Need a fun way to serve that same turkey and cheese sandwich? On a stick! Kids love food on a stick.

From infant-hood my oldest son has been a picky eater. When he was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes, getting him to consume healthy foods went from being a priority, to a necessity.

When he was first diagnosed, I clung to low carbohydrate, pre-packaged food as my lifeline. It took me quite a while to feel comfortable giving him portions of homemade dishes because I didn’t have that safety net of knowing exactly how many carbohydrates were in it. Packaged foods come with handy labels that I relied on to calculate my son’s insulin.

A day came where I was smacked in the face with the reality that his diabetes wasn’t going anywhere and that he couldn’t go through the rest of his life eating grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, and 100-calorie pack snacks.

One day, I realized that I was so focused on “carb-counts” that I was sacrificing a lot of nutrition in the process.  From that point on, my husband and I made it a lifestyle priority to transform our family’s eating habits.

We’re still a work in progress, but our family as a whole has come leaps and bounds on the quest to healthier eating. At first this quest was met with resistance by our oldest son, but nowadays he’s the one that is more than happy to point out what is and isn’t a healthy choice.

Although he’s more open to foods than ever before, he still doesn’t eat sandwiches. Who doesn’t like a sandwich?!

In the early months of being a MOMables subscriber, I came across Turkey & Swiss School Sushi on one of their weekly menus. I thought that maybe because it didn’t look like a sandwich, I could trick him into eating it. I tweaked it a tiny bit by choosing my go-to low carbohydrate bread, a different kind of cheese and sliding the pieces onto a popsicle stick to help keep them rolled.

Lucky for me, and thanks to some nifty MOMables tips inside the weekly menus, I found a new way for my son to eat a “sandwich” This low-carbohydrate lunch is now one of his favorites and it now makes a bi-weekly appearance in his lunchbox.

Carbohydrate Breakdown

Turkey & Cheese Sushi on a Stick:

• 1 slice of bread (no crust)= 5
• 2 slices of turkey lunch meat= 0
• 1 slice of American cheese= 2
• 2 tsp. Light Miracle Whip= 1

Sandwich total= 8 carbohydrates

Sides:

• Pineapple, fresh= 5 carbohydrates
• Grapes= 5 carbohydrates
• 4 baby carrots= 2 carbohydrates
• ¼ C. Organic snack mix (baked crackers and pretzels)= 10 carbohydrates

Lunch Total= 30 carbohydrates

*Note: I measured the pineapple, grapes and carrots on my food scale. So the above calculations are for what is pictured. If you do not have a food scale, below is a good rule of thumb for each: Pineapple: 1 oz= 4 carbohydrates. Grapes: 1 average sized grape= 1 carbohydrate. Baby carrots: 1 oz. of baby carrots= 2 carbohydrates

Turkey & Cheese Sushi on a Stick

• Author: MOMables
• Cuisine: Lunch

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 2–3 slices of deli turkey
• 1 slice of American cheese
• 1–2 tsp. Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
• 1 slice of bread (your choice)

Instructions

1. Lay bread on a cutting board and cut off the crust.
2. With a rolling pin, roll over bread to thin it out.
3. Spread Mayonnaise. Lay turkey and cheese slices over bread.
4. Roll sandwich flats from one end to the next.
5. Cut “roll” in half. Then cut in 1/2″ thick round sections.
6. Serve with fresh fruit, veggies, and snack or treat of choice.