I've cooked for so many picky eaters over the years. I cooked professionally for 14 years, and kids and adults would like a lot of people have a lot of feelings about food. So I think that the more knowledge you have up your sleeve about how to accommodate people who might have anxiety around food, it'll make your life a lot easier no matter who you are.

1) Turkey and Cheese Roll-Ups with Grapes

This is great. I've made some versions of this so many times, and you can go so many different directions with it. Ham is great.

If you wanna just do a couple of different kinds of cheese. If your picky eater is OK with vegetables, just a little bit of lettuce or tomato. Grapes are awesome.

A peeled orange can also work.

2) Mini Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches

Everybody loves croissants. You can also do a nice whole wheat bread if your kids are OK with that, or any sort of bread that you might be able to get from your local bakery can really change the game. And also, you'll have some nice bread around for when you wanna make yourself a snack.

3) Peanut Butter Banana Tortilla Roll-Ups

Peanut butter, my favorite food. You can do peanut butter. You can also do peanut butter and jelly.

You can do peanut butter and jelly and banana.

For those of us who are or have lived on the East Coast, you could do peanut butter and fluff, which is a spreadable marshmallow, although that does have a lot of sugar, so maybe you don't wanna give your kid that. And apple slices are always great. Or the apple slices could go on the roll-up.

4) Ham and Cheddar Biscuit Sandwiches

This one, you could put turkey and cheddar; you can do bacon and cheddar. I know a lot of kids don't really like mustard, so maybe that's something you wanna skip.

5) Pita Triangles with Hummus and Cucumbers

One good way to keep cucumbers crisp throughout the school day is to slice them thin, toss them with a little bit of salt, and that should help.

6) Homemade Pizza Quesadilla Wedges

You could also do a few little crumbles of sausage. Add some cheddar cheese with the mozzarella. Or maybe a little cup of marinara if you happen to have that around for dipping.

7) Chicken Ranch Crackers and Cheese Cubes

You could also make a little chicken salad instead. So take the cooked chicken, toss it with some mayonnaise and celery; maybe skip the onions if this is for picky kids. They probably don't wanna eat that.

But you can make a nice little chicken salad that will go on top of crackers quite well.

8) Mini Corn Dog Muffins with Apple Slices

If your kids will allow it, you could totally sneak in a little bit of fresh corn into the cornbread mix and some cheese, so then they're getting a little bit of vegetables in there.

9) SunButter and Jelly Sandwich Dippers

I love SunButter. It's one of the best things ever. I don't know.

When I was a kid, I used to like putting potato chips on my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches back then, but I would recommend packing them with potato chips, 'cause potato chips on peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and jelly are amazing.

10) Turkey Meatballs with Marinara Dip

This looks great, and you could totally make the meatballs ahead and freeze them. You can freeze them and then take them out the night before you pack them for lunch. That would be great, and then you would have a lot of stuff done ahead of time.

11) Cheesy Broccoli and Ham Pinwheels

You can definitely use Tortilla or turkey in this too. And the broccoli you can steam. I usually, the way I steam veg is just to get a plain old pot with that Pazzo lid, chop everything small, throw it in the pot, and then just throw a couple tablespoons, or a quarter cup, of water in there.

I put the lid on top; it'll steam real quick. You don't need to bother with a whole steam setup.

12) Chicken and Cheese Taquitos

You could add cream cheese to this, and it will have a creamy texture. And you could also use shredded pork.

13) Cinnamon Apple Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Another way to keep the bread from getting too soggy is if you wanna toast it first and then let it cool down before you put on the peanut butter. That will dry it out a little bit in the toaster, so it will be less likely to get soggy.

14) Mini Bagel Pizzas with Pepperoni

You can also do the same kind of vibe as this but with pita bread, and then you would want to cool it, and you can cut it into four slices. I've seen that work pretty well.

And carrot slices work great too. I like to chop those, or not chop them, slice them thin on a mandolin, and then put them in water in the refrigerator, and then they stay nice and crisp.

15) Cream Cheese Cucumber Sandwiches

For a better texture, you can pat the cucumber dry, but I would also recommend that you toss it in a little bit of salt first and then put it in a colander over a bowl or something; that'll pull a lot of the moisture out, and it also adds flavor to the sandwiches. That will keep the texture and keep the cucumbers a little more crunchy.

16) Mild Chicken Taco Cups

You can also do the same concept with puff pastry. You can buy it in the freezer section at the grocery store and just cut it into squares. They don't need to be exactly the size of the muffin tin, but when you push them into the muffin tin, they'll kind of splay out a little bit at the top, and as they bake, they puff up.

Those are quite good. They don't keep super well, but if you're planning on eating them that day, highly recommend. Made puff pastry cups full of all sorts of different things, so they're really versatile.

A really versatile item that you can use for different things depending on what your kids are gonna want to eat.

17) Sausage-and-Cheese Breakfast Muffins

If your kids are gluten-free, you can skip the flour in this. Have the sausage cooked and just mix the eggs with a little bit of heavy whipping cream, and then make sure you grease the muffin tins, but pour the eggs straight into the muffin 10 and, then add the sausage and the shredded cheddar on top and bake that.

And then you have a nice little protein bomb that you want to eat the same day. That's not a make-ahead situation cause they get a little weird if you have cooked egg just sitting around. But if you're looking for something easy and quick to do ahead in the morning, it can be a really good one.

Keep reading

• How to Make School Lunch Easier for a Picky Eater
• Healthy Snacks Kids Will Actually Grab
• School Lunches Kids Can Open and Eat on Their Own