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In a toddler induced food rut- please help me out of it

9 replies

Nc4post99 · 23/08/2021 15:14

Please help me with breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner ideas for my nearly 2 year old, I’m at the stage where I feel like I don’t like most of what we eat (which sucks for me) and meals are a bit samey. She’s not what I’d call fussy per se but she’s hit and miss and exceptionally stubborn.

We tend to have similar every week. She’s in nursery 3 days a week but has dinner at home. She won’t eat fish (not even a fishfinger) but will eat a fishcake, she’s gone off meat entirely too, and she used to love pulses and rice (think daals) but now won’t touch them. Won’t eat porridge, I’ve tried making her breakfast bars and snacks, they don’t get eaten, she also won’t eat cakes (so can’t make muffins as snacks). We don’t eat pork and tend to use leftover meat for dinner.

So this is what we do rn.

Breakfast- some sort of cereal, milk and fruit (rice crispies, shredded wheat, weetabix etc) this can stay the same
Snack 1: brioche/ malt loaf with butter/ toast with different toppings and half a banana and a cup of milk
Lunch: this is where we strugs. So will do pizza tartlets/ pitta pizza (basically the same thing on w slightly different base) Jacket potato half beans half hoops (she won’t eat pure beans) with cheese, cheese/ tuna/ egg sandwich, egg on toast, omelette, you get the idea.
Snack 2: yogurt and fruit/ malt loaf/ brioche/ cheese and crackers and a cup of milk
Snack 3: basically another variant of the snacks above / maybe some low salt crisps or a trail mix of raisins, cereal, seeds and a few chocolate chips.
Dinner- in order of how they appear in the week mon-fishcake and chips (all home made, sometimes store bought FC) tues- left over meat from Sunday roast into some sort of pasta dish, wed- some sort of slow cooked curry or stew with mash or rice, Thursday- some sort of pasta bake, Friday- some other sort of slow cooked stew or curry with either mash or rice- might make it a pie if we feel fancy lol or maybe a Spanish omelette. Sat- daal rice and chapatis, Sunday roast either chicken or beef with trimmings.
Dessert is yoghurt and or fruit

Anyone got any food inspo for one bored of food mummy?

We have pasta twice because it’s her favourite food and we know she’ll eat it, I’m weird but I hate pasta. she’s a skinny Minnie so we walk a fine line between needing to ensure she does eat and giving her what we have. She eats her fruit and veg fine, so she gets enough of that.

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Nc4post99 · 23/08/2021 18:00

Oh love the bread pudding and noodle ones, i think they might go down a treat! Thank you! Her majesty has stopped eating risotto, before she used to enjoy a cheesy butter nut squash risotto but now she won’t touch it. 😭

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mafted · 23/08/2021 18:21

Honestly just cook the food you want to eat, make sure there's something she will safely eat on offer even if it leads to an odd combination and leave her to it.

Also three snacks of yoghurt/malt loaf/cheese/brioche with milk is possibly quite filling. If she's not very hungry then she's more likely to refuse dinner.

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RedMosquito · 23/08/2021 18:33

My kids love the sesame chicken noodles that was recommended above, they also love the my fussy eater smoky meatball pasta bake.
I make a few bbc good food recipes that they also love, the easy teriyaki chicken with a load of broccoli, chicken and chorizo jambalaya, chicken parmigiana and falafel burgers I’ll try to add links below

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-parmigiana?utm_source=app

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-chorizo-jambalaya?utm_source=app

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-teriyaki-chicken?utm_source=app

Nc4post99 · 23/08/2021 18:52

@mafted

Honestly just cook the food you want to eat, make sure there's something she will safely eat on offer even if it leads to an odd combination and leave her to it.

Also three snacks of yoghurt/malt loaf/cheese/brioche with milk is possibly quite filling. If she's not very hungry then she's more likely to refuse dinner.

We make the 3rd snack quite light and she always has a 2.5 hr break between that and dinner, we’ve tried to mimic her nursery routine at home. She’s also a petite girl so any chance to fatten her up lol. She’s the same with lunch tbh, just hit and miss.
Sometimes she devours a roast and will ask for more, others she’ll scoff the carrots, pick at the spuds and Chuck the yorkie- tough girl to please. Lol x
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mafted · 23/08/2021 20:58

@Nc4post99
I remember those days all too well! Three of my four hit the picky phase at 2 or 3 with a vengeance Grin
Just keep serving up lots of different types of food along side the safer options and it will get better. It's good for her to see you enjoying your food rather enduring her limited range of meals.
I always reassured mine that they didn't have to eat anything they didn't want to but they did have to sit at the table and they weren't allowed to make yuk eww comments.
It's a long game but it did pay off, mine eat things that even I don't like now!

Nc4post99 · 23/08/2021 21:43

@mafted it’s tough isn’t it! Plus we eat quite early for her routine so there’s just not a lot of time to cook there and then, so a lot of what I make as to be prepped before hand. Don’t get me wrong we vary the curry style dishes (different meats, veg and style of curry Thai, Indian etc) she currently leaves them all, only dunking her flatbreads in the sauce and eating the veg on the side 🙄, same with the stews (dumplings, chicken pie, beef pie etc). But I’m just sick of it all, things that aren’t pasta centric (not lasagne, homegirl won’t touch that) or a roast are largely prodded 🙄

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skkyelark · 23/08/2021 21:49

Lunch:

  • Quesadillas, fairly similar to pizza, so might go down well
  • Ring the changes on the jacket potato, tuna and sweetcorn, broccoli and cheese, etc?
  • Eggy bread with whatever savoury accompaniments you like. Can also do pancakes with savoury fillings, but I find that a bit more faff than eggy bread.
  • Picky lunch of cheese, biscuits, veg sticks, etc.

Snack: Does she like things like crumpets, (toasting) muffins, potato scones, just for a bit more variety? Similarly different sorts of cheese – I'd have been rubbish at predicting which ones my DD would like (stilton, yes; mozzarella, no, although she's since come round to mozzarella on pizza). Apple slices with peanut butter? Hummus or soft cheese and pita/veg sticks to dip?

Dinner:

  • Stir fry with noodles? Lots of ways to vary this, and might go down well with a pasta-lover
  • 'Shepherd's pie' made with lentils instead of meat, if she's off meat? It's quite a different texture from daal, so might avoid her current lentil-refusal.
Nc4post99 · 23/08/2021 22:04

@skkyelark

Lunch:
  • Quesadillas, fairly similar to pizza, so might go down well
  • Ring the changes on the jacket potato, tuna and sweetcorn, broccoli and cheese, etc?
  • Eggy bread with whatever savoury accompaniments you like. Can also do pancakes with savoury fillings, but I find that a bit more faff than eggy bread.
  • Picky lunch of cheese, biscuits, veg sticks, etc.

Snack: Does she like things like crumpets, (toasting) muffins, potato scones, just for a bit more variety? Similarly different sorts of cheese – I'd have been rubbish at predicting which ones my DD would like (stilton, yes; mozzarella, no, although she's since come round to mozzarella on pizza). Apple slices with peanut butter? Hummus or soft cheese and pita/veg sticks to dip?

Dinner:

  • Stir fry with noodles? Lots of ways to vary this, and might go down well with a pasta-lover
  • 'Shepherd's pie' made with lentils instead of meat, if she's off meat? It's quite a different texture from daal, so might avoid her current lentil-refusal.
Quesadillas are a great idea, she might eat them. We do the different toppings on JP, hoops and beans just go down the best lol. She did love cauli and broc cheese- quite easy to make too. She likes mac and cheese too so this is a good shout! I’ll try her with french toast/ eggy bread again- she’d been iffy with it before.

She stopped eating crumpets, she does like hummus (sometimes) so I think she might eat toast/ pitta with it maybe. I do tend to give things that I know she eats, I’m concerned with her growth so would rather she eats. But maybe I should do more of a like it or lump it with snacks.

She loves noddles and anything spaghetti adjacent so I can definitely do more stir fry’s.
Love the lentil shepherds pie idea too!

Thank you!

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