Another week, another Toddler Food post. ☺ Admittedly, I’m still catching up, so these photos were from quite some time ago… Uh, probably from around Valentine’s Day given all of the heart-shaped food. Oy. Either way, here’s some of what Miss G’s eaten semi-recently.
Breakfast // Scrambled organic egg with fresh parmesan and basil rolled in a wholewheat flatbread. Strawberry slices and black grapes.
Breakfast // Yogurt parfait made with homemade granola, organic plain yogurt, fresh strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, and a tiny drizzle of pure maple syrup.
Lunch {and snacks on the go} // Apple slices. Strawberry halves. Red grapes. Red pear. ‘Gracen mix’. Orange pepper slices. Edamame beans. Chickpeas. Watermelon strawberry fruit chews. Avocado, hemp hearts, and all-natural cream cheese rolled in a wholewheat tortilla.
Dinner // Turkey zucchini spinach meatloaf. Pesto tortelini with fresh parmesan, spinach, garlic, and olive oil.
Dinner // Quinoa ‘mac n’ cheese’ with broccoli, red peppers, and leeks.
The one question I get asked as a mom, far more than anything else is, “How do you get Gracen to eat the way she does?” And the usual follow-up questions include, “Has she always been open to trying new foods and flavours?” and “Is there anything she doesn’t like?!”
While I’ve given my take on it here and there in the comments sections of my Toddler Food posts, I’ve never included the answer in an actual post because the truth is, I don’t really know how she became such a good eater. {And perhaps I’m a wee bit afraid of talking about it too much and jinxing it all. ☺} Is it because of the way we introduced food to her? Is it because of the way we currently handle meal times and eating in general? Was she just born a good eater? Likely it’s a combination of all of those things… But I can’t be sure.
That being said, since I continue to get requests for eating tips each week, I’m going to share what we did and what works for us.
It all started while I was pregnant actually… Other than the first few weeks, I had a really good pregnancy. I felt well and could eat {small portions} of anything I wanted (other than meat) without feeling sick, so I made sure to nourish our growing baby the best I could while she was still in the womb. Right away, I cut out all refined sugars, caffeine, and unhealthy fats. I filled my diet with healthy fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans and nuts, and ate a variety of flavours, spices, herbs. (Did you know that your baby tastes the flavours of what you eat through the amniotic fluid? They do! Cool, eh?) And I continued to do the same once she was born so that she’d still be experiencing a wide variety of flavours through the breast milk she was drinking.
When she was 6 1/2 months old and we decided to introduce solids, I made all of her food at home and included those same herbs, spices, and flavourings she’d already become accustomed to into her first foods (bananas with cinnamon, carrots with dill, spinach with nutmeg, and curried chicken were some of her favourites). During our brief time with purees, I also made sure to vary the textures of the foods so that everything wasn’t always just smooth – some were slightly chunky, others were quite chunky, and she got used to them all from the get go.
After eating purees for about a month, we basically transitioned her over to a baby-led weaning style of eating. I ensured that our food was fresh, flavourful, and full of variation, as well as free of salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats, and she began eating chunks of our family meal (no separate “kid food” here!) from about 7 1/2 or 8 months on.
There have definitely been things she hasn’t liked along the way. Potatoes (of any sort) were a big flop for a long time, she had a short stint of not enjoying cheese, and she’s never liked raw tomatoes (but then again, I don’t blame her for that one – they’re one of the few foods I despise also!) Right now, she’s not a fan of raw leafy greens though she happily ate them from the age of 1 until just after 2. Do we force her to eat the things she doesn’t like or want? Absolutely not. But we don’t stop offering them either. To this day, I’ll still put a grape tomato on her plate if they’re part of the meal we’re eating. And no, she never eats the whole thing, but sometimes she does try them, which is just fine with me.
There are a few other things we do that I think help Miss G to remain a good eater… First off, she’s involved in a lot of the cooking and food prep in our house, and I always feel like kids are more likely to eat foods that they’ve helped make. Secondly, I make one meal and we all sit down and eat together as a family. No Gracen eats first and we eat once she’s in bed, no separate kid meal, and no television on during meals. She sees us trying new things and she’s usually happy to try them too. And lastly, and I hope it doesn’t sound too harsh, there’s no other option available if you don’t want to eat the meal that’s been prepared. She never has to eat if she doesn’t want to, but we won’t give her a bowl of yogurt or a banana or something else in place of the meal she has in front of her. If she wants to be done and hasn’t eaten a whole lot, we simply save the meal for her to come back to later when she’s feeling hungry.
Now we just have to hope that I haven’t jinxed it all and she continues to be a fantastic little eater. ☺
Alright, so after that long-winded explanation, here’s some of what our little lady has eaten lately…
Breakfast // Wholewheat bagel with cream cheese and avocado slices. Kiwi slices. Red grapes.
Snacks {on the go} // Raw almonds. Fresh avocado. Red grapes. Snap peas. Old cheddar. Organic wild rice sticks.
Lunch // Wholewheat rotini with toasted almonds, sautéed spinach, and feta.
{Weekend} Lunch // Assorted crackers with baked garlic and sun-dried tomato brie. Avocado, Asian melon, and celery with mediterranean hummus. Kiwi quarters and pomegranate seeds.
Lunch // Organic egg salad in a mini wholewheat pita. Carrots, snap peas, peppers, and avocado with all-natural dip.
Lunch {on the go} // Peppers and carrots. Baby mandarin. “Lulu mix” (almonds, kamut puffs, organic raisins, freeze-dried raspberries, and organic o’s). Almond butter and hemp hearts on wholewheat pumpkin seed yogurt bread. Cheddar cubes. Black beans.
Breakfast // Organic shredded wheat cereal with hemp hearts, frozen blueberries, fresh raspberries, and organic milk.
Breakfast // French toast (made with omega seed bread) with plain organic yogurt, frozen blueberries, a TINY drizzle of pure maple syrup, and a sprinkling of cinnamon.
Breakfast // Wholewheat cinnamon raisin English muffin with all-natural peanut butter. Kiwi slices. Fresh raspberries.
Breakfast // Parmesan basil scrambled eggs. Homestyle potatoes with onions and peppers. Flaxseed toast.
Dinner // Wholewheat spaghetti with spicy turkey tomato sauce and fresh parmesan. Roasted Brussels sprouts.
Dinner // Creamy corn and veggie soup. Multi-seed flatbread with humus.
Dinner // Harvest grains, steamed veggies, and sesame tempeh.
Dinner // Parmesan and walnut encrusted chicken. Roasted Brussels sprouts. Roasted golden beets with feta. Cheese ravioli with herbs and spices brought home from Italy.
Dinner // Tuscan sausage soup with shell pasta, spinach, and white beans. Parmesan rye spears.
Dinner // Homemade pizza (BBQ chicken and roasted veggie and feta).
Dinner // Wholewheat penne with tomato basil turkey sauce and feta.
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Another week, another Toddler Food post… But before we get on with the photos, here’s a question I received last week:
What is Miss G’s eating schedule? How many meals does she eat per day? And how much milk does she drink? Do you limit it?
Alright, this one is actually pretty simple. Gracen eats 3 full meals a day, plus morning and afternoon snacks. As far as a schedule goes, she eats breakfast a little while after she wakes up, which normally ends up being around 7:30 a.m. Then, a couple of hours later, around 9:30 or 10:00, she has a small snack… Usually something like fruit slices, raw veggies, or nuts. By the time noon rolls around, she’s ready for lunch. We eat, clean up, do our regular nap time routine, and then she goes to sleep. She normally sleeps from about 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., and when she wakes up, she’s ready for her afternoon snack. Later on in the evening, normally just before 6:00, we have dinner, and that’s her last meal for the day.
As far as milk is concerned, yes, we absolutely limit her intake. She loves good, healthy foods, but that’s not to say that she wouldn’t fill up on milk if it was limitless. She has milk 3 times a day – with breakfast, after her nap, and with dinner. For each serving she gets a small cup, about half full, and other than that, she drinks water.
Alright… I hope that answers that! Now onto what Miss G’s been eating lately…
Whether it’s Valentine’s Day, St. Patricks Day, or Halloween, one of the things I love most about holidays is preparing special themed meals and snacks for our little lady. Here is some Halloween-inspired food she enjoyed this year…
Breakfast // Wholewheat flax spiderweb pancakes. (Just put your pancake batter into a squeeze bottle, use it to draw an asterisk, then connect the points with swooped lines.)
Snack // Jack-o-lantern oranges. (G seriously couldn’t get enough of these. Simply draw a face on a room temperature orange with black Sharpie. I did mine just before giving them to her – I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m not especially keen on the possibility of the marker fumes seeping through the peel.)
Lunch // {A slightly scary-looking} Jack-o-lantern quesadilla. (Just 2 red or orange tortilla shells cut by hand – think kitchen scissors – some cheese, black beans, and veggies.)
Snack // Home roasted pumpkin seeds.
Dinner // Roasted pumpkin soup with goat cheese, fresh parsley, and a grilled cheese on the side. (Not overly Halloween-ish, but you see what I’m going for, right?)
Another Toddler Food post! I’m still playing catch up a little bit, so many of these photos are from the end of summer when our house was ridiculously hot and my motivation to cook was nearly non-existent. Now that autumn is officially here though, I’m looking forward to spending more time in the kitchen again, experimenting with some new meal ideas and whipping up some old favourites with my favourite little sous chef. ☺
Breakfast // Plain organic whole milk yogurt with diced apples and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon.
Breakfast // Peanut butter and apple salad (chopped apples, grapes, and bananas topped with all-natural peanut butter/plain yogurt/vanilla ‘dressing’ and peanuts).
Breakfast // Organic whole grain low-sugar cereal with raw walnuts, frozen blueberries, and organic whole milk.
Breakfast // Overnight coconut chia pudding (coconut milk, chia seeds, and vanilla stored overnight in the fridge and topped with almonds in the morning – adding mango is delicious too!)
Lunch // Wholewheat red lentil mac and cheese. Roasted rainbow carrots. Steamed beets.
Lunch {on the go} // Raw almonds. Chicken and Israeli couscous salad. Freeze-dried bananas and berries. Ice water. Fresh peaches.
{Picnic} Lunch {for two} // Raw almonds. Apple slices and peach chunks. Veggies and roasted red paper humus. Fruit and veggie bars. Turkey and avocado roll-ups.
Dinner // Turkey tortellini with homemade veggie-packed tomato sauce.
Dinner // Turkey, spinach, and pasta soup.
Dinner // Roasted carrots and green beans. Lemon and dill salmon. Smashed potatoes.
Wow… It’s been a while… A very loooong while since I put together a Toddler Food post, but here’s hoping they’ll be posted on a weekly basis again. Here’s some of what Miss G has been eating in {semi} recent days…
Breakfast // All-natural cream cheese on a 4 seed wholewheat bagel thin. Cantaloupe sticks.
Snacks & Lunch {on the go} // All-natural peanut butter and granny smith sandwich. Fresh strawberries and blueberries. Sugar snaps. Raw almonds and walnuts. Old cheddar cubes. Red pepper slices.
Lunch // Veggie sandwich on multigrain (cream cheese, cucumber, red onion, red pepper, and avocado). Watermelon sticks. Gouda cubes.
Dinner // Spicy black bean and chicken rice bowl with avocado and sour cream.
Dinner // Steamed broccoli, beets, and carrots. Lemon and herb salmon. Fresh spinach pasta.
Here’s our 19th round of Toddler Food… Crazy! I got a question a little while ago, and I thought I’d share.
I know that your daughter eats healthy foods, but can you share your “food philosophy” when it comes to feeding her? What do you try to avoid? Does she ever get treats? If so, what?
This question kind of made me giggle because I can just see my brother and sister-in-law rolling their eyes as I explain what’s important to us when choosing what to feed Gracen. Of course, I believe that every parent has the right to make the choices that they feel are best for their children, but this is a loose explanation of our ‘food philosophy’…
When it comes to feeding Grae, we quite possibly could be referred to as tree-huggin’ granola crunchers (yes, we’re those parents). We do our very best to ensure that she eats nutritious, whole foods and balanced meals. We try to avoid added sugar and added salt at all costs and choose organic products when we can.
Other than sugar and salt, we try to avoid pre-made and packaged foods that are often filled with preservatives, chemicals, colours, and ingredients that are hard to pronounce. We don’t do fast food and although we’ve allowed her to try organic fresh-squeezed juices a couple of times, we don’t normally do juice either (she’s not a fan, which makes this very easy).
On the topic of treats… Yes, Gracen certainly gets them! But here’s the thing… The word ‘treat’ is very subjective and can mean different things to different families. It’s all about what you know well and eat regularly. For Grae, treats include no-sugar-added dried fruit, freeze-dried fruit, healthyhomemadepopsicles, two ingredient ice cream, crackers, homemade muffins, no-sugar added fruit leather, blueberry milk (her regular milk with frozen blueberries blended in), and anything else that is sort of out of the ordinary. While other kids may not consider these things treats, Gracen does because they are things she only has once and a while.
I hope that covers the question! Now onto the food…
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Snack // Organic brown rice cakes with toppings (all-natural peanut butter and apple slices, mashed avocado and extra old cheddar, all-natural cream cheese and strawberry slices).
Snack // Garden strawberries.
Snack // All-natural almond butter and raisin roll-up.
Snack // Garden carrots.
Lunch // Smashed avocado and chickpea roll-up. Kale chips. Blackberries.
Snacks & Lunch // Dried apricot and apple rings. Strawberries and blackberries. Mary’s Organic Crackers and cheddar cheese curds. Almond butter and apple roll-up. Garden peas and carrots.
Last month (yes, I’m a wee bit behind!) we spent a glorious 10 days at “home” in the Okanagan with family and friends which is why these photos look a little different than the ones usually on my Toddler Food posts. Here’s some of what our little lady ate during our trip…
Breakfast: Organic wholewheat waffle with a dollop of plain organic yogurt and fresh strawberry slices.
Breakfast // Organic “Cheesy eggs” (Papa’s specialty) and garden strawberries and banana slices.
Breakfast // Multigrain french toast. Mango slices.
Breakfast // Multigrain toast with all-natural peanut butter and Crofter’s All-Natural Fruit Spread. Raspberries, mango, and fresh pineapple.
Breakfast // Mango oatmeal with flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and whole organic milk.
Breakfast // Organic cheesy eggs. Avocado smashed on wholewheat toast. Grapes and blackberries.
Snack // Strawberry slices and mango chunks.
Snacks {on the go} // Dried nothing added mango. Raw walnuts and almonds. Baby rainbow carrots. Granny smith slices. Fresh raspberries.