But enough about that. The topic of this post is food. I feel like I give Jack the same food every day and maybe he's not bored with it, but I am! For breakfast he usually eats oatmeal and some cut up fruit. On the weekends I make him scrambled eggs or pancakes. Lunch is veggies with some sort of protein (chicken, meatballs, etc.) and dinner is more of the same. He also gets 2 snacks a day. One is dairy (i.e. cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese) and the other is a hard boiled egg, toast, or more fruit. He loves pasta so I made him spaghetti and meatballs the other night. I also make him mashed sweet potatoes which he loves. He completely loves cheese and bread and one thing I've been giving him is black beans, shredded cheese (melted), and whole wheat tortilla. He loves it! Oh, and he drinks water and whole milk throughout the day.
I need other ideas. I feel like Jack doesn't eat enough meat. I also need things that are quick (for lunch) and freeze well (for dinner). At this age, kids can (and should) eat whatever the parents eat for dinner. Uh, I eat cereal for dinner a lot of nights. Seriously. I also eat after Jack has gone to bed. As he gets older and has a later bed time (and I'm hopefully getting off work earlier), I definitely want us to eat together. I want to cook fresh, nutritious meals and have Tuesday taco nights. But for now, I need something I can put together quickly. We typically get home around 5:45 and he eats dinner at 6. He's usually in bed at 7, so that doesn't leave a lot of time.
For lunch, I'd like to have things that are easy to pack for daycare. One weekend I tried giving him a pb&j, cutting it into little bite size pieces, but he wasn't too interested. I'll have to try that one again. He really loves to eat and eats almost everything I offer him. I'd just like to offer him more variety.
So what do you make for your kids? What does a typical day look like? What are some of their favorites? Feel free to share recipes with everyone on your own blogs. :) Jack thanks you very much!
Since we're on the topic of food, I thought I'd share some cute pics of Jack eating at California Pizza Kitchen. He enjoyed some of my spaghetti with salmon and asparagus. Such a big boy!
The last one is my favorite! He's so funny and he sure loves to eat. I can just picture him and all of his friends eating at my house after school. It's a good thing I have a Costco membership! :)
7 comments:
I'm so impressed that Jack eats all of these things! Asher still resists a lot of table foods and relies mostly on baby food. *sigh* We're definitely in a rut too, but I'm trying to introduce him to new things. There's no way that we can eat dinner together either, so don't stress about that!
Sorry that I'm not much help here!
We eat dinner as a family nightly. I've found Amelia prefers the foods to be mixed together. Some of our/her favories include: chili, meatloaf, lentil turkey burgers, soups, pasta/chicken/vege casserole, and sushi rolls (using only cooked fish).
I bought a bunch of these freezer jars (http://www.canningpantry.com/ball-freezer-jars.html) and I just make a batch of chili, soup, casserole, lasanga, etc.. and portion it out and freeze. I can usually do this on a weekend during her naptime and I then have enough food for lunches during the upcoming weeks.
Sushi rolls are more of a treat, but it's so fun to watch her eat them (shrimp tempora roll worked well). She was actually licking the rice off the seaweed.
Lastly, Hormel Natural Choice brand lunchmeat has precooked chicken strips. They are great to have on hand when you are in a rush. Yes, they have salt, but aside from that, it's all natural ingredients and no fillers.
I make a batch of taco soup and Presley and I eat on it for lunch all week. You can also Freeze it. It makes a ton! It's pinto beans, chili beans, and I add in black beans, I can of corn, I can Rotel, 1can of petite diced tomatoes' I lb. Of turkey meat, taco seasoning ( I use the low sodium kind)' and ranch mix.
Brown the turKey meat and drain. Mix in the taco seasoning and ranch packet. Then dump everything into a pot and cook. Oh and drain the beans before dumping them in. I also like to cook it in the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. Then I don't have to do anything to prepare dinner in the evening. I'm not a single mom, but I have Presley from the time she wakes up until she goes to bed all by myself. Brandon works all the time. It's hard!! You so deserve a spa day.
I always forget about giving Presley eggs. I think we will have some today. Oh, I also buy the steam fresh veggies in the individual servings. She likes the peas and corn.
Do you have a crock pot? I have a bunch of healthy recipes Presley enjoys. I can email them to you if you would like. Okay, I've written a book! Sorry and greatnpost. You gave me some great ideas.
And after all that, I forgot to write out what are day looks like.
Breakfast- oatmeal with fresh fruit, pancakes, chestnuts and yogurt, pumpkin bread, heart healthy blueberry muffins( image them on Sunday and them we eat on them throughout the week).
Lunch- grilled cheese, bean and cheese/ chicken and cheese quesadillas. Turkey dogs, lunch meat and cheese, taco soup or any soup really ( I try and buy low sodium for her). Then I throw in whatever veggies or fruit I have.
Snacks- cheese, yogurt, freeze dried fruit ( I buy it in bulk at cost co), crackers
Dinner- tonight we are having pork tenderloin ( in the crock pot) and rice with broccoli. She loves rice!!
Holy cow! I hate autofill! Presley does not eat chestnuts. Sorry.
My Jack likes to eat waffles with peanut butter and then a little whole fruit jelly spread on top. He also eats oatmeal for breakfast, but I mix in a little applesauce, some mashed sweet potatoes and coconut milk yogurt.
He & I usually have leftovers from the previous night's dinner as our lunch..so today, for example, we ate baked mostaccioli. He loved feeding himself the pasta. He also enjoyed the beef stew I made the other day - lots of veggies (even a rutabaga!)
It sounds like your Jack is getting a great variety. I can imagine it's harder to find stuff to feed him since you only have 15 mins to prepare it. Ther are some great suggestions here in the comments - I'm going to try some of them, myself!
oh yeah! The other thing my Jack has really liked is some popcorn chicken made by Earth's Best - we found it at Whole Foods. It's a treat meal for him, and I serve sweet potato fries along with the chicken.
That's so cute!
I was also about to do a post about food...we definitely all need to post recipes and do a bit of a "food idea swap", since I feel like we're in a rut also. I'll post a few recipes, but since we don't do dairy or eggs, we're kind of limited, and don't have as much ideas to offer :/
Ava loves black beans, and her other favorites are broccoli, mandarin oranges and blueberries!
BTW - I had someone tell me once that having just one serving of salmon as a baby could reduce the risk of osteoporosis by 75%. I doubt the statistics are right - I was skeptical when I heard this - but still think that salmon is a superfood for babies! Good for you for getting Jack into it!
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