Munchkin Meals

I confess. I'm a little neurotic about feeding my babies well. By no means do I do this perfectly. But I figure that while I'm in charge of what goes into their little bodies, it might as well be as healthy and nutritious as possible. For us, this meant breastfeeding for one year (a little longer for Elise), delaying solids till 6 months, and focusing on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and protein with limited sugar and processed foods.

I'm pretty staunchly anti-juice so milk and water are the beverage staples in our house. And lest you think my poor 4 year old is deprived, I have relaxed these standards for Elle as she's gotten older. There are definitely desserts, treats, and convenience foods. 

Picnic in the park: organic chicken nuggets, baked fries, apple slices

But my theory is that introducing them to a nutritious balanced diet from the beginning will (hopefully) make them healthy eaters for life. We also are believers in feeding our kids what we eat from a very early age-- no separate meals of noodles and hot dogs. And it has worked incredibly well. Both girls have an extremely broad palate, devouring vegetables from asparagus to brussels sprouts, noshing on crab cakes and mussels, snarfing exotic spices and slurping almost-too-spicy-for-me salsa as if it were soup. 

Bowl one. 

Bowl two. I kid you not. 

The only thing I have to complain about is that my kids love food a little too much. As in have a total meltdown because it is taking me 5 minutes to prepare breakfast. Or have a similarly dramatic meltdown when the 5th serving is all gone. 

Turkey burger, zucchini sauteed with a little soy sauce, crackers/goldfish

I'm always interested in what other moms are feeding their toddlers, so I thought I'd document a culinary day in the life of mine.
So here is a typical day of eats for my 15 month old:

Breakfast appetizer: We usually start with a handful of cheerios or banana to calm the tempest that occurs if I can't serve breakfast IMMEDIATELY.
Breakfast: Egg, turkey sausage, greek yogurt

Snacks and Lunch packed for school (I am super happy that they still let me pack her food at daycare-- not quite ready to embrace the poptarts, corndogs, and froot loops yet-- shudder):
Mini-quiche with spinach
Filet mignon, grilled asparagus, grilled corn (off) the cobb*
Cantaloupe

Dinner: Pork tenderloin, broccoli mac and cheese with whole wheat noodles, cocoa roasted cauliflower
Blackberries for dessert

*Lunch isn't always so fancy. We happened to have leftovers this day. Other common packable items include veggie quinoa biscuits, black beans, frozen veggies (peas and carrots are her favorite), fruit, oatmeal, deli meat and shredded cheese, hummus or almond butter wrap. 

Plus various quantities of:
Mulch, crayon, tiny toy parts, paper, booger, Chapstick, dirt, and her sister's hair.