By Jackie (Toddlers parent)
Do anyone else’s kids ask for noodles every meal of everyday? Anyone else have kids that scream that they don’t want eggs and then end up eating 5 scrambled eggs between the two of them?
I used to pride myself on being a foodie, back in my days of being young, wild and free. That didn’t only include eating out, which we did a lot. It also included the meals we cooked in the house. My husband happens to be a wonderful cook and enjoys doing it. I happen to be terrible and dislike it immensely. But, I do like to eat and eat well. So, when my first was born, I made all of his purees, took baby cooking classes, researched websites to make interesting food. I think he benefited from that and had always been a fairly adventurous eater, until recently. Maddie, the second, is still relatively adventurous.
It tortures me that Henry asks for the same thing every day. It seems so boring. Should I be glad that when I make him what he asks for that he eats more than me? Or should I be disturbed that he can eat a pound of plain noodles (NO SAUCE MOMMY!).
I’m constantly on the look out for recipes and seeing what works well for others. I really don’t want to get into the habit of hiding vegetables, but that seems to be the trend we are all on. My kid that used to eat an entire head of broccoli at dinner now will not eat anything with a green speck on it. So, whether you use an organic smoothie blend to get vegetables or puree vegetables into a pasta sauce (which is genius, Laura!), we are all fighting the good fight. Henry was shocked to learn that salsa is made with tomatoes… just like pasta sauce… and he loves tomatoes, so he loves salsa! … salsa is a vegetable, right?
That all said, a long winded beginning as usual, I took to the interwebs to figure out what works for other people.
There are a lot of Instagram accounts dedicated to cooking/preparing meals for your kids like Super Healthy Kids and Healthy Family and Fun Kid Food. There are also some blogs/websites that have the same dedication to our problems: www.weelicious.com and www.cookingwithmykid.com. The Kitchn and Pop Sugar are even along for the ride: Kids lunch ideas and Kid Friendly Recipes. Plus, there is an awesome book that my SiL got us: Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair (local chef and Bastyr University Professor) for those of us who actually want to eat the same food as our kids instead of making separate meals.
One of my favorite things to make the kids is meatballs, specifically these, because they make a lot at once and we all enjoy them: Meatball Shop Classic meatball recipe. These muffins sound awesome (thanks Meaghan!): Morning Glory Muffins and knowing other kids love them makes it even better!
With so much information out there… what works? Turns out… it is whatever works, that works.