Cold vegetable salads or other way to pack veggies for kid's lunch?

[Anonymous]

My son's starting preschool in the fall and I will be packing his lunches for the first time. He prefers vegetables over fruits (I can barely get him to eat "any" fruits other than raisins). So I'd like to pack veggies each day. He eats raw carrots and dip easily, and sometimes raw cauliflower and dip. But I'd love any other ideas on sending them to school each day because he'll get tired of these fast. He's in day care now and used to hot veggies at lunch. I guess I could just send his regular steamed veggies in a little thermos or something, but would they stay warm and edible (not mushy or gross) for 4 hours in a thermos?

Anyway, I'd also be especially interested in any cold veggie salads that are a hit with your kids.

TIA.

[Anonymous]

sugar snaps peas are an easy one. green beans or broccoli too. Could also try some canned veggies like chickpeas or maybe corn (never sure if corn still counts as a "vegetable" or not). My little one tends not to like the cooked veggies at lunch, so can't really help there.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I totally forgot about sugar snap peas. He loved those last summer; I'll definitely try those.

I buy bags of frozen veggies, and I wonder if sending a mix of thawed peas, corn, carrots, etc. would be appetizing? He eats them warm or at room temperature, so cool-crisp might work too.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to say, we use beans sometimes too (or beans and rice, if we have leftover rice around)-- black beans, red beans, whatever seems to get the thumbs up.