What I Feed My Toddler

In keeping with the latest and greatest blogging craze (at least among many of my friends), I have decided to do a post on what I feed Hannah. I have enjoyed reading others' posts and have gotten a few ideas. Hopefully I can pass a long some new thoughts as well.

To start, I'll say that Hannah has been eating 'real food' since she started on solids. She absolutely refused to eat baby food- ever. Absolutely nothing- as in, I actually returned the few jars/containers I had to the store and got my money back after having her flatly refuse the two I had opened and all the homemade stuff I had attempted. So, with that being said, after this confusion (I had apparently foolishly assumed that all children just DO eat baby food...) I figured, what the heck?, the goal is real food anyway. Ever since, she's been an amazing eater. Girlfriend just needed some flava' :)

Breakfast:
5 days of the week she pretty much eats the same thing:
- Dry cereal: Cheerios are a fave, but also Special K, Crispix, Apple Jacks, Kashi Go Lean Crunch (aka, what I can get w/ my coupons that aren't totally sugar-laden)
- Fresh fruit: bananas, blueberries, strawberries, etc.
- If I am out of fresh fruit, I keep canned pears on hand b/c she LOVES them

Sometimes we will switch it up and have the following in some combination:
- Scrambled eggs with a tad of cheese
- Bacon or sausage patties
- Raisin Cinnamon bread
- Frozen Waffles (a new experience for her in the last few weeks - again, blame the coupons)
- Oatmeal
- Yogurt

Lunch:
For the second meal of the day, I'm all about her feeding herself completely and not a lot of mess, so this is mostly finger foods that aren't sticky (with a few exceptions).

- Grains: plain noodles, crackers, 1/2 piece bread, goldfish if I'm feeling generous
- Proteins: Boiled eggs, cheese slices, egg salad, leftover chicken chunks
- Fruit: blueberries, strawberries, apple slices, mixed dried fruit, raisins, grapes
- Veggies: peas, cucumber sticks, tomato pieces, potato chips (hehe, my veggie list wasn't long enough)

Also have:
- Grilled cheese sandwiches (sometimes with tomato soup b/c, as we all know, dipping stuff is awesome) and PB sandwiches cut into 'fingers', which has been great
- Vegetable soup w/ crackers
- Tuna salad (including diced boiled eggs) w/ crackers
- Leftovers from last night's dinner

Sometimes when I'm feeling really froggy I'll make myself a huge sandwich or huge salad and just share with her, which she thinks is very fun. I haven't wanted either of these things since becoming pregnant, but they were favorites at the end of last year.

Kristen's ultimate Sandwich: turkey and/or ham, sliced cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber slices and italian dressing on the bread - yummo

Kristen's ultimate Salad: spinach or romaine lettuce, shredded carrots, diced cucs and tomatoes, raisins, sunflower seeds, goldfish, shredded cheddar or crumbled feta cheese, pieces of pepperoni, ham, or some other meat, and Italian or some other vinaigrette type dressing - Hannah got so excited when I would start making this; it was a 2-3x a week thing for a while.

Dinner:
Ah, the fun meal of the day. We let it all go here; we don't care how messy she gets (and she gets quite messy!), but we do care that she loves so much food! Not sure whether it was in her genes already or if she's just emulating what she's seen in her food-lovin' parents (or maybe it's my mad cooking skills....no? ok...), but either way, Hannah loves her some dinnertime, the more flavor, the better.

Favorite meals
- Tacos, tacos, tacos
- Quesadillas
- Enchiladas (basically anything Mexican)
- Noodles and marinara sauce with Daddy's homemade meatballs
- Pizza
- Chicken Parmesan and spaghetti
- Beans and rice (why this is so exciting, I cannot tell you, but I'm glad)
- Grilled Hamburgers, Mommy's homemade Mac N Cheese, and baked beans
- Chili
- Fish, Rice, and Steamed Broccoli
- Pot Roast with Carrots, Potatoes, Peas, etc.
- Any form of bread
- Grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas (or corn)
- BBQ chicken or pork
- B'fast for dinner: eggs, pancakes, bacon or sausage, biscuits
- Italian Chicken in the crockpot, Green beans, smashed/broiled potatoes
- Noodles with Italian sausage and pesto sauce
- Chicken pot pie with veggies

Basically, the more flavor the better. I think this is why she gets most excited about Mexican-type foods and things like chili. Example: My mom made the Buffalo Chicken Dip that is kinda a big hit at parties lately. I think it is borderline too spicy. I like it, but its definitely got hot wing sauce in it. We gave her some to see what she would do (I know, we are such good parents) and she just looked at us with no expression whatsoever and said, "more food..." as if it was nothing. Hilarious.

Ok, snacks:
- Yogurt-covered raisins
- Plain raisins
- Fruits listed above (grapes are great b/c they aren't really messy if she carries them around)
- Goldfish
- Mini nilla wafers (have to steal those from Mommy, YUM)
- Crackers with cream cheese
- Fruit snacks
- "Nuts" which are sunflower seeds
- Cucumber sticks
- Cheese sticks/slices
- Mixed dried fruit

As far as liquids go, she is not the best in the world. She will drink 1-1 1/2 sippy cups of whole milk a day (with reminding) and about 2 cups of water or juice a day. She likes milk, water, and juice just fine, she just doesn't think about it, which is why I have to throw out lots of reminders. I make sure she gets at least 3 full sippy cups a day and try to add another if she's been playing hard or been outside a lot. I have no idea if that is a good amount, but it seems to be workin' so far!

I realize I've been bragging about her eating. I am very pleased that she eats so well, but I want to be honest here so that people don't (a) think I'm annoying and (b) think (that I think) she is perfect - HA! She refuses to eat oranges of any kind, including mandarin, which is super weird. Apples are a favorite one day and a food snub the next. Green beans are also hit or miss. She will not touch broccoli IF IT HAS CHEESE ON IT- bizarre. She randomly decides she will not eat things that she has loved for over a year. Case in point: she went about 2 months where she flatly refused to eat chicken of any kind, which had previously been her favorite meat. Two months later, she went, "ooooh! chicken!" and gobbled it up and has been doing so ever since. She will decide in the middle of a meal that she is finished and then howl when you take her food away (she is learning that this doesn't work, so hopefully she'll cut this out soon).

If you read this far, congratulations. I did not mean for this to be so long, but hopefully it's been helpful! Also, please excuse typos, as I am up far too early today!