Lunch/meal Ideas for Semi Picky 2 Year Old

I have found that my kids 3 & 4 eat well with a little variety & they like finger foods. I take an apple corer & I use it to make little round bite size pieces of ham & cheese. I buy real ham not the pressed deli meat. try different cheeses, mozarella, cheddar, provolone, swiss....mix it up week to week. cut fruit such as pear, apples, peaches into slices then use corer to also make bite size pieces then put a few whole wheat ritz's down too. my kids make little sandwiches using different fruit w the meat & cheese. I also have found that my kids love veggies cooked or steamed with beef broth. I also buy little smokies and wrap crescent roll dough around each one of those little boogers & bake. Kids love little piggies. serve with green beans, corn & a strawberry. I like egg sandwiches too. real easy. toast thin layer of jelly take an egg & scramble nuke for 45 seconds. place egg on jelly side & cut into 4 squares. serve with a bannana. I use whole wheat toast & eggs are from a local farm. I recently bought salmon in the foil packs like tuna...no drain. mix with dijon mustard & whole wheats bread crumbs. & form into a pattty. cook on each side about 3 minutes med heat in a smidge of olive oil. place of whole wheat bread & top with fresh tomatoes. I call this a sponge bob crabby patty.....kids ate it up....this is my fish stick version. I served this with cabbage & zucchinni steamed. very easy to do too. I buy shredded cabbage over by the ready bagged salads....put in skillet & add sliced zuchinni. place a lid on top of skillet med heat stir every now & again....10-15 minutes done. salt & pepper tp taste. add a pickle on the side & pineapple chunks for dessert. Here are some of the lunches I serve

The one really successful method I found with handling picky eaters was to never, ever have anything in the house that I was not prepared to have them eat.

A child, given a healthy selection of real food (raman noodles are deep fried white flour, you know?), will compile a healthy, balanced diet over a period of a week or two. They get stuck on specific, familiar foods for a few days (or 10), but even when they do that, they move on eventually.

It's important to keep in mind that no healthy child facing a selection of familiar, healthy foods will choose to starve himself --and 2yos are no longer growing so fast that they're going to double their weight in the next year. It's ordinary for kids to be within 5 pounds of their weight at 2 when they turn 4, although they'll be taller and leaner. So, if you're thinking that he's just 'stopped eating' it's only because his appetite has dropped through the floor and he can afford to be as picky as he wants, especially if you're worried about it, or willing to pander or wheedle.

Kids this age tend to need and prefer simpler foods, so when you make your soup or casserole or whatever, just cook some of the same vegetables and meats separately. Also, choose meal plans that keep the foods and flavours separate, for simplicity of cooking.

I sometimes think that kids this age need specific-enough ingredients that mixed together foods overload them in flavours/nutrients and get in the way of them being able to get the ones they need. I really do think that they're better at knowing what --and how much-- they need than anyone living outside their bodies, as long as the only choices are real food.

Are there beans on your queadillas? Homemade beans are very healthy. Cook pinto beans, mash and you are ready to go. Leave out the lard! If you make a quesadilla with lite cheese this is a great meal.

I understand you want to try for healthy, but I wouldn't over worry about repeating the same meals if your child is happy. Have you tried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Not too bad healthwise. Offer the fresh fruits and vegetables at every meal and be thrilled he doesn't want sauces.......that is usually where the unhealthy part comes in.

Instead of mac and cheese, cook dumpling noodles and add in your own healthy meats. Home cooked chicken breast in little bits with carrots or peas for example.

Turkey and Chicken sandwiches if you make the turkey and chicken. I still like my sandwiches dry (no mayo or mustard). Why not offer that if he is adverse to sauces. It may be dry, but it is actually healthier. Try to avoid lunch meats, but that's okay too sometimes. That with fruit and vegetables is pretty much a perfect meal.

I also have a semi-picky 2 year old boy. Mine eats pretty much any breakfast food (egg in a hole, pancakes, french toast, bacon, eggs sometimes, etc), and most cereals dry, no milk. He also loves a concoction I got out of a baby recipe book & added to; I mix a few spoons of apple sauce, cream cheese, and oatmeal, microwave then add some plain yogurt & stir it all together. Easy, he never turns it down & it's got fruit, fiber, protein, calcium... For lunch mine eats quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches, mini corn dogs etc. I've found a few other things that my boy will eat at Trader Joe's. They have breaded fish sticks that you bake in the oven, sweet potato fries (also baked not fried), and I make mini-pizzas myself out of a whole wheat English muffin, their jarred pizza sauce, and pre-grated mozzerella cheese they have in a bag sprinkled on top. I just microwave to melt the cheese. If yours hates sauce you might just start with a really thin layer. Also I've done wraps out of their whole wheat tortillas; one slice of a mild lunch meat like oven roasted turkey and either a slice of cheese or cream cheese smeared on the tortilla. Wrap it up as tight as you can and slice into bite size pieces (cream cheese works best to hold the tortillas closed). They also have canned sweet potato puree and pumpkin puree (not pie mix). My boy has a thing about chunks in sauce (soup is always a no go no matter how many times I try). So for more veggies I buy a can of each of the purees, mix em together in a bowl, add a little pumpkin pie spice & a little canola butter & it's a more nutritious version of mashed potatoes. I use that one more for dinnertime though. Also they have these cereal bars there that have blueberry and strawberry fillings. He loves those. I looked at regular grocery stores for these though & the ones there are loaded with high fructose corn syrup. The ones from TJ's and Henry's/Wild Oats don't have that. Then Orroweat has these new "Sandwich Thins" at regular grocery stores. They are these round kind of flat pieces of bread that have no crust & are pre-sliced. I use those for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches then cut them into little bite sized triangles (if you know your kid doesn't have a peanut allergy for this one of course). Sometimes my son is picky about the crust & sometimes he doesn't care so these eliminate that issue. I'm sure you can use these for the mini-pizzas or instead of the wrap method of a sandwich too. They are perfect kid size portions.
There's also another one that I kind of use more as a dessert because it's kind of more like a baby food, and let me just say I am not a tofu person myself...the only thing I can stand it in is miso soup. That said, I get a package of soft tofu and you can puree that with pretty much any kind of fruit (I do mangos, bananas, boiled dried apricots, peaches). It makes basically a smooth pudding but it's healthy, got lots of protein, all the fiber and vitamins from the fruit and no added sugar. I freeze it in ice cubes and defrost as needed.
Hang in there and don't worry about the spaghetti-o's and things like that. I tried those with my boy & he wants nothing to do with them but the salt content on just one of the microwavable mini cup sizes of those & the Chef Boyardee cups is between 600-900 milligrams! Hope some of these help you, I know it can be frustrating.

One thing you could do is keep the same foods, but add to them. For the mac n cheese you could add a can of tomatoes or tomatoes and green chillis...maybe even some hamburger meat. In the ramen, leave out the packet because of the MSG and season it with something else. Add well cooked veggies to it. Quesadillas are delicious with left over meat and sauteed veggies such as bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms. They are even delicious with just the veggies.

Another thing you could try is making the food yourself....Heavenlyhomakers.com has a great recipe for making mac n cheese and it is delicious and very healthy (I would stick to white pasta for a little though...I think the whole wheat pasta may be too different at first). For the chicken nuggets you could cut up a chicken breast into pieces, dip it into egg and roll it into seasoned bread crumbs, panko style bread crumbs, or bisquick and bake them. Ramen noodles may be a little trickier. Maybe you could get angel hair pasta or something thin and cook them in broth.

I hope this helps. I think 2's is when they become picky eaters if they weren't before. My daughter has never been picky but at 3 1/2 she started requesting odd foods or not wanting some of her favorites...but the next day would be a different story. I think it is some kind of power struggle :-) The ideas I listed up top are some things that I make at home. My husband come from a family that adores bad food....the worse it is for you, the more they want to eat it. However, over the years he has finally started to accept my homemade foods and he is surprised when he eats them that he likes them (am I making sense?). The first time I added rotel tomatoes and ground meat to velveeta shells and cheese he couldn't believe that I would harm his shells and cheese. He loved them and asks for it all the time!

ravioli are a meal in themselves, go for the brand w/ the highest percent of calcium, there are also all kinds of raviolis and tortellinis as well as pierogies...

buy a block of organic cheddar cheese and some organic cream cheese.
cut a few cubes of cheddar and put in a microwave safe little dish and microwave together w/ some creamcheese, enough to melt it all, then spread on some whole grain bread and you have a grilled cheese w/o the grilling

beans are great, organic out of the can
hummous

health is wealth brand spinach munchees
amy's brand snack squares

start mixing peas or spinach into mac and cheese (annies or another healthy brand) so that he gets used to veggies mixed in. my almost 4yr old still eats it like this!

applegate farm or another brand of deli meat w/o nitrates and antibiotics,etc

french toast, waffle, pancake spread w/ peanut butter (No need for syrup!)
scrambled egg and cheese

frozen organic veggies like broccoli, green beans, mixed veggies
(easy to have on hand!)

Hello, Actually, it sounds like he is eating pretty good for his age. When our grown children were small, I would put new things on their plate. They had to have them there, but we never forced them to eat them. Eventually, they will become curious and try new things. Our kids used to eat spinach, and even liver. I wouldn't feed anyone that now. We used to think it was nutritious. Anyway, they did expand their diets.
Good luck with your precious son.
K. K.

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this- I could have written it myself! I've been meaning to post for some ideas and feedback as well. I feel guilty when I pack my son's lunch for the days he's at day care because I feel like it's always the same thing, but I'm worried that if I don't pack what he likes for the day, he won't eat!

Anyhow, just wanted to say I relate and will let you know if I learn of some other tips!

E.

Hi R., I just wanted to say that I know what you are going thew, I could have wrote your post. I am going threw the same thing with my 3 year old little girl.

You know what I have come to find is that variety is for grown ups! Sounds like your little one's doing just fine! As long as, over the course of a week, he's getting all the necessary food groups, I say RELAX. Enjoy your short grocery list! :)