Get Your Child to Eat the Things that Normally go to Waste

Does your child come home from school with a full lunchbox? Do you usually waste the end pieces of your bread? Here are three tricks that I tried, used, and were successful for a period of time (when my daughter was about seven and/or eight):

1. If your child has been packed peanut butter and jelly, but hasn't been eating it, it could be because the jelly made the bread soggy (by soaking through it). The solution: line BOTH pieces of bread with peanut butter, and then put the jelly between the two pieces of bread. The peanut butter should prevent the jelly from soaking through the bread. If the problem is that your child does not like crust, simply cut the crust off! There are even sandwich-cutters, that have different shapes (similar to cookie-cutters, but for sandwiches).
2. If your child still won't eat his/her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after trying trick number one, try packing a hot dog. Most packages of hot dogs are fully cooked already (make sure your package says that before packing it), and put a packet of ketchup in his/her lunch (save those extra packets that fast-food restaurants hand you). Some kids won't eat the hot dog simply because they didn't have a condiment for it, so don't forget that ketchup, mustard, or even barbecue sauce!
3. When you are making food such as hamburgers, sloppy Joe's, and/or hot dogs, but you do not want the buns for those things to get soggy (from the condiments), toast the buns! This makes the bread slightly harder, and sturdier, and therefore, the sauce/condiments are much less likely to soak through the bread! Problem is solved.
4. What happens to those end pieces of your loaves of bread? Many people do not like them, but what if you could trick your child AND possibly your spouse? If they like grilled cheese, then butter the regular sides of the end pieces, and put cheese on top of the side that is recognizable as "the end piece," and put the sandwich together (basically, make it an "inside-out" sandwich, and they might not even realize that they are eating the end pieces). If your family does not like grilled cheese, you could simply make it into French toast (a young child probably wouldn't notice, but your spouse might).
5. What do you do with your lactose-intolerant child who wants to do nothing other than eat cheese and drink milk? O.K., this is a tough one, but there are a few different options. I tried using almond milk, and at first, when I poured it into my daughter's cereal, she didn't even notice, but when I handed her a cup to drink, she knew right away, so that was a bust. Therefore, sometimes, I would pour it into her cereal when she wasn't looking, or I would mix it with the regular milk, to help a little, however, my mom always purchased the lactose-free Lactaid milk, so when she came to visit, I had it for her. My daughter drank it like it was regular milk, so that is what I try to purchase for her now. As for the cheese, sorry, I don't have a solution.

I hope you enjoyed my tricks, and that they might work for you! If you have any tricks, I would love for you to comment below!