What Busy Moms Feed Their Kids

Hi Friends!

Since you guys enjoyed the posts I put together about What Registered Dietitians Feed Their Kids (Click to read Part 1 & Part 2), I decided to keep it going for a while and have reached out to a few of my favorite busy moms to share some more insight! Hopefully these posts will spark some ideas for you!

This is mostly a toddler edition, with a little info on younger kiddos from parents of multiple kids. Next round covers a few kiddos under 18 months so stay tuned for that!

 

Rachel
The Avid Appetite (theavidappetite.com)
Penelope, 20 months

1. What do your children typically eat for breakfast?
Penelope loves eggs (scrambled or fried, with cheese), yogurt, cream cheese & jam on whole wheat bread, fruit, or some organic dry cereal, and of course, her whole milk.

2. What do they typically eat for lunch?
Soup, mac ‘n cheese or pasta w/mixed vegetables, organic hot dogs, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers. Always with water on the side; I don’t give her juice right now.

3. Do you all sit down as a family for dinner?  
Unfortunately, I don’t arrive home from work until 7pm so Penelope has already eaten dinner by then. On the weekends, we do our best to have family breakfast together. We are typically on-the-go for the remainder of the day, so we eat together when we can.

 4. What happens if they don’t like what you’re making for dinners?
Though we don’t sit together for dinner, we try to give Penelope whatever we are eating. We are lucky that she’s a champ and eats almost anything we will give her. If she doesn’t want it, then we will try something else…but usually if she doesn’t want it, it means she just isn’t hungry and I don’t force her to eat.

5. What are the kids’ favorite snacks? What are some snacks you never leave the house without?
She loves fruit of any kind and that is always a go-to, even at home. For on the go, I like to have bananas or blueberries, which can usually stand being in my bag for a few hours. Applesauce and cheese sticks are great options, too. The reigning champion snack of all time for Penelope is yogurt melts. I always have bags of them everywhere. That would not be my first choice of snacks for her, but she truly loves them so much and they are my secret weapon for meltdowns or to keep her occupied. We also like organic fruit snacks (YumEarth are great and only come with 5 or 6 pieces per pack), and organic, healthy cookies from MySuperFoods, which are packed with whole grains, chia seeds, flax seed and more

6. Are any foods off limits?
No. From the get go, I wanted Penelope to develop a real love of food…all of it. So that means she gets bell peppers to dip in hummus (she LOVES her dip!), but also bites of cake at a party. If I’m eating something that Penelope is interested in (from iced tea or steak to blue cheese or peanut butter on a spoon), she gets to try it.

 7. Any tips for picky eaters?
We are lucky that Penelope is interested in food and so I wouldn’t consider her picky (yet). For those times that she isn’t, I will take her plate and start eating the food on it, ignoring her reaction. She will often come around, want to sit in my lap and try it. And if she doesn’t? I don’t push her. When she is hungry, she will eat.

 8. Do any of your kids have food allergies? How do you deal with that both at home and when in public?
Luckily, no. I really feel for parents who have to deal with this. It’s a scary notion, especially when sending your kids to daycare or school!

Kath Younger, RD
Kath Eats Real Food (www.katheats.com)
Mazen, age 2

1. What do your children typically eat for breakfast?
My son’s favorite breakfasts are scrambled eggs with whole wheat toast and sliced fruit or banana oatmeal with a dollop of peanut butter. He takes after his mama : ) We also do smoothies from time to time, and a green smoothie is a great way for me to sneak in some berries and veggies.

 2. What do they typically eat for lunch?
We rely on leftovers a lot for lunch. It’s hard for my 2-year-old to eat raw veggies, and he’s usually too hungry to wait for a whole meal to cook, so I most often re-heat something from the fridge (we plan for this by making extra at dinner). Some of his favorite lunch foods are currently (because they change every day!): mini quiches, carrots and crackers in hummus, noodles of any kind, sweet potato fries, fruit, quesadillas and nut butters.

 3. Do you all sit down as a family for dinner?
We try, but at age 2 this is pretty difficult. Sometimes when he takes a later nap and I’m really organized with dinner we can time it perfectly, but more often than not he’s hungry before dinner is ready. About half the time he eats while I’m cooking and then we eat while he plays, but the other half we all sit down together. I can say without a doubt that he tries more diverse foods when we eat at the same table, so I am working to make this a priority. He is also getting better at waiting a little later to eat, so that is helpful too.

 4. What happens if they don’t like what you’re making for dinners?
I try to go by the recommendation to have a few things we know he likes along with 1-2 new foods. We usually offer him the new food enthusiastically and model eating it ourselves. It’s a toss up if he’ll try it, but sometimes he does! We recently had chicken and pepper kebobs with orzo salad and he decided that night that he loved roasted red peppers but wouldn’t touch the orzo! He always surprises me. J We try to go with the flow as much as we can and keep offering and modeling.

 5. What are the kids’ favorite snacks? What are some snacks you never leave the house without?
One of our favorites this summer was yogurt frozen into a popsicle. I even let him have one for breakfast! I either make a smoothie popsicle with plain yogurt and a little fruit blended together or I buy the Siggi’s kids squeeze pops and freeze those. They are low in sugar, so I think it’s an excellent choice for breakfast, snack or dessert. I’ve also been making homemade whole grain bars (nut free for school) and freezing them so I can put one in the diaper bag and it will have thawed by the time he’s ready to eat it. Mini Larabars are great to keep too – the portion size is good and Mazen thinks they are a cookie!

 6. Are any foods off limits?
I’ve been more laid back about what my son eats than I might have predicted, but we try to avoid anything that is heavily processed or full of artificial ingredients. If another mom feeds it to him (like at a birthday party) I’m not going to freak out, but we don’t buy those kinds of things ourselves.

 7. Any tips for picky eaters?
Mazen has started to want to help me in the kitchen, so we pull up a chair and he helps stir the pancake batter or whisk dressing. The other week I had arugula in the salad spinner (which he loves to spin) and we had made a dressing, and I asked if he wanted to try the salad. He said yes and dipped about 20 arugula leaves in the dressing and eat them up. Let me pause to say: My child does not like salad! So my tip is to just be patient and involve them as much as possible.

8. Do any of your kids have food allergies? How do you deal with that both at home and when in public?
Thankfully no!

 

Brittany Dixon
A Healthy Slice of Life (ahealthysliceoflife.com)
Hailey (3 years old), Kaitlyn (4 months old)

 1. What do your children typically eat for breakfast? 
Kaitlyn is exclusively breastfed and I hope to do baby led weaning with her starting at 6 months, so I’ll just answer these for Hailey!

Hailey breakfast- Plain Greek yogurt topped with honey, fruit and chia seeds (she calls these sprinkles and loves putting them on herself!) is a favorite. She also loves scrambled eggs and cheese toast or pancakes.

 2. What do they typically eat for lunch? 
We are big fans of snack plates around here. I find lots of little options work well for us. Some common players are boiled eggs, olives, grapes, carrot sticks, chickpeas, cheese toast, red pepper slices, hummus, cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes and leftovers.

 3. Do you all sit down as a family for dinner?  
We don’t currently due to my husband’s work schedule. However, I do sit down with Hailey while she eats her dinner.

 4. What happens if they don’t like what you’re making for dinners?
I have a pretty adventurous eater, but she is still a toddler and her tastes change by the day. If she doesn’t like a particular item on her plate, I don’t make a big deal about it. She can eat all the other items on her plate and I’ll try the disliked item again another day.

5. What are the kids’ favorite snacks? What are some snacks you never leave the house without?
We love homemade lara balls , almonds and raisins, banana and peanut butter. I still buy the fruit and veggie pouches to have for a quick option on the go!

 6. Are any foods off limits?
Nope! As far as Hailey is concerned, everything is fine in moderation. However, I do my best to keep foods with artificial colors and flavors out of the house and most of what we eat at home is non- or minimally processed.

 7. Any tips for picky eaters?
Don’t make it a power struggle. Get kids involved with shopping and prepping and don’t be afraid to try foods they “don’t like” prepared in a new way! If all else fails, just keep at it. Consistency is huge!

 8. Do any of your kids have food allergies? How do you deal with that both at home and when in public?
Hailey does not and as far as I know, neither does Kaitlyn. My heart goes out to those that deal with food allergies because I can only imagine how stressful that must be. I gave Hailey her first taste of peanut butter sitting in the car in the parking lot of the hospital because I was so paranoid!

Liz Della Croce
The Lemon Bowl (thelemonbowl.com)
Asher, 3 years old and Jacob, 10 months old

1. What do your children typically eat for breakfast?
Both of my boys love whole milk plain yogurt sweetened with a little tart cherry juice, raspberry preserves, or applebutter for added flavor. My older son loves it with muesli cereal and fresh berries and the baby has it with fortified baby cereal. Other days we eat scrambled eggs, homemade frozen pancakes, or oatmeal when the weather gets cooler.

2. What do they typically eat for lunch?
Lunchtime is usually leftovers from dinner the night before. In the fall we love making soups like Lemony Chicken Soup with Spinach and Chickpeas or Italian Sausage and Bean Soup. It’s a great one pot meal full of protein, vitamins and nutrients. Plus, the food is already cut into small, bite-sized pieces, which is easy for the kids to eat.

 3. Do you all sit down as a family for dinner?
We sit down for dinner as a family every single night. We always ate dinner as a family growing up and I hope to always eat as a family as my boys get older. Cooking dinner is my favorite time of the day because all four of us are in the kitchen listening to music, singing, making the boys giggle as we dance, etc. It’s relaxing to unwind away from technology and I like investing the time to create nourishing meals for my family.

 4. What happens if they don’t like what you’re making for dinners?
If they don’t like what we are having for dinner, they simply don’t eat as much. My boys are not starving, I assure you. 😉 Some times they are hungry and eat three portions, other times they don’t eat a lot. I think adults should eat more like kids sometimes and not eat just because of habit or schedule. Kids follow their hunger/stomachs and I think we should all do more of that.

 5. What are the kids’ favorite snacks? What are some snacks you never leave the house without?
My toddler loves dried fruit like figs, tart cherries and raisins. He hasn’t been introduced to candy yet and I’m thinking he is going to have a sweet tooth one day. 😉 He also loves hummus and could eat it by the tub-full! My baby doesn’t really snack much yet because he usually nurses between meals but he really loves everything we are eating so far.

 6. Are any foods off limits?
Since I still create/buy all of the foods my kids eat, it has been pretty easy to control their diets. With that, I’m not buying candy bars, pop, juice, cookies, etc. Can they have ice cream at a party? Of course. Am I going to go out of my way to give them sweets all the time? Definitely not. Since I don’t eat those foods, I’m not going to serve it to my kids but I’m not unrealistic to think that they will never have a candy bar. 😉

 7. Any tips for picky eaters?
I think it’s important to put a little thought into the foods we serve kids. Instead of steaming cauliflower, try Curried Roasted Cauliflower with Coconut Oil. Instead of boiling green beans, try Za’atar Roasted Carrots and Green Beans. Don’t be afraid of using spices and at the very least, be sure to properly season with a good amount of salt and pepper. Remember, no matter what, when you’re cooking foods from scratch at home you will never have as much sodium as you find in processed packaged foods so don’t be afraid of salt.

 8. Do any of your kids have food allergies? How do you deal with that both at home and when in public?
So far no they don’t, knock on wood. Our baby hasn’t had nuts yet but fingers crossed he will be like his toddler and able to eat anything.

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That’s all for today! Stay tuned for part 2 coming in a few weeks!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

PS. Don’t forget to join us for the PIN IT PARTY tomorrow!!! You can see all the details in the last Pin It Party post (CLICK HERE) if you’re not familiar with how it works!