13month old and childminers - FOOD?

[Abz1982]

My DS goes to a child minder 5 days a week whilst I work. Up until now he has been on jar food whilst there, as its easiest for the Childminder I think. But I do want to change this as a) He cannot eat in one sitting a full jar or 10 month food and she cant store it till the next day.
b)He really should in my mind be feeding himself more. I give him finger foods and let him feed himself when he is at home. He has 8 teeth and is pretty keen to use them so doesn't have any trouble - he demolished a slice of roast beef a few weeks ago - ripped it to shreds and devoured it like a nutter!

So anyone with kids at childminders, what do you send with them food wise? OH thinks it will be a faff to send a packed lunch every day, so I am thinking of a weekly one of some frozen things that can be reheated. She cannot cook the food for him from scratch as she would require a cert for her kitchen or something, but she can give him what I send.

He has breakfast, lunch and a small dinner there. (it cant be helped, have to drop them at 7am and collect at 6pm) I feel that after we collect them is too late for a big meal so maybe if they have 2 dinners - a light one with the childminder and then I will have something I can knock together for them.

So I need Ideas. DD was easy as she was at the nursery which provided food. It also has to be on a budget as I am already spending £500 a week on the childcare as it is

 

[missk1989]

What about chicken strips with peas and sweetcorn? swap chicken for fish fingers. mini pizzas have always been a big hit. a chunky stew that can be picked up with fingers. Have you given him a spoon to use? You can make batches of anything like cottage pie or bolognese/chilli that he could eat.

 

[zorak]

I'd do a packed lunch that can be quickly reheated. Maybe buy some convenient Tupperware. I have to give my LO his dinner shortly after we get home. I don't have time to cook then so he has what we had the night before and I just add the veg .

 

[zorak]

Also since your baby is having pretty much all its meals there I'd really try and stick to normal breakfast, lunch and dinner foods .

 

[MindUtopia]

For breakfast, you could do the same sorts of things you might do at home (what do you do on the weekends?). Toast or even just bread with spreads (hummus, nut butter, just butter, mashed banana), yogurt, porridge (you can do the instant kind at home and then just send it to heat up), cereal either plain or with milk, pieces of fruit. We often do a sandwich for lunch (cheese and onion, egg and mayo, chicken, just plain cheese, hummus, etc.). You could have this will yogurt or a piece of fruit to make a full meal. For a light dinner, our nursery often does 'tea' around 4pm, which is more of a big snack, so sometimes they do sandwiches (maybe not if that was already for lunch), crackers/breadsticks/etc. with dips (hummus, cream cheese, etc.), pieces of cheese or sliced meats, cucumber sticks, toast with various spreads. You could also just package up whatever you had for dinner the night before yourself and send the next day for lunch or dinner. Usually our daughter's dinner (even if she had her 'tea' at nursery) is the dinner we had the night before. You could also save extra to be frozen for later in the week too. All that should be perfectly fine for a 13 month old to eat. We were offering it all from about 6 months with no problem.