Sometimes Dylan takes the cake... or quite honestly just give him the icing.
Give him a cupcake and he only wants frosting. He'll leave that cake behind. Show up at Chick-Fil-A and wants JUST A BUN with NO chicken. If he's living large, he puts ketchup on his otherwise naked bun. He is probably in the top 1% of picky eaters. Like Jack Sprat, Dylan is currently a vegan of sorts by his choice, not my insistence. His favorite lunch options would be cheese pizza, bean burritos, pasta w/pesto or red sauce and lo mein. He is not a fan of sandwiches, even peanut butter.
This started becoming an issue because he's in a school with no cafeteria. Faced with the task of packing a daily school lunch for a very picky eater has left me feeling like I'm, well, out to lunch myself at times.
Given these issues I consider:
(A) Packing things that look good and are nutritionally savvy, like the things I prepare for my husband and me for dinner most nights. His little lunch would be the envy of any home cook, but I know full well Dylan won't eat one bite.
(B) Pack things I know he will eat of little to no nutritional value. This would lead the teacher and anyone else who can read a food label to question what kind of crap I am feeding my child. (This is even worse because I'm a fitness nut and in the last few years have learned a lot about what I consider good and bad foods.)
(C) Find some compromise-- thanks to this snazzy thing called the Laptop Lunch. It's an insulated lunchbox (those who know their Japanese culture -- think of a bento box for kids). It has five individual plastic containers great for holding his lunch (see picture below). So now I can easily pack 2 sections of fruit, popcorn and tortilla w/butter or hummus. It's a greener choice eliminating the need for Ziploc bags and disposable packing that holds foods that probably fall into the "crap" description from letter B. Reusable plastic containers are easy to clean and are in bright Lego-like colors. It even has a water bottle which helps keep cold stuff cold. What's best is that I can put "real" juices or smoothies (loaded with protein powder) in the bottle without relying on juice boxes -- which will end up right in the landfill.
See below:
(Photo courtesy of http://www.laptoplunches.com/)
It even comes with recipe ideas.
At least I have some faith that Dylan will not starve and the teacher won't have to inform Child Protective Services that she has a parent who packs only red icing in her son's lunch every day.