What my Toddler Eats

I try to push myself to be strict with what Elliana eats from day one. Of course there are moments {especially when mama has been pregnant} when I let her have the occasional bite of my chocolate, ice cream, cookie, and any other yummy treat that I am shoving my face into. Why? Because I believe in not letting this whole organic and such thing get to my head and drive me completely bonkers. Because I believe that kids should be kids. Because realistically, I realize I can't keep her away from certain things forever. I can restrict them, sure. But there is no such thing as never. 

That is unless I decide to lock her up in my basement for the next 50 years.....

That being said, there are certain things that we have done from day one and will continue to instill in our children.

For one, we have kept her on only water since we started introducing her to a sippy cup {which she only drips out of a cup now}. At the beginning, we did however have to add 1 ounce of apple juice {6 moths old} just so she would get used to the water, but in no time she no longer needed it. Now she downs 3-4 cups of water a day, asks for it, and does the whole "mmm aahhhh" after she drinks it. She's a hoot. Again, I have nothing against juice... i'm just thankful that she likes water as much as she does.

When it comes to breakfast, she had the SAME thing every morning since she was about 5-6 months old until about a year old. The organic oatmeal/cereal with bananas and breastmilk {now organic cow milk}. And now we just do cereals. Again, we stick with just the organic {Cascadian Farm and Nature's Path Whole o's}. The nature's path organic cereal is the BEST. It has I believe only 6gm of sugar in it. And she loves it. So we stick with a banana, cereal, and a cup of milk for our breakfasts. We do the occasional eggs, bacon, and toast as a treat on weekends... but Elliana? Wants none of that.

As for lunch, I'm a big soup lover. So I love to try out new soups. She loves them too. We also do peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches {often times I will just use one piece of whole grain bread instead of two, and just break it in half}, and then I throw in fruit and {sometimes} veggies on the side. She normally eats 50-100% of it... depending on her mood. Again, I say throw in veggies... because now it is honestly getting harder than before... and we are actually trying out veggie smoothies in our house so that I no longer have to force her with the veggies on her plate.

We also do deli sandwhiches... which she seems to like. And also Annie's homegrown organic mac n cheese with mixed veggies. She does great with this meal because the veggies {carrots, peas, grean beans, corn} are mixed in the mac n cheese.

As far as dinner goes, she eats whatever we eat.... which again, we try to be very conscious of what we eat. We never eat beef anymore, and buy 93% or 99% fat free turkey. We always incorporate veggies, some sort of protein, and a side which varies from rice, pasta, or potato. And the dinners that I have found that have worked best for her have the ones you can mash up easily and don't have too many crazy textures, such as, lasagna, mexican rice and chicken casserole, spaghetti and turkey meatballs, etc.

Veggies: I often times resort to the bag of frozen mixed vegetables by birds eye or other companies. These are fresh veggies just frozen, and they are SO easy to fix up for dinners.

Snacks: we do a variety. Cottage cheese with a teaspoon of raspberry preserve. Organic yogurt with fruit. Kashi cereal bars. Plum organic pouches {I suggest the ones with the vegetables in it... which is another great source of veggies for E}, organic animal crackers, fruit, a cup of the organic nature O's cereal {loves}, annie's snacks, plum-organics, vegetable pouches, and more.

Really, what seems to just work best for us is being consistent. E does best once she gets used to certain meals, foods, etc. So introduce them slowly and I try new recipes slowly. 

Of course, we have our bad days. And lately more than before. But we are learning ... 

And like my doctor says... sometimes.... they may just not eat a meal. And that's okay!