Food suggestions for twin toddlers

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

mix and serve.. mine loveit..

 

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...

 

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...)

 

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

 

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 !!!!!

 

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!!!

 

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!

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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).

 

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

 

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!!!

 

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

 

QUOTE(naomi02 @ Jun 28 2007, 11:36 AM) [snapback]310405[/snapback]
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!!

 

QUOTE(kaysyd @ Jun 27 2007, 12:42 PM) [snapback]309221[/snapback]
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!

 

LOVE the yogurt covered cheerios idea!!!!

 

DD stopped eating veggies this week for no good reason. Even her favored carrots are refused, so to get good old veggies in her and avoid having to serve baby food again, I chopped the carrots very fine, cooked them down in the microwave, and mixed them with crushed tomatos, then served that as a "sauce" over spaghetti. They LOVED it and didn't even notice that the carrots were hidden inside. Also, when all else fails, I put parmesan cheese on almost anything and they'll eat it, at least a little, to get the cheese flavor.

 

anything frozen. -- still frozen.
frozen blueberries, frozen banana slices, frozen peas. ice cream or frozen yogurt. pop sicles (frozen fruit juice bars).

frozen pizza and frozen corn dogs -- they eat these cooked and still warm. LOL

they will eat anything if they can dip it in ketchup, alfredo sauce, salsa, sour cream, salad dressings, etc.

bowtie pasta

anything that is on MY plate.

 

The girls love pita pockets w/ cream cheese. I get the mini pita pockets (from Publix - they're about 2" across), cut them in half and fill w/ cream cheese. They like the regular and the strawberry flavor cream cheese.

They also love the idea of a picnic. I'll make the pita pockets and put some grapes or baby carrots (raw), etc. on a plate and we eat out on their mats on the patio or on the floor in the living room. They think it's fun.

 

My guys love Fish Sticks, and they like to dip them in chocolate pudding.

They love Chicken nuggets, chicken tenders and chicken fillets.

Their favorite veggies are carrots and corn. They would prefer corn on the cob than out of the can.

They LOVE pork roast. That is how I get them to eat so many carrots.

They LOVE the lunchables, they make sandwiches out of the meats, cheeses and crackers. Plus, it comes with a drink.

My guys also like the sweet potato fries, especially with a little cinnamon sprinkled over them.

They like just about all the different rice varieties that you buy in a box. Their fave is broccoli and cheese.

They aren't real big on fruits, but they get their servings from the juicy juice. They drink 2 containers of juicy juice a day. (46 ounces total, so split between them is 23 ounces). Plus they still drink two sippies of milk a day, once in the morning, and one before bed.

 

QUOTE
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.


That sounded so good, I made a couple for myself just now! Turned out perfect. What took a few seconds doing it this way would have taken me forever cooking them on the stove top.

 

A lot of great ideas here: I'll add my two cents. I used to think my girls were GREAT eaters, but I think they've just hit the toddler wall. I'm forging my way through, though.

Quesadillas: I use refried black beans, mexican style shredded cheese and usually whole grain tortillas. Take, oh, 1 minute to prepare.

Edamame (shelled): These are perfect finger food veggies. (Soy beans, is the English name)

Any meatballs -- store bought, homemade, etc. I often make meatloaf muffins ... by mixing up the loaf mixture and putting them in muffin pans and baking. Takes less time to bake and gives individual servings. They also like to dip burger chunks into ketchup or fries, but we don't do this much.

Grilled cheese, tuna mixed with Annie's shells and cheddar, spinach mixed with anything like eggs or pasta, PBandJ on whole wheat, oatmeal mixed with PB for some added protein, all fresh fruits.

I also like to make some sort of bread to have on hand each day: muffins, quick veggie or fruit breads, etc. Just in case they turn everything else down.

Also, I learned that snacks do not help with anything but causing lack of hunger so I do limit those to only special times and usually only healthy snacks like fruit or cheese.

Oh, and Nutella on bread or toast is a great choice as well. It has protein, and it's always a hit.

I also like to introduce new foods in fun, new ways ... like when they are especially hungry before a meal but before we actually sit down. Also, I'll pretent like that new food is just for me, and naturally they want some.

 

This recipe is actually from Rachel Ray and though I haven't done this particular one yet, I've never had a failed Rachel Ray recipe. Once my kids can eat peanut butter I will deffinately be trying this one.

take some peanut butter, banana, and honey and blend it in a food processor.
when it's all combined and smooth, spread it on two pieces of bread and put together
mix one egg with a little milk in a bowl
dip the sandwich in the egg like you were going to make french toast
cook it in the pan on both sides
cut it up into strips and eat away

I think I remember she also had a small bowl of syrup for dipping but it sounds so good even without the syrup IMO

 

One of my twins eats great but the other one needs to be coaxed into eating his vegetables (which is funny because we eat mainly veg and I have no idea where he got it from, that veggies, especially green ones, are yuck).
He loves cooking though. So we have made pizza a few times:
(it is not for the superclean moms! Quite messy!)
-make pizza dough (they can put in the eggs, pour the water, mix in the butter)
-using your (washed) hands you (all 3 of you) "play" with the dough until it is just right then you make 4 little pizzas for instance
-then you put some tomato sauce on it, let them do it with their fingers, they love that
-prepare plates with stuff to spread on it, we use broccoli, carrots, cauliflower etc... plus some chicken ham and let them decorate their own pizzas (put cheese on top otherwise it won't hold on to the pizza)
-oven, 12 minutes, done

My boys love it because they have made it themselves and therefore it is cool!
Millie

 

this is a quick easy one. i always have meatballs in the freezer in individual baggies. defrost in micro add any small pasta and ricotta cheese...serve
also i do this with egg instead of meatball or with a jar of veggies if i am in a pickle or out somewhere.

 

my boys will eat just about anything! i just started making mini-quiches as time savers and now they are a staple:
one large pot. w/ one small onion -fried like hash browns
5 eggs
one cup milk
2 breakfast sausages-prepared and cubed small enough for your child!
1/2 cup chedder cheese
one roasted pepper-cut up
mix together and pour into cupcake foils
bake at 350 for about 40 minutes
cool and eat, i freeze mine right in foils (in a freezer bag). to reheat, pop in micro for about 90 seconds.
ENJOY!!

 

My kids LOVE waffles. So I put peanut butter (A thin layer) and make it a sanwich and cut it up. The love it like that...its good protien. I also buy Veggie chips. They still think they are getting chips, but it has hardly any fat, no colesterol, and is made from veggies. I get them in the organic section. They also make them in stick version and I call them french fries.

A friend also told me she takes those gerber pick me up carrots and puts them in the mac and cheese. They eat it up and dont even think about it!!

Also, my kids love the drinkable yogurt...and slices of cheese. I give the cheese as snacks!

 

Our girls are still pretty decent eaters (for toddlers anyway).

Feggs w/ cheese & spinach or oatmeal or multigrain cheerios (their fav bcuz I eat them almost evryday). Can't wait to try the yogurt trick!

About once a month, I make a big batch of whole wheat pancakes or waffles (from scratch) and freeze them in ziploc bags. Pop them in the toaster and voila. Healthy, quick & filling brkfst or snack.

Annie's crackers in snackcups. They love all the varieties.

Crock pot meals. They love them. Here's our favorite: (I add beef, carrots, potatos. It's got lots of great beans and spices - low in sodium too!)
http://www.purelyamerican.com/catalog/prod...%20Roast%20Stew

Organic berries from the farmers market. Sam's favorite!
Pears from our tree are ripening now. They are crazy about them!

Anything round (peas, plums, meatballs, etc). It looks like a ball. They LOVE balls!

Try roasting veggies in the oven w/ a little olive oil, salt and pepper (I do this w/ asparagus, zuchinni, eggplant, peppers, etc). It's much more flavorful than steaming and better texture too.

Sausage (we buy the nitrate free) and take the casing off and crumble it (like on pizza). They love so many of the varieties.

We are lucky that they will eat almost everything that we eat. If it's on mom/dad's plate it must be good!

Although anything that is really cold or hot, they refuse.

 

Here are three of my boys' favorite dinners. One boy is very picky
and the other is a pretty good eater. They both love these meals and
the whole family can eat them together:


Chicken and Rice Soup

2-3 boneless chicken breasts
1 c. carrots, chopped
1 c. onion, chopped
1 box herb seasoned rice mix
1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup

Cook chicken breasts in approximately 6 c. water. Add some
chicken boullion for extra flavor. Remove chicken from pan, cut
up into small pieces and return to pan with onions, carrots, and
rice mix (with seasoning). You can also add some mushrooms if
you like. When carrots are tender add cream soup and stir until
heated through. Serve with saltine crackers or gold fish
crackers and finger jello.


Salmon Patties

1 can salmon
2 eggs
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1/2 c. bread or saltine cracker crumbs
Salt and pepper

Drain salmon and remove any bones. Mix all ingredients together
in a medium-sized bowl. Form salmon mixture into patties and fry
in a hot skillet with a little vegetable oil. Brown on both
sides. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes and canned fruit.


Corned Beef Hash

6 medium potatoes
1 c. onion, chopped
1 can corned beef

Wash and peel potatoes. Boil potatoes in a large pan until
tender. While you're cooking the potatoes, brown the onions in
some butter in a large frying pan. Add corned beef and stir
until lightly browned. Stir in boiled potatoes, mixing until
potatoes are desired consistency. Serve with green beans and
dinner rolls.

 

QUOTE(melissao @ Jun 20 2007, 12:30 AM) [snapback]299343[/snapback]
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


I have an article I wrote on finger foods and a few recipes my twins really like:
Healthy Finger Foods for Toddlers
Finger Food Fruit Salad Recipe
Toddler Tri-Color Pasta Salad