Mornings have been a little tough lately. She has been hungry but hasn't been into eating a big meal. We fix pancakes or waffles over the weekend and freeze them so she can eat them through out the week. She eats cereal some days too. I'm trying to steer her away from too sugary cereals but she will eat honey nut cheerios or Life cereal. She likes Lucky Charms (what kid doesn't) but she has gotten bad about picking the marshmallows out and eating only those so she doesn't get them as much. I try to give her milk or water to start out with and she takes a vitamin every day too. Side note: she used to only drink chocolate milk and while I'm OK with her drinking it every now and then she wasn't drink enough regular milk. We started calling it vanilla milk and now she drinks it all the time. Whatever works!
Snack time: I'm trying to get her to eat healthy snacks. I love that she chooses fruits most of the time. I usually give her pretzels (she loves when I put snacks like this in a cup to carry around), string cheese, fruit, sometimes she gets goldfish or a yogurt tube. Yogurt tubes are like gogurt but they are Chobanis version of those. My daughter has always loved yogurt. She mainly eats Greek yogurt which is good because she doesn't eat a lot of meat so she is still getting protein. She gets snacks a couple times a day. A few hours after breakfast, when she wakes up from her nap and before bedtime. I'm working on not snacking so much myself so that's helping her limit her snacks too. She either eats yogurt or ice cream before bed. She loves ice cream and I try to limit that as well.
I took some pictures this past week of meals she ate during lunch and dinner.
Lunch 2: Apples, grilled cheese and green beans. I actually buy little cans of vegetables and warm those up for her each day. As you can see she tends to eat the same ones on the same day...I try not to waste them if I don't have to. I forget they are in the fridge sometimes.
Lunch 3: Peaches, a few shortbread cookies and english muffin pizza. Not the most healthiest of meals but I watch the sugars and things she eats during the week. It's all about moderation.
Dinner 1: Bananas, mixed vegetables and pulled pork. We called the pork "chicken" because she loves to eat chicken...she will figure out later in life that we've lied to her...but it gets her to eat! I try to get her to eat what we eat for dinner so I'm not making a lot of different things. We had pulled pork and cole slaw that night so she got fruit and veggies...unlike us...she's more healthy than me sometimes! Gotta work on that...
Dinner 2: Strawberries, green beans, cheese quesadilla with sour cream. She loves dipping her food in things but poor girl is allergic to ranch...she loves ketchup and barbecue sauce.
Dinner 3: Chili with cheese and a few wheat crackers. She cracked me up because she ate half of this bowl and then realized she was eating hamburger meat...she did finish most of it though so she could get a snack.
As far as drinks go, I give her milk with every meal and she still drinks half water half juice but mostly drinks just water. Sometimes we will give her a little gatorade, or mix in a little MIO or give her chocolate milk but those are all in moderation.
These are a few items I give her. The other day I made a snack for her I found on Pinterest. Bread rolled around peanut butter and a banana. She loved it! I'm trying to get us all to eat healthier and the thing I love about my daughter is that she tries things and either likes them or not but she actually eats a lot of things I don't like myself!
*I got these plates from Walmart and I love them!
***updated Toddler Meal post will be up first of the year! (12/22/13)***
Thanks for these ideas i am struggling with my 23 mth old right now. Im going to try a few of these and also get some of these separation plates as i think he doesnt like his food mixing
ReplyDeleteGreat, I'm glad this helped! These plates are great. My daughter loves to see when she finishes each food and gets closer to clearing her plate. She eats so much better with them...magic plates :-)
DeleteThank you so much for posting meal ideas of food that are easy and accessable! I sometimes get really tired of finding articles that tell me I need to feed my two year old quinoa, kale, flax seed and other non-processed wholly organic foods. I think it is awesome that as moms we are more aware of what is healthy for our children, and that the majority of us are moving towards more healthy foods. But personally I feel like PB&J with peaches and green beans is an awesome lunch! I have seen so many blogs that would just keel over at the idea of feeding their children that "nasty processed stuff" and I just say...bring on the Mac and Cheese! I am really impressed with how aware you are of what your little one is eating, but that you are also very real about it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words! I hesitated even putting this post out there on Pinterest because I know people want the "healthy" food options for their kids and while I try to make healthy choices myself to teach my daughter, right now I love that she will actually eat fruits, vegetables, etc...she even eats meat now! My daughter loves Mac and cheese :-)
DeleteI'm with you girls...processed food happens, get over it! You are doing a great job Meredith, keep up the good work!
DeleteWhen making chocolate milk use Ovaltine. It's loaded with vitamins and minerals and is cocoa based. Much healthier than any of the other chocolate milk products.
ReplyDelete