Meal/snack help

We are in a food rut over here. I try so hard to avoid unprocessed and non organic foods but with 4 kids, now all on table foods, I just don't have the energy to always make everything from scratch or to argue with a 4 yr old & a 2 yr old who refuse to eat foods they used to devour.

Breakfast always includes fresh fruit along with either oatmeal, cereal (cheerios or kashi), waffles, mini pancakes, french toast sticks, yogurt, or scrambled eggs

Lunch is rolled up deli ham or turkey with string cheese, cucumbers or carrot sticks or grape tomatoes, annie's mac & cheese, the annie's or earth's best organic canned soups (lots of sodium but they are so easy for a quick meal), peanut butter & jelly

Dinner we try to make them eat what we are having but that is always a battle and some nights I am just too tired to fight with them. If they won't eat the main dinner they get either chicken nuggets or pasta w/ sauce or butter...and I will throw in either peas, green beans, or broccoli.

Snacks- goldfish, dole fruit cups, welch's or annie's fruit snacks, trader joe's cereal bars, granola bars, applesauce, raisins, those fruit/veggie pouches

We also order in once a week and they will eat pizza or veggie lo mein.

I need more variety!

Message edited 11/30/2015 6:20:43 PM.

Re: Meal/snack help

That's already more variety than my toddler eats!

Other ideas, veggie/turkey burgers, turkey meatballs (so easy to make a bunch and then freeze), hummus, homemade pizza (ww pita, cheese, pesto sauce and lots of grilled veggies).

Message edited 12/1/2015 8:53:23 AM.

Meal/snack help

My back up dinners are usually earth's best meatballs or fish sticks which are the current favorite. I also do organic mac and cheese and mix in pureed squash I have in the freezer.I have home made turkey meatballs in the freezer my 1yo will easy but my 3yo won't touch. I'm going to try making the next batch with spinach and raisins bc I just found out my lo is anemic.

For lunch I'm going to try humus and crackers and hard boiled eggs rather than our standard grilled cheese or pbj.

Breakfast I mix spinach in scrambler eggs, butternut squash in pancakes. Dd1 loves oatmeal and dd2 loves nurrigrain bars. I'm going to try cream of wheat and see how that goes.

Meal/snack help

Try 100daysofrealfood.com and weelicious.com

Re: Meal/snack help

That sounds pretty much like my 3 year old's rotation. We also do:
-Homemade chicken burger (with or without slider bun)
-Dr Praeger's fish sticks
-Pita pizza - fun for them to help make
-Homemade turkey meatballs - freeze a bunch
-Rice & beans (with cut up pork chop if we're having it)
-Chicken salad or egg salad

Re: Meal/snack help

I know you said you don't have time to always cook for that meal, but can you cook ahead of time and freeze? I make a big batch of meatballs and turkey meatballs and freeze them. I pop out however many I need and will make it with pasta and sauce. I make a pot of sauce and freeze small amounts that I would need for pasta. I make pots of soups and freeze individual amounts (split pea, minestrone, lentil soup, chicken soup).
I buy tiny ravioli and tiny tortellini from Uncle Giuseppe's and freeze them. I make however much I need for a meal and then freeze.
I buy bags of Organic diced up veggies and will sometimes make a pasta with garlic and oil and toss in some veggies.
DD loves yogurt so that is something she will usually eat after her lunch or dinner.
We also make grilled cheese or egg omelets.
She loves baked ziti or lasagna.
As for snacks, I bake a batch of different types of healthy muffins and freeze them.
Hope this helps.

Re: Meal/snack help

I think your menu is already very diverse and provides variety but I know we all get bored of our usual things!

For breakfast, maybe switch up the type of fresh fruit more often- we usually do oranges, some sort of berry (raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry), or bananas. But lately we have been having pomegranates and that has been fun and different. Sometimes I also get canned peaches or pineapples. We offer same as you (yogurt, oatmeal, cereal, waffles or scrambled eggs). That means she is getting something different just about every morning. I do plain yogurt but usually mix it with the fruit. Sometimes I throw in chia seeds or flax seeds. Sometimes instead of scrambled eggs, I will make a frittata or eggs cooked in mini muffin tins. I also rotate between 2 or 3 different types of cereal now. For special occasions she gets a bagel with cream cheese or a homemade muffin.

For lunch: With sandwiches, I offer peanut butter and jelly or a cheese sandwich (cold or grilled). DD is obsessed with cheese. Lately she likes the organic string cheese or the little red circular cheeses, so then she doesn't get a sandwich with that. If I'm being generous I will make her mac and cheese or a sweet potato and chicken nuggets or something else. I'll also do dinner leftovers (vegetable and noodle soup, lasagna, etc.) I also try to give a vegetable either broccoli or carrots she eats most consistently. Lima beans too.

Dinner is mostly pasta with different sauces, lasagna, vegetable soup, chicken nuggets with lots of different frozen vegetables, meatballs with a sweet potato, ... basically the same as you said. It gets really hard. I used to care more about really mixing things up but I have given up a bit caring. It was easier in the summer. During summer she got hamburgers (meat or quinoa), corn on the cob, grilled vegetable kabobs, etc. On special occasions if we get to whole foods she will get white fish and/or salmon. It is good to rotate in fish but we buy it so rarely.

For snacks we do fresh fruit, dried fruit, fruit chips, fruit snacks, dole fruit cups, raisins, etc. Sometimes a homemade cookie. Sometimes cut up vegetables but she refuses that a lot now. Also pretzels, mini-yogurts, and annies crackers. Annies makes a snack mix like chex mix.

She gets pizza 1x-2x a week and from chinese takeout she loves miso soup and steamed veggies over rice.

Meal/snack help

Thank you everyone! These ideas definitely help!

Meal/snack help

My 19 month old will eat anything at daycare. At home, he's a bit more picky.

Breakfast: bowl of Cheerios (we have a bowl with a straw that he loves), eggs, toast with cream cheese and jam, yogurt. All served with fruit (banana or berries usually)

Lunch: Mac n cheese, cold cuts, chicken fingers, quesadillas, pasta with olives (he's obsessed with olives), beans/veggie salad, pasta and meatballs, chili

Dinner: I try to make him eat whatever we're eating. He often has other plans. Most nights he has yogurt, veggies, and fruit. If I'm lucky, he'll sit in his high chair! It's weird cause he eats all other meals and snacks in his high chair.

Re: Meal/snack help

We do a lot of the above also and this too:

Breakfast- We buy the pre-made cinnamon rolls you bake in the oven (like pillsbury but not) from Whole Foods as a treat for once in awhile. organic cinnamon raisin or whole wheat english muffins

Lunch/DInner- I let them "help" make english muffin pizzas. For the most part for dinner they eat what we are eating and if we know they won't they get broccoli, chicken nuggets, and a starch or dairy instead.

Message edited 12/3/2015 8:34:59 AM.