Lunch Mommy

Mia now stays at preschool for lunch, and that poses a challenge for me. I've never liked bag lunches myself. I remember rejoicing when my Mom said she was done making bag lunches and we would have hot lunch at school every day. I was the only kid in my crowd who didn't complain about the school cafeteria on a regular basis.
Hence, I feel this need to give Mia delicious food with great variety. I have yet to come up with a winning formula. Already, the teacher has had to take me aside to ask me to stop sending foods that required a fork - I'd been putting pasta dishes in the lunch box because Mia loves pasta. She LOVES soups, too, but I knew better than to put soup in her lunch box. Now that I'm limited to finger food I'm feeling, well, limited. Rather than confront this challenge every single morning, I decided to make a list of possible lunchbox foods. I hope my readers who have had to make lunches will offer additional suggestions. Here is what I've come up with so far.

Main courses:
Sandwiches (on bread or wraps). Fillings: turkey, chicken, cheese, peanut butter. Not sure if Mia likes PB&J or tuna - will check that out.
Chicken nuggets (the homemade relatively health version)
Leftover chicken or meat, cut up
Hard-cooked eggs (no yolk)
Cheese and crackers

Sides:
String cheese. Grapes, strawberries, banana, fruit cups, celery, carrots, broccoli or cauliflower(steamed), green beans (canned), french fries (homemade, baked not fried). (Our girl is a veggie-lover - too bad corn and peas aren't finger foods.) Popcorn, crackers.

Mia really likes pizza and pasta, so I'm looking for ways to make those lunch-box friendly.

I will add that the steamed broccoli has already proven a winner. Yesterday on the drive home from school Mia wanted her lunchbox. I let her have it, thinking she could amuse herself by zipping and unzipping it all the way home. Instead, she demanded I open the insulated container so she could eat her leftover broccoli. As we arrived home she said, "More broccoli." I was happy to comply.