[melissao]

A very popular topic here in 1-5 is food/snack suggestions for toddlers. Please feel free to add your suggestions to this sticky to help others add some variety to their childrens' diets. Thank you

[boysontheway]

I hope to learn more tricks for healthy eating.

One healthy modification I have started is mixing in 1/2 a package of defrosted frozen spinach into regular Mac N Cheese. Mix it in very well. The boys don't even notice it. I don't even taste it.

[mel&2]

My DDs hate eggs, so today I tried a "quiche"- I lined a greased bowl with a tortilla, added (defrosted) frozen spinach, and 2 eggs beaten with a little milk, baked for 23 min at 375 degrees. Topped it with cheese and had to microwave another min d/t eggs not fully done. They ate it and didn't hate it at least, though I suspect Hannah caught on that it was eggs after about half the food was eaten, but they loove tortillas and green vegetables, so that helped

[Utopia122]

Whenever I fix homemade pizza I make a portion of it all veggies for the girls. I will steam squash, zucchini, or whatever I made have on hand, steam it, and then layer it on the crust with sauce and cheese. They eat it up and it is a nice change for us adults, too.

[****mws****]

frozen peas,
frozen salad chicken. pre cooked. ( sams club)
cream cheese

mix and serve.. mine loveit..

[AmynTony]

mine love pasta so I use Barilla Plus which has more whole grain and much higher amounts of protein...also I add ground beef (90% lean) to the sauce for additional protein...my kids hate eggs and chicken (unless its nuggets) so its a way to get extra protein in them..

oh and they love onion, mushrooms and garlic...

[AmynTony]

for those whom have conquered peanut butter I found that mixing it with applesauce thins it out a bit and makes it a more "whipped" consistancy and my kids ate a bit more of it (they're so far not crazy about it though...)

[Spuds]

My kiddos favs (at 16m):
Snacks: Captain wafer crackers, stix crackers, graham crackers, animal crackers, cheeseit's, fig newtons, mini muffins, fruit cups.

[Maytwinsmom]

One of my kdis favorite: Culliflower gretin

saute 3-4 tomatoes, in some butter (however much you are comforatble with), add cheddar cheese, pepper and a little salt, serve over steam culliflower. It is good !!!!!

[double-or-nothing]

ok, I just tried this today for the first time and my girls GOBBLED IT UP!!! It may be something you have already heard of or tried but thought I'd share.

I lightly toasted 2 pieces of bread, then put cream cheese on it. Then I mashed up about a 1/4 of a banana and spread it on top like a jelly and cut it into bite size pieces. THEY LOVED IT!!!

[2jellybeans]

Avacodos. I started them as one of our first solids, they are mushy enough that they handled them pretty young. To this day mine still love them! Also alfredo sauce, you can hide almost anything with it!

[motheringtwins]

Here are my 'never fail' meals:

1.Ok, this is a 1 minute cheese on toast.

put 1 or 2 slices of bread in the toaster, as its toasting, slice up a few slices of their favourite cheese, put it on the toast and stick it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Nothing to clean up, no appliances to plug in. Takes 1 minute and they love it.

2.Another favourite is chicken drumsticks. Brush them in oil, honey, soya sauce, mild mustard, (or leave any of those ingredients out) and stick it in the overn for about 40 minutes.

3.Hash browns is also quite easy.
Grate up anything you have in the fridge (EG potato, zucchini, onion, carrott, cauliflower, whatever you have) mix in 1 beaten egg, a small handful of flower.

Turn it into patties and fry it in oil (dont need to deepfry) until golden brown.

[kaysyd]

My girls are little for their adjusted age so I have to concentrate on adding calories. They don't eat meat (and if so- I am lucky for the day). Here are some tricks that have worked a couple times.

Stovetop dressing meatloaf- 1 bag stovetop stuffing, add to 1 lb raw burger meat, and add an egg. Cook. (Now my girls will eat this- I don't know if it lessens the smell of meat or what).

Quiches with sour cream in them- covers up the smell of the egg. This is the only way I can get Syd to eat eggs. I put them in the little muffin pan and it makes individualized quiches.

If you need to add calories to their meals- I make pudding with half and half and whole milk. I add avocado to things. I put a little butter on their veggies- I have no problems getting veggies or fruit in them.

Sweet potato fries- a variation of the "fry" but they taste great!

I'll have to post more when I have time.

Oh, Nutrigrain bars, cheerios for snacks.

[micheleinohio]

My boys love frozen gogurt and fresh fruits. I'm not anywhere near as creative as the rest of you.

[Minette]

This is kind of random, but mine both seem to like enchiladas.

Our fail-safe food is frozen mini-quiches from Costco. I dread the day they start turning them down.

They also like just about any kind of muffin or quick bread (banana bread, etc.), as long as it's not too crumbly.

Other faves:
cut-up fruit (esp. bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and AVOCADO)
fish sticks
scrambled eggs
multigrain crackers
Nutrigrain bars
pizza (including pizza with meat, which they pretty much don't eat in any other form)

And if I'm desperate to get a vegetable into them, I feed them baby food, which they love (goodness knows why).

[p31heather]

Chicken Rotel has been a recent hit.
PT if you want the recipe.

[naomi02]

Frozen Yogurt-covered Cheerios:


mix a bowl of cheerios with just enough yogurt to coat....spread out on a plate/cookie sheet with wax paper & freeze. They love these & a great snack!!!

[marieber]

Veggies they love: fresh roasted beets (they like canned ones too, but love fresh!), boiled carrots with butter and herbs, peas (all), creamed spinach, little spinach, zucchini and broccoli pancakes sold in the kosher section of the frozen foods aisle

Fruits: all

Meats: use dark meat chicken (goes down easier and tastes better), make meatballs of all sorts and add veggies like shredded carrots and spinach and freeze them in baggies

[kaysyd]

Frozen Yogurt-covered Cheerios:
mix a bowl of cheerios with just enough yogurt to coat....spread out on a plate/cookie sheet with wax paper & freeze. They love these & a great snack!!!

can't wait to try them!!

[marcy874]

Quiches with sour cream in them- covers up the smell of the egg. This is the only way I can get Syd to eat eggs. I put them in the little muffin pan and it makes individualized quiches.

If you need to add calories to their meals- I make pudding with half and half and whole milk. I add avocado to things. I put a little butter on their veggies- I have no problems getting veggies or fruit in them.

Sweet potato fries- a variation of the "fry" but they taste great!

These are great ideas! I have a mini muffin pan that has seen little use, so I need to try the mini-quiches - mine won't eat eggs or meat either!

Lately mine have been eating these fish nuggets I got (breaded chunks of fish, not minced fish) if they can dip them in ketchup. I've found out they they like everything better if they can dip it!!

Spaghetti is always a hit and about the only way they'll eat hamburger. They also love mac n cheese, so I've started putting a little canned tuna in it and they're not picking it out yet!