When I had my first daughter, I didn’t think a whole lot about nutrition. I cared about her getting her veggies and fruits and having well-balanced meals, of course. But I didn’t spend a lot of time really thinking about it. She was a baby. And she pretty much ate everything I put in front of her.

One afternoon, when she was about 18 months old, I gave her a handful of black beans for a snack. It was something she ate regularly – so I was pretty surprised when she flat-out refused to touch them.

“You like those,” I said to her. She just stared up at me with her cute little toddler eyes and pushed them away.

I figured she just needed a change. So I put something else on her high chair tray and moved on. But that was it. That was my first experience with a picky eater.

Next, she refused meat. Her veggies had to be raw. She liked crunchy things – like apples and cucumbers. But mushy stuff? Forget it.

She’s 6 and a half years old now, and is still pretty picky. Since then, I’ve had two other little gals. My middle daughter is basically the exact opposite of my oldest. She eats everything. LOVES meat. Salmon and broccoli is her favourite meal. She’ll try everything at least once.  She makes me feel pretty smug about my parenting.

My youngest is just two and already refuses all meat that doesn’t come in a ball-form. (Bizarre – I know.) She’s kind of a mix of the other two. Loves cucumbers. Eats broccoli. But won’t touch most meats.

I’ve always been the same person, the same parent, to each kid. So I’ve realized that a lot of it comes down to personality. And rather than fight with my kids over food, or lead a ‘You eat this or eat nothing’ kind of lifestyle that just doesn’t seem to work well in our house, I’ve become really focused on making sure the foods that my kids get into them (while maybe not adventurous or super-healthy), are as good and nutritious as we can make them.

So that’s it. That’s where I’ve found a new passion. Helping my kids thrive, without fighting. Letting them try bits and pieces of foods, but being okay with them not eating Quinoa Chickpea Burrito Bowls or Coconut Red Curry.

In comes the school lunches.

Since I have two school-aged kids, I spend a lot of time thinking about, making, packing and obsessing over what they eat all day. I discovered the Yumbox last year and find it works really well for my kindergarten and grade one kids.

Here’s what I packed on this day:

• Cucumber slices
• Orange pepper slices (both with hummus to dip)
• Cut up apple
• Half of a sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) and jam sandwich on fresh raisin bread bought from a local bakery
• Organic sea-salt pretzel sticks

My kids love the hummus dip. They LOVE raisin bread. And I love that most of this food is not processed (or as little processed as possible).

So there it is! My first blog post for Little Humans Eating Healthy about my kids’ lunches. More to come! And if you have any thoughts or comments to add about these or other lunch ideas – we’d love to hear them!