt, fruit and Puffins cereal (“Puffins are good for munching on without milk”)
• Cheese, crackers and fruit
• Rolled-up deli ham (“it tastes better rolled into tubes”) and fruit

… and that’s pretty much where I get stuck. The good news is that he likes fruit. The bad news is that I don’t really know what to do about protein sources that taste good cold.

Any thoughts from my readers?

Tags: food, fruit, lunch, protein, school

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