Help Me Redo My Grocery list...desparate! (PLEASE!!)

Why don't you try googling some healthy cookie or muffin recipies. I've tasted some pretty yummy avacado cookies once (avacado in place of butter)?

My girls love granola (homemade), raisins, popcorn, fruit and veggies with dip.

Can you hide other foods in stuff you give her that she will eat? For example- my kid hates veggies but loves pizza so I slip veggies under the cheese and she eats it not realizing there's more there then cheese, sauce, and crust.
I'm sorry I don't have any ideas for you on stuff to give her. My kid is super picky about what she eats and so I make her a few staples and then just slip in other healthy stuff.
I don't really know what would be gf so I don't really have any ideas on what you could give her. Maybe different fruits? Can she have smoothies that you can sneak other nutritious stuff into?

Oh and Momof4- gf is gluten free (correct Mrslavallie?)

I'm with Laurie A. It doesn't have to be meal appropriate (meaning "breakfast" foods at breakfast)... And not too much food on the plate in front of her. That is overwhelming to some children. A few bites of 2 or 3 things is more than enough. You can always replenish the plate, but too much piled on at the start just makes some of them shut down before they ever even eat anything.

And I have a child that has never eaten any sort of dips or sauces. I laugh at the moms who like to suggest "let them dip it in ___" and they'll eat it. Umm.. not my child. Now that she is 11, she will eat 3 "dips"... ranch dressing (only on salad items like lettuce and cucumber), tostitos white queso with corn chips, and the polynesian sauce from ChikFila on chicken nuggets from ChikFila. That's it. No catsup, no mustard, no mayo, no BBQ sauces, no cheese sauce, no gravy, no nothing else. She also won't eat mac n cheese or a baked potato or mashed potatoes.

What she WILL eat, is virtually ANY meat, grilled. Just don't sauce it up with anything. No BBQ sauce on ribs, for example. Season it, but no sauce.

She also has loved olives from a young age, both green pimento stuffed and black olives. She will eat a quesadilla with diced grilled chicken and cheese (no other ingredients and no salsa or sour cream, thank you).
She loved strawberries. And still will eat them, especially with ReddiWhip. (hmmm, does that count as a dip?) Also blackberries, raspberries or granny smith apples. No appleSAUCE (even from babyhood no applesauce). And no other KIND of apple, only granny smith.
I have made her PB sandwiches with thin slices of peeled granny smith apple layered in the middle. My son LOVES them.

Will she eat (can she eat?) sweet potatoes? Or greek yogurt (not sure if that is gluten free or not)?

What about a slice of pizza for breakfast (or a snack)? Fresh slices of peach?

My kids have even discovered that they like RAW green beans. They actually preferred some veggies raw. Neither will eat a steamed carrot. They love them raw. Raw broccoli only, for my son.

Perhaps rather than an entire new menu, you might switch up how you prepare the same things.... instead of a plate with salad on it, serve a plate with 2 black olives, 2 green olives, 2 or 3 small cubes of monterey jack cheese, a small leaf of romaine lettuce (still intact, not torn), a slice of cucumber, with a few dices of plain meat (no sauce or breading or casserole style meats).

Good luck.

ETA: oh... forgot to ask.. does she refuse ALL eggs, or have you offered them to her in multiple ways (fried, scrambled, boiled, poached). I have one who will only eat them scrambled and one who loves them fried (in just a touch of olive oil) for breakfast. But the one will eat them boiled as a snack with salt on them almost anytime!

Other fruits(nectarines, grapes, melon, berries, pineapple, etc.), cherry tomatoes, black olives, cauliflower, edamame(our store sells it frozen as a bag of individually wapped packets with Dora on them), nut-based crackers, black bean chips, rice noodles, fried rice, GF french toast, oatmeal, grits, or quinoa.

Helpful advice someone else gave me on here when I asked for breakfast ideas for picky eaters was to remember that anything can be a breakfast food. If my son asks if rice cakes or rice crispy treats count as cereal, I say yes. And the other day he ate a turkey burger patty sliced into strips and dipped in teriyaki sauce- for breakfast.

ETA: for my son, I don't cook a totally different meal, instead I serve him a different or simpler version using similar ingredients. If we're having ravioli with tomato sauce and meatballs, he might have spaghetti with soy sauce and raw tomatoes. We have baked salmon, he has shrimp. We have cooked carrots and mushrooms, he has raw. We have mashed potatoes, he has oven-baked potato cubes. We have burgers with all the fixings, he has chopped burger and vegetables stir-fried.
He does go through phases of liking different things. He liked breakfast sausage links for a whole year. Then bacon. Then salami. Then beef jerky. We just have to keep finding something new to try, and try to get him to taste it before deciding he doesn't like it.

Smoothies based on coconut milk are great. You can add carrot juice, avocado, bananas, whey protein powder (which I think is lactose free, but please check!) and they still taste great.

Chopped up avocado. Give her hummus to dip those rice cakes in. Chopped up nitrate free deli meats. Roast beef (I was amazed at how my toddlers gobbled up small pieces), rice and beans, corn tortillas.

First of all keep offering the things you eat, so that she can eat.. But just a tiny bit. If she eats it great.. add a tiny bit more, if not, no big deal.

Eventually, she may accidentally try it

If you make eggs for yourself, make a tiny bit with lactose less cheese. cheese for her. Some children like eggs with ketchup.

Cantaloupe, grapes cut in half, strawberries, honey dew, peaches

.. Corn tortilla, quesadillas. With lactoseess cheese. Tofu cheese cheese, maybe some chicken if she will eat plain chicken.

Brown rice.. especially formed into little balls.

Beans, with no juice. Like black beans or pinto beans but rinsed.

Squash steamed with a bit of butter, but cut into slices instead of rounds.

Zucchini steamed into slices, with spaghetti sauce for her to dip it into.

Sweet potato fries, or tiny baked red potatoes.

Make things size appropriate. Some parents make the helpings way to big, or use plates that are way too big for a child.

Little turkey meatballs. I grate carrots or zucchini into the ground turkey, before cooking.

Our daughter liked "plain food" meaning no sauces. I would roast a chicken or grill it and then use the plain meat for all sorts of things.

And yes, remember typical foods for breakfast do not matter. Just make it healthy.

for breakfast we usually do oatmeal. Check for GF. i make it with more oatmeal than water because I like a little bite. then let her choose what she wants to put in it: raisins, bananas, apples, brown sugar, peanut butter, chocolate chips, syrup, nuts, sprinkles, blueberries, raspberries. My kids favorite? peanut butter and chocolate chips (just a few). the little one likes banana in it (like me) and the older one likes the banana on the side. we splash on a little milk to take the heat off which of course can be non dairy. better than a lot of kids cereals anyway. the sprinkles are fun and a few sprinkles are nothing to really worry about nutrition wise. yes there is no nutrition in them but we are talking not even a 1/4 teaspoon worth. My kids didnt end up like the sprinkles. the oatmeal is super filling. letting them choose what they want it in gives them some control. good luck.

Our "easy" GF snack is string cheese/cottage cheese and fruit. Glutino pretzels and hummus is another that is sometimes part of our 3yr old's "meal."

How long after your daughter wakes up is she getting breakfast? In our family, we have a "I have to eat right away" person and a "please don't ask me to eat anything for at least an hour after I'm awake" one. Maybe it's the timing of breakfast?

Smoothies are a great way to pack in a lot of nutrients/foods if your daughter will have them. You can also freeze them for a "popsicle" which is great for the summertime. Have you tried different preparations of food? My daughter refused fried/scrambled/poached eggs but loooooves hardboiled eggs.

Also, we instituted a "you have to at least try it" rule at our house. She doesn't have to have what we eat for dinner, but she has to at least try one (even if it's small) bite of everything. Since then, she's been a lot more open to "just trying" a bite and finding new things she likes.

Kids can be so different that it hard for me to make suggestions other than some of the oddball stuff that works for us. My son doesn't eat GF but my husband does so a lot of what we serve is GF.

Corn tortillas are very versatile...brush with olive oil and try different toppings then bake in the oven (refried beans, roasted vegies like bell peppers/zucchini/carrots/etc, chicken or shredded pork). There are even blue corn tortillas

My son loves to eat frozen vegies (yes, still frozen) especially peas and corn. I give him a 1/4 cup serving before the meal when he is "too hungry to make it to dinner". They make a great snack.

You mention she likes apples but I don't know what other fruits you have tried. If she doesn't like fresh then have you tried dried (apricots, mangoes, raisins, craisins are good choices). You can mix carrots with peanut butter. Also try fruit smoothies made in the blender: I buy bags of mixed frozen fruit, put it in the blender with a little water or fruit juice, add a little honey (I also add some protein powder because my son doesn't like most meats).

My son hates foods mixed together so I often just feed him the raw ingredients of what I am cooking for us. He much prefers raw food to cooked food.

Good base starches for GF meals: quinoa, brown rice, potatoes, rice noodles (buy your rice noodles at a large Asian food store because they will be really cheap), wild rice, corn tortillas

Both wild rice and quinoa make a great hot cereal for morning, add chopped nuts and maple syrup.

Do you have GF cookbooks? I love Bette Hagman's "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Fast and Healthy. I buy the gluten free ingredients at the co-op food store and the Asian food store and then make up bins of her GF flour, GF pancake mix, and GF biscuit mix on hand for quick, easy meal add-ons. Some of the ingredients like xanthum gum are expensive up front but they will last you a long time. Much more cost effective than buying GF waffles or GF bread/cake mixes.

Sorry my post is kind of all over the place, just brainstorming.

Whenever I feel like my son doesn't eat very many foods I make a list of what he does eat and I am surprised that he eats more than I think. Keep experimenting with different foods in different forms and combos. Remember it can take 15 tries before a young kid likes a new food especially if it isn't a "sweet" food. I would also start limiting the snacks so she starts to understand the distinction between meals and snacks.

Here's the thing. You can "be the dictator mom" or you can be the other kind. I find absolutely no reason to fight over mealtime. It is such a stinking waste of time.

The facts are:

Kids do NOT eat when they get hungry, they go without and then they get used to not eating much. So their bones and organs don't develop well. They don't eat anything if you don't feed them foods they like to eat. She eats so much of it when you let her have it because she is basically starving.

I think you have learned what you need to do. At this point what are you going to do with that information?

Are you going to continue to let her go without eating anything or are you going to plan your menu around the foods she likes so she will get in the habit of eating more. She will start trying different foods about the time she hits kindergarten or first grade when she sees her friends eating a variety of different foods.

You will still have to let her have choices in the evening meal time if you want her to eat but she needs the opportunity to eat foods she likes and have that nutrition.

I personally don't find anything wrong with mac and cheese or tuna or even tamales. She is not living on chocolate and pop so she is a step above a lot of kids.

How bout anything, she can dip. My son is a little older than your daughter & he loves anything " dipable". Sorry, I don't know if these are GF but I think they would / could be... Salsa , hummus, guacomole. Anything sour cream based. My son loves sourcream with finely diced cucumbers. Sorry, if some of those aren't GF.

ETA: Toddlers are natural grazers. So, I think as long as her snacking is somewhat healthy, that's a good start.

I think that you're doing fine with her. It sounds like you are just concerned about variety. I think that that's a good enough variety for her age, and she certainly seems to be satisfied with it. You don't have to stress over this; your daughter is doing great. I know that it's not so easy; these are things that you never had to think about before she came along, and now you have to obsess. I am a reigning duchess of obsessing over what the kid eats and is exposed to, making sure that it's all "right", and I am saying "YOU'RE GOOD."

(It's at times like this when I am so very thankful for breastfeeding. Doesn't it come in handy?")

ETA: My son and I tested negative for CD, but I have a definite sensitivity to gluten, and my son seems to respond to it negatively, as well. Oats make me bleed and bind his bowels. I'm not strictly gf for him, but we are strictly oat free. I'd like to find him some good gf products, though. Instead of transitioning to oatmeal, he still eats his organic brown rice cereal, with fruit and juice to the desired consistency. He loves spinach, and I feed him potatoes (with olive oil because he doesn't drink milk other than my milk). He loves lasagna and spaghetti with spinach, and he can eat it two or three times a day for weeks at a time. I feel bad giving it to him like that, but it's a balanced meal, so.... (Just letting you know that I understand where you're coming from, and I think that you are doing a great job.)

I'm on a gluten free, lactose free diet and I know that eliminates 90% of the food in the grocery store. One of my favorite foods is bananas dipped in a mixture of coconut oil and organic cocoa powder. If you cut up the bananas and refrigerate them for awhile, the coconut oil will solidify when you pour it on the bananas (solidifies at 76 degrees). Another food I enjoy is quinoa. I buy it bulk at $4.59 lb. but it goes a long way - cheaper than boxed cereal and lots of protein. I add olive oil and salt but there are many recipes online.

My GF niece loves turkey bacon and sausage in the morning with an apple. She also eats cucumber rolls as a snack or packets of cashew butter. Best of luck. I know what a challenge it is to be GF.

ALSO, not sure if you've tried, but does she have cute/fun/pretty plates/silverware? Maybe try toothpicks as silverware? Fun eating is a big deal to kids :)
Are you on Facebook? I 'like' a bunch of pages on there dealing with this. Please look up Paleo Parents, Growing Up Paleo, Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom, Against All Grain, cave girl Eats, Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations, Everyday Paleo, Marks Daily Apple, Paleo Approved, Paleo Parents, Paleo Momma, Primal Toad, Nom Nom Paleo, Wheat Belly, Celiac Handbook,
My favorites are Balanced Bites, Whole 9, The Wahls Foundation, Weston A. Price, Autoimmune Paleo And You, and you MUST get the book Eat Like A Dinosaur (Full of kid friendly recipes).
All these pages always have posts of great recipes. Good for you for being concerned about her health, and also for bf'ing her for this long! Love to hear that! :)

Don't have time to read the rest right now...

Boring diets, as long as they're complete... Are. Okay.

The archeological record has whole societies living into their 80s-100s on a diet of nothing but the same 5 things over and over and over excluding periodic windfalls (tortillas/bread/noodles, legumes, peppers, oil, alcohol... Grain+legume = complete protein, peppers provided vitamins and minerals, and oils provided fats, alcohol provided nutrients -different than what we have- AND sanitized the water). For... Wait for it... Thousands of years. People's diets were really rich and varied PRIOR to the agricultural revolution. The first couple thousand years after the agricultural revolution... People had VERY boring diets.

Your daughter could thrive on nothing but enchiladas (grain, legume, veg, oil) 3-6 meals a day. It's 'just' boring.

People below have given you some great ideas...

I just wanted to give you the 'okay' for nutritionally complete, just boring, meals.

Also... Know 'pickiness' is usually a neurological response (not willfulness) that starts apx age 2 and ends at age 5-6. There's a cause for it that I won't get into here (and is often unavoidable with medical kids)... But there is light at the end of the tunnel for 'boring'!

Do you have any Asian stores nearby? They have a lot more nutritious snacks to offer toddlers, say than American stores, and rice cakes.

For instance, they have these wonderful rice ovulettes, also called rice cakes, but they are boiled in broth and turn into this wonderful soft rice piece. They are in the frozen section, and if you Google "Rice Cake Soup" a tasty Korean recipe will pop up. That soup is so delicious and nutritious.

What about eggs? Scrambled, poached, easy over? They are a perfect protein, easy to digest and honestly do not cause high cholesterol.

There are also lots of Celiac friendly pastas that could be cooked ahead of time and tossed with EVOO, S&P. Cook the pasta with a couple of Bay leaves for added flavor and that's tasty warm or cold.

GL! I supposed I'd google Celiac recipes and support groups on the web.

what is "gf"?

Maybe you can make it fun like putting food on a skewer. Let her help you put it on but tell her she has to eat it all, BUT you have to stick to it so she knows you mean business

you can mix mac n cheese with tuna & peas

http://glutenfreerecipes.net/

http://glutenfree4kids.com/

Here are links to a bunch of recipes. I also compiled a cookbook for my MIL to use with niece and nephew who are ASD and GFCF....if you want an e-mailed copy, PM me you e-mail, totally free, I did all the work and hope it can help.

Sounds like to me she needs lots more fruits and veggies - they are all GF. Blueberries, celery and carrots sticks, strawberries, raspberries, cucumbers, apples, bananas, mango, pineapple, oranges, grapes, tomatos - those sweet grape tomatos would be good. Keep trying, she is still young, and it can take lots of tries to get her to like something new - my kids who have no intolerances or allergies were/are picky about foods too, they are 3 and 5, now, and the 5 year old has finally realized that she needs to at least try what I make for the family , even if it is not her favorite, when she was 2, 3, and 4 this was a fight , quite often. We have a rule with our kids, that they have to take as many bites as they are years old, at each mealtime, then they can be done, if they want, at least then we know they are getting something in their belly. Your Daughter is now also big enough to understand that food makes her body grow and gives her energy, and she will be tired and hungry if she doesn't have enough food/fuel, talk to her about it, she is entering an independance stage age-wise and will appreciate being talked to like a "big person". Also, something that can help is giving her limited choices, like "Do you want to have peas or corn with supper?" or "Would you like to have blueberries or strawberries on this waffle?" if she feels like she has some perceived control over what she is getting to eat, she will be more likely to eat it. Also, like someone else said - make it fun in the presentation - make a face with her food, or shapes, or give fun utensils.

Kids this age also love to help "cook" - once again, making them feel grown up and important and in control/ownership of their food. Maybe try going to a few farm stands or pick your own food places and have her pick her own fruits and veggies.....then take them home, and let her help wash them and prep them for plates, or let her put the pieces in the blender for a smoothie, etc. Do you have a garden? Maybe even a few potted tomatos or strawberries would be helpful - she can help plant, water and "harvest" and feel like she MADE the food - might be more likely to try it!

Sounds like she may be trying to control some small part of her life, by controlling her eating - lots of kids do this at this age, especially if they know it is driving their parents crazy, maybe if you give her some other type of "control" over her food ( choices, picking it from the ground, helping to "cook"), she might ease up on controlling by refusng to eat.

Also, there is a support group called R. O. C. K. ( Raising Our Celiac Kids) - which might be of great help to you, here is the webpage:

http://www.celiac.com/articles/563/1/ROCK-Raising-Our-Cel...

They do have a MN chapter:
Minnesota
Minneapolis/St. Paul Support Group
Contact: Lynda Benkofske
Raising Our Celiac Kids (R.O.C.K.) - ROCK-Minneapolis/St. Paul Chapter
15470 County Rd. 35
Elk River, MN 55330
Tel: ###-###-####
E-mail: ____@____.com

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Good Luck!

Here are some more links with GF recipes and menu plans:

http://whattofeedyourkids.blogspot.com/

http://www.delish.com/recipes/cooking-recipes/gluten-free...

http://glutenfreekids.tripod.com/QuickStartDiet.html

http://www.celiac.com/blogs/291/10-Tips-to-Empower-Celiac...

http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/birththroughpreschool/B...

http://www.glutenfreeda.com/recipe-sub.asp?cat=17

http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments/med...

http://www.glutenfreeda.com/members_menus.asp

http://www.amys.com/health/diet-plan/day-1gf

http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/starting-...

http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/nutritionmealplanni...

http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/weight_loss_di...

http://www.gfreecuisine.com/index.htm

http://www.gfreecuisine.com/resources.html

http://allergyfreemenuplanners.com/our-menu-planners/alle...

Jessie