So, I need advice on feeding Caroline. She's on all table food now, which is easier at times and tougher at times. The hardest part is what to feed her while she's at daycare. The room she's in right now still requires us to bring her food for the day and when she was on baby food and bottles, that was easy. But now that she's on table food, I feel like we send her with the same thing EVERYDAY. Her teacher told me that Caroline is tired of it and won't eat it anymore. For breakfast we take her yogurt, cereal, and a granola bar. For lunch we usually take her lunch meat, cheese, and either a fruit or a veggie. I have noticed myself lately that Caroline is getting tired of the lunch meat but will eat her fruit and cheese. So, I need ideas from all of you mommy's out there on what you feed your toddlers. At home we do a full homemade breakfast and then usually a grilled cheese for lunch or something like that but I can't take that kind of stuff to daycare...plus the amount of time to prepare that each night would be insane after cooking dinner for the night! SO, does anyone have any suggestions for me? I need things that are quick to prepare seeing that I don't get home till after 6 and have to prepare dinner, give her a bath, and then get everything ready for the next day. What do ya'll feed your one year olds???
Oh, and an update on the transition from bottle to sippy cup....Caroline is fully on a sippy cup now. We finally found out that the only sippy cup she likes is the Nubby cups. She's still not sure she likes the whole milk but she'll end up drinking it after she realizes she's not getting anything else. She doesn't drink as much as she did with the formula but at this point she's getting enough so I'm not too concerned!
I'm sooo glad tomorrow is Friday. This week has been a doozie for us and I'm ready to put it to an end!
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Been there! It's so hard to make the complete transition to table food, esp when you have to pack it up for daycare.
ReplyDeleteFor breakfast, the frozen waffles and frozen pancakes travel well. I just put them in a ziploc baggie then nuke them for about 20 seconds when it's time to eat. Dry cereal (Cheerios, ususally) in a bowl is always popular at our house, too. Luke likes plain toast. Fruit cups (no sugar added) and apple sauce cups go over well for us and they're easy to pack. Both of mine love mandarin oranges, too.
For lunch, I send Luke chicken - Tyson has a "all ready cooked" bag of fajita chicken, that I nuke for 45 secs. Luke loves it. I also send him cooked hamburger meat. At night, with whatever we're having, I just brown hamburger meat, put it into tuperware containers, and serve him that for about 2-3 days. We do canned veggies (green beans, carrots) as sides. I put them in a tiny tuperware that can be nuked as well.
Other easy options -- cheeseburger macaroni, spaghetti o's, hotdogs (i dice them up and add to veggies), noodles, rice.
The trick is to cook it at night for what will last 2-3 days. I've had to change how I cook and shop. I was so used to cooking just enough for me and Jace, now I try to always cook double to have leftovers for Luke and Nora. They never eat dinner with us, since they're already in bed.
Thank you Lindsey! This helps a lot and gives me new ideas. I just got stuck in a rut with yogurt, cereal bar, cereal, lunch meat, veggies, and cuped fruit. The waffles, chicken, meat, and cheesburger macaroni will be great to add to the mixture! It's hard when they are in daycare! I've also had to change the way I shop and cook dinner. Our grocery bill has increased a lot since she's on table food now b/c we eat all meals at home and try not to go out. I was hoping giving up formula would save us money but now I'm spending that money on real food! Oh well, she's worth every penny. I really appreciate your help!
ReplyDeleteWe never eat out anymore, mostly cause it's just too hard to get everyone there and to expect a good meal without any major disturbances, so we cook almost every meal. I remember when it was just the two of us and we'd eat out every meal! Such is life with babies. :)
ReplyDeleteI sometimes let Luke has poptarts too for breakfast. I know they're pure sugar, but hey, I like them. Oh, does she like macaroni and cheese? Luke doesn't but it would probably be easy to get to daycare.
Take care! and happy cooking!