Feeding Littles Lunches: 75+ No-Stress Lunches Everyone Will Love: Meal Planning for Kids

by Megan McNamee MPH, RDN, Judy Delaware OTR/L, CLC

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 75+ simple and delicious ideas for packed school lunches and snacks for kids of all ages, from the New York Times bestselling authors of Feeding Littles and Beyond.

In a lunch packing rut? Megan McNamee and Judy Delaware, the founders of Feeding Littles, are here to help with the ultimate lunch box resource. Feeding Littles Lunches is complete with 75+ lunches that are quick to assemble, safe and easy for kids of all ages to eat, and balanced in nutrients for growth, learning and play. Each lunch idea is easily modified for nine of the most common allergens and includes tips for picky eaters, plus vegetarian swaps and “I Can’t Even” tips to make lunch packing even easier. Feeding Littles Lunches is not a recipe book because, let’s face it, most parents don’t want to spend hours packing lunches. Rather, it’s an inspo book with a full-page photo for every lunch, meant to be used with your child as a visual reminder for delicious and easy new ideas that you can assemble from simple ingredients.
 
Feeding Littles Lunches also includes a lunch packing formula to help you plan your own lunches, grocery lists, tips for dealing with cafeteria and school settings, picky eating, food safety, and more! With creative and approachable lunches like Chicken Salad with Mini Brioche Toasts, Sun Butter Banana Roll-Up “Sushi-Style,” Build-Your-Own Naan Pizza, Leftover Burger Mini Sliders, Pesto Turkey Wrap Rounds, and more, you’ll bring joy back to lunchtime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593797457
Publisher:	Harmony/Rodale
Publication date:	08/27/2024
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	6,650
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Megan McNamee and Judy Delaware are the founders of Feeding Littles and the New York Times bestselling co-authors of Feeding Littles and Beyond. McNamee is a registered dietitian nutritionist who specializes in maternal/child nutrition, disordered eating prevention, and food sensitivities. Delaware is an occupational therapist who helps children with medical, developmental, and sensory issues learn to eat a wider variety of foods.

Read an Excerpt

Meet Feeding Littles

Many of our clients have told us that packing lunch is one of their least favorite things about parenting.

It’s constant, it’s annoying, and their kids might not eat it anyway. Plus, when we’re uninspired and out of ideas, it can feel really tedious.

Social media doesn’t help either. We see images of gorgeous lunch boxes filled with every color of the rainbow, and we feel like we’re a failure if we don’t follow suit. We know our kids would probably love to find animal shapes complete with candy eyeballs when they open their lunch boxes, but our capacity for that on a daily basis is almost non-existent. We’re either putting in a lot of effort, or we’re doing it “wrong.”

It doesn’t have to be like this, friends. Promise.

We’re Megan and Judy, and as feeding and nutrition professionals, we definitely understand how hard it is to feed kids. Here’s the good news: Packing lunches can be easy when you have a good formula in your head and a bunch of simple ideas at your fingertips. No need to spend a ton of money, time, or effort, and certainly no candy eyeballs involved.

Before we get to these easy lunch ideas, we want to tell you a little bit about ourselves. Judy is an occupational therapist, specializing in feeding therapy and sensory processing, in Louisville, Colorado. Megan is a registered dietitian nutritionist, specializing in maternal/child nutrition and eating disorder prevention, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

We started Feeding Littles in 2014 as a way to bring our professional expertise to the world via social media content and online courses. Today we have the privilege of reaching millions of parents who are seeking nutrition, feeding, and parenting support—without all the judgment typically found online. Our goal is to help families all over the world raise adventurous, intuitive eaters.

While Judy’s kids are young adults who (thankfully) pack their own lunches for work, Megan is still in the throes of packing school lunch most days. Her older daughter was just a year old when Feeding Littles began, and Megan has been sharing lunch box inspo ever since.

The formula has always been pretty straight-forward, independent of kids’ ages: a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and a fruit. Add a dip, chips, or a dessert if you want. Offer simple, easy-to-assemble foods that you can pack in just a few minutes, utilizing leftovers and convenience items.

Don’t make it complicated.

As the Feeding Littles audience grew, so did the appreciation for our lunch content. Our followers loved seeing realistic, easy options that didn’t require specific recipes or hours of prep to put together.

After years of evolving our approach, listening to our audience, and testing out tons of lunch ideas, we finally have a spot to compile all our inspiration and encouragement—and that’s the book you’re reading now. Thank you for supporting our work. We hope this book becomes a beloved resource for your whole family.


From our hearts (and kitchens) to yous, 

Megan and Judy