Daycare Food Menu Meal Planning Guide
Planning nutritious meals that meet food program requirements and the kids will actually eat can be a daunting task. Check out this daycare food menu meal planning guide for help!
Daycare food menu meal planning guide
The biggest complaint I hear about meal planning is that people are sick of wasting food the kids won’t eat. Of course, there will always be the ultimate picky eater and there’s not a lot we can do about that except be patient and keep trying. But we can plan a great menu that most of our kids will learn to love to eat.
Kids may be used to McDonald’s happy meals and lunchables so it make take a little time to convert them to a fairly healthy eater, but don’t give up hope! If you want a ton of idea for how to help your family and daycare kids learn to like healthy food, check this out.
Daycare menu
Kids like simple food. They’d rather have a cheese stick than a gourmet lasagna. Remember when planning meals, finger foods and simple foods are best. Items like garlic butter pasta, mac and cheese, or just a simple pasta with a meat and a vegetable are kid’s favorites. You can get kids to try a lot of new things if you put them on a pizza.
Some favorites at Little Sprouts are cheese and crackers, cheese quesadillas, ham sandwiches, meatballs with a piece of bread or garlic butter pasta, anything on pasta, chicken and rice, hot pockets, empanadas, tuna casserole, scrambled cheesy eggs, and cottage cheese. I do a lot of raw sides, like apple slices, bananas, oranges, watermelon, peaches, carrot sticks (microwave for one or two minutes for really young eaters), broccoli, cauliflower, sauted cabbage, cucumber slices, roasted asparagus, and things like that.
If you keep introducing these foods to kids and don’t get emotional about it, over time when they see you eating them, they will want to try them. There are more ways you can encourage kids to try new foods such as letting them help prepare them and more.
Childcare menu
The food program or CACFP has requirements for each meal. Those include:
Breakfast
Fluid milk
Fruit or vegetable
Bread (protein is allowed to be substituted for bread up to 3 days a week)
Lunch
Fluid milk
Fruit or vegetable
Another vegetable
Meat
Bread
Snacks
Choose any two
Milk
Meat
Bread
Fruit or vegetable
The food program has other requirements which you can see here.
Daycare breakfast ideas
Some favorite breakfasts here are cereal with fruit and milk, hot cereal like cream of wheat with fruit and milk, sausage biscuits and fruit and milk, pancakes with fruit and milk, toast with fruit and milk, banana bread with fruit and milk and other meals like that.
Proteins could be:
Sausage
Ham
Cheese sticks
Cottage cheese
Eggs
Peanut butter
Breads could be:
Cereal hot or cold
Toast
Biscuits
Pancakes
Waffles
Muffins
Sweet bread
English muffins
Bagels
Breakfast pizza (this could have veggies on it too)
Obviously there are others, but these are some ideas to spark your thought process.
Daycare lunch ideas
For lunch some of our favorites are cheese quesadillas with two veggies and milk, taco soup with a side fruit and milk, ham and cheese sandwiches with two veggies and milk, and cheese and crackers with two veggies and milk.
Fluid milk, as always has to be fluid milk.
Proteins could be:
Nuts
Beans
Cheese sliced
Cheese sticks
Chicken
Fish
Cottage cheese
Eggs
Ham
Turkey
Beef
Pork
Nut butters
Breads could be:
Rice
Cereal
Crackers
Pasta
Pancakes
Biscuits
Muffins
Sweet Breads
Waffles
Buns
Bread
English muffins
Bagels
Tortillas
Pita
Rolls
Daycare snack
Snacks require that you just pick two categories. Some of our favorite snacks are cheese and crackers, peanut butter sandwiches, crackers and fruit, pretzels and fruit and muffins and cheese sticks.
Bread could be:
Pretzels
Crackers
Cereal
Muffins
Toast
Bread
Protein could be:
Cheese slices
Cheese sticks
Nuts
Peanut butter
Ham
Yogurt
Cottage cheese
Fruit and vegetable ideas for the food program
There are such a range of choices available for fruits and vegetables. Use your imagination and change it up sometimes. You’ll enjoy serving and eating so much more if you change it up a bit sometimes.
Fruit for CACFP
Raisins
Bananas
Apples
Oranges
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Grapes
Applesauce
Berries such as blueberries, strawberries and so on
Kiwi
Peaches
Tangerines
Apricots
Pineapple
Papaya
Pears
Grapefruit
Vegetables for CACFP
Butternut squash
Zunnini
Peas
Corn
Green beans
Beans
Carrots
Potatoes
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Brussel sprouts
Cabbage
Sweet potatoes
Tomatoes
Peppers
Cucumbers
Celery
Lettuce
Kale
Spinach
Mushrooms
Obviously these are not an exhaustive list. But just inspiration to give you some ideas of some things you might not have been using that would be healthy, and easy to serve that kids might like. My kids love a great variety of foods, and the more I expose them to new things, the more they will try.
Sample daycare menu
This sample daycare menu can help you come up with ideas of your own, or you can click on the link at the bottom and print it out and use it as is.
Click here for the daily requirements for components such as whole grains, protein, and fruits and vegetables if you want to make up your own menu.
Breakfast
1% milk
Oatmeal
Apple
Lunch
1% milk
Hot turkey sandwich on whole-wheat bread
Green beans
Pears
Snack
Strawberries
Vanilla yogurt
Breakfast
1% milk
Whole-wheat bagel
Blueberries
Lunch
1% milk
Chicken Nuggets, homemade
Brown rice
Garden salad
Cantaloupe
Snack
Broccoli florets
Cottage cheese
Breakfast
1% milk
Waffles
Peaches
Lunch
1% milk
Roast beef
Butternut squash
Fresh pear slices
Snack
Pretzels
Cheddar cheese cubes
Breakfast
1% milk
Wheat Chex
Strawberries
Lunch
1% milk
Bean chili
Whole-corn chips
Sautéed carrots
Snack
Cucumber slices
Whole-grain crackers
Breakfast
1% milk
Scrambled egg
Sweet potato hash
Lunch
1% milk
Roast pork
Corn bread
Roasted red potatoes
Corn
Snack
Triscuits
Cheddar cheese
Breakfast
1% milk
Oatmeal
Orange slices
Lunch
1% milk
Egg salad on whole-grain wrap
Cumber salad
Cherry tomatoes
Snack
Apple slices
Peanut butter
Breakfast
1% milk
Scrambled eggs with cheese
Banana
Lunch
1% milk
Baked fish
Whole-wheat noodles
Steamed broccoli
Carrot sticks
Snack
Carrot sticks
Hummus
Breakfast
1% milk
Cream of Wheat
Banana
Lunch
1% milk
Chicken stir fry with snow peas and cabbage
Brown rice
Oranges
Snack
1% milk
Soft pretzel
Breakfast
1% milk
Bean burrito
Applesauce
Lunch
1 % milk
Meatballs
Spinach
Carrots
English muffin
Snack
Pineapple cubes
Yogurt
Breakfast
1% milk
Pancakes
Mixed berries
Lunch
1% milk
Hamburger
Bun
Strawberries
Beets
Snack
Peanut Butter
Crackers
Breakfast
1 % milk
Whole grain waffles
Bananas
Breakfast
1% milk
Ham
Hashbrowns
Lunch
1% milk
Cheese quesadilla
Tortilla
Applesauce
Cucumber slices
Snack
Bread
Zucchini
Breakfast
1% milk
Oatmeal
Apples
Lunch
1% milk
Ham and Cheese hot pocket
Dough
Lettuce
Grapes
Snack
Crackers
Raisins
Breakfast
1% milk
Sausage biscuit
Watermelon
Lunch
1% milk
Cheese pizza
Pizza crust
Cantaloupe
Pickles
Snack
Applesauce
Cheese stick
Breakfast
1% milk
French toast
Banana
Lunch
1% milk
Beef nachos
Tortilla chips
Tomatoes
Strawberries
Snack
Pretzels
Carrot sticks
Breakfast
1% milk
Cereal
Bananas
Lunch
1% milk
Mac and cheese
Pasta
Corn
Green beans
Snack
Yogurt
Blueberries
Free printable sample menu pdf
Little sprouts learning sample menu
My hope is that this menu set will be a great help to you and you will be able to use and enjoy it with your kids.
If you’re interested in meal planning helps, check out these printable tools.
Don’t forget to pin for later
