Crusts or No Crusts?
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My three oldest children eat the sandwich, crust and all. My three youngest children treat the crust like they would the rind of a watermelon. They eat as far into the sandwich as their chubby cheeks allow and then they discard the rest.
Since I hate waste more than I am bothered by picky eaters, I have started trimming the crust from the bread before I make their sandwiches. I save the crusts in a bag in the freezer to use as bread crumbs at a later date.
What do YOU do?
Crusts or no crusts? Do you make your kids eat them? Or do you “cave”?
My daughter does not like crust but I do not remove them from the sandwich unless making frozen uncrustables for her lunch. I would like her to eat them and refuse to do the work of removing them. (now that I read this post seems like a waste). My family does not eat the heels either, so when we get to the end of bread or have rolls that are getting stale I throw them in the food processor and dump them in a bag in the freezer. I have a couple recipes that call for fresh bread crumbs. This keeps me in fresh bread crumbs without adding to the budget. Plus since they are already processed I can scoop what I need with a measuring cup.
As a young child, I didn’t like the crusts either and I grew out of it by the time I was school age. I regularly trim the crusts from my son’s school sandwich because I know that it won’t get thrown in the trash then. Funny though, he’ll eat the crust on homemade bread. (conviction! I know I should make it more often) I’m not worried about what message I’m giving to my children. I’m sure they will grow out of it. As a mom of 8 kids, 4 of them now adults, I’d say that “This too shall pass.” Put the crusts in the food processor, stick the crumbs in the freezer and use them to top a casserole later on. Using them in egg bake or for bread pudding is also an option.
Our oldest doesn’t eat crust. Our youngest eats it.
I don’t view it as giving in. I didn’t eat crust as a kid. I always felt really special when my mom or grandma took the time to cut the crust. It was a little reminder that they cared about my likes and dislikes. I’ve passed that on to my boys. Eventually, I learned to eat the crust or peel it off on my own.
My child is currently 13 and does eat his crust on bread BUT there was a time that he wouldn’t so I started cutting his sandwiches into 4 triangles. This made it look like there wasn’t so much crust. Eventually he just started eating the whole sandwich. Sometimes, now I do cut the crust off just to make the sandwich a little special.
mom always said the way most people butter the bread, she wouldn’t eat the crust either…and i noticed the same..if i spread the peanut butter or butter right to the edge…they will eat them..if not they leave them…(unless the bread is not so fresh ..then they wont eat the crust no matter what..)
@celina,
this is exactly what I’ve noticed! If i make a pb&j for my 2-yr-old, he’ll happily eat the crust as long as it has plenty of pb on it. if the pb doesn’t go to the edge, he’ll eat all but the crust. I now take a little longer to carefully spread the pb on the edges, and i get a clean plate much more often!
Wow, I had no idea this was a topic people would feel strongly about. My kids ate the crusts – it never even came up that I can remember. Occasionally for something fun and different I have cut their crusts off, but it was never a deal for us. What I actually popped over to comment about, though, was please make some breadcrumb cookies from T’he Tightwad Gazette and tell us how they are! 🙂