Cold Vegetarian Lunches for School

[twoplustwo]

My 10 year is a vegetarian and we are rotating between pb&j sandwiches and wrap with 2 cheese, hummus & avocado.

Throw you main vegetarian dish lunch ideas out at me. She eats plenty of fruits, veg, cheese - side dishes are not a problem. I don't want to make side dishes into main dishes (like carrots and hummus or cheese and crackers) because she has a late lunch at school so she also gets an am snack - so I like to keep my sides as sides for snack and then with the main meal. Though she can't have hummus in the am (no sauces or dips bc its in the classroom, basically I do fruit and /or crackers).

Also, nothing hot. She doesn't like the thermos for lunch. Maybe because its later in the day so its not hot enough. So cold only.

TIA!

[KLin]

What about spring rolls with rice paper or veggie burritos?

[Aerynne]

Pizza rolls were a hit with my dd (yes, even cold). It's like making cinnamon rolls but you use pizza dough and pizza toppings. Then sprinkle some cheese on the top and bake. You'd have to do that the night before or something, or make a big batch to last for awhile. The other kids all thought they were super cool, which was a plus as well.

[mamaKristin]

Just a thermos note - I've had success with my kids by pre-heating the thermos with boiling water, and then putting super hot food in, and it stays pretty hot. If that might be worth trying.

My kids like frittata with cheese, and will eat it cold or hot.
My middle likes salads, with fancy toppings so it's nice and crunchy, and more filling. I send the dressing separately.

[twoplustwo]

Originally Posted by KLin

What about spring rolls with rice paper or veggie burritos?

Oh, I like the spring rolls with rice paper idea! And she loves that kind of food!

Originally Posted by Aerynne

Pizza rolls were a hit with my dd (yes, even cold). It's like making cinnamon rolls but you use pizza dough and pizza toppings. Then sprinkle some cheese on the top and bake. You'd have to do that the night before or something, or make a big batch to last for awhile. The other kids all thought they were super cool, which was a plus as well.

Probably not. Very occasionally she will do cold pizza but usually not. And she won't do cold stromboli.

Originally Posted by mamaKristin

Just a thermos note - I've had success with my kids by pre-heating the thermos with boiling water, and then putting super hot food in, and it stays pretty hot. If that might be worth trying.

My kids like frittata with cheese, and will eat it cold or hot.
My middle likes salads, with fancy toppings so it's nice and crunchy, and more filling. I send the dressing separately.

I do all that with the thermos - the hot water and super hot food. And when we had the earlier lunch it was fine but now with the later lunch she doesnt like it as much. I even do a bigger lunch container so I can keep it seperated from anything that needs to be kept cold, but no luck. I don't know if its the later lunch or she doesn't like it anymore, but Ive done it that way back when I could.

I don't know if she would like frittata cold. WE do quiche with a quinoa crust & she doesn't like that cold so I am guessing not.

Generally, she doesn't like normally hot served food cold.

She really isn't picky on food at all. I think we have just hit the one area where it's a little tougher.

eta: No on salad. She does like salad, but we do salads at home and if its a salad without chicken at school she will order it and tends to get salad burned out if she has too many. And there are only a couple days a month she buy a lunch & I don't want to lose my meatless salad day I dont have to pack (90% of the salads have chicken on them, then there is a taco salad one time - so also a no, and like 1 or 2 salads with egg a month; There are quite a few vegetarian options available, but most of them are not good - they are cafeteria food quality, kwim? they serve pb&j every day but she doesnt like those bc they are the nasty prepackaged smuckers, and she doesnt like the cheese bread, and the grilled cheese is weird and shaped like a . . . fish? I don't know, I suspect its prepackaged and reheated. She will only eat the yogurt parfait (all wednesdays) and cheese pizza (but pizza is only 2 days out of every 3 weeks) and mac n cheese (but that is only 1 time every 3 weeks). There is a pasta with marinara sauce 1 time but it falls on yogurt parfait day).

[ShangriLewis]

Cold noodle or grain salad.
Leftover teriyaki wraps.
Falafel in a flatbread or with a dip.
Vegan lunchbox blog and Instagram have great ideas.

[twoplustwo]

Originally Posted by ShangriLewis

Cold noodle or grain salad.
Leftover teriyaki wraps.
Falafel in a flatbread or with a dip.
Vegan lunchbox blog and Instagram have great ideas.

What do you mean by cold noodle or grain salad? This is a cold asian noodle/cabbage salad that I do & she will take for leftovers. I need more details.

Teriyaki wraps - what are you putting in there?

Falafels!