Mine's a picky eater, but we really don't do much that is highly processed. I allow crackers and cookies, ice cream, or soy cuties. And some sausage and sandwich meat.

Breakfast (usually w/ fresh fruit or a more nutritious juice, like pomegranate or grapefruit):

Whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter and honey or low-sugar jam
Turkey or chicken sausage
All bran cereal

Lunch:

Whole wheat pita + prosciutto or ham or roast beef
Fresh fruit (usually cut apple or orange, strawberries, pineapple, or clementines)
Lower sugar/organic type granola bar or luna bar
Water or occasionally juice box (100% juice or juice/veggie combo)

Dinner:

Steak, pork chop, lamb chop or kabob, buffalo burger, roast chicken + fruit
Soup (minestrone, red lentil), turkey sloppy joes or chili + whole wheat bread

Snacks

Try to do humus or guac w/ peppers, but often it is crackers, sometimes a hard cheese or olives

Anonymous wrote:It's really easy!

Breakfast: Fruit and plain yogurt. Sometimes breakfast is huge, sometimes it is just a banana and milk. It depends on what my DS would like to eat.

Lunch: Usually dinner leftovers, frozen vegetable medley, cheese.

Dinner: Small portions of whatever I am eating (unless it is too spicy), an extra veggie like peas, fruit for dessert.

Our dinners could be baked brown rice with chicken, broccoli and fresh grated parmesan cheese. Dinner could be steamed mussels in white wine sauce. Heck, dinner could be a petite filet--my DS eats everything and MORE than I eat.

I think the key is to eat wholesome foods, everything in moderation, and make sure your plate is very balanced. My toddler may eat more steak than I do because he can have more fat and protein, I will be eating more salad.

Of course it's easy- you have a toddler!

It's really easy!

Breakfast: Fruit and plain yogurt. Sometimes breakfast is huge, sometimes it is just a banana and milk. It depends on what my DS would like to eat.

Lunch: Usually dinner leftovers, frozen vegetable medley, cheese.

Dinner: Small portions of whatever I am eating (unless it is too spicy), an extra veggie like peas, fruit for dessert.

Our dinners could be baked brown rice with chicken, broccoli and fresh grated parmesan cheese. Dinner could be steamed mussels in white wine sauce. Heck, dinner could be a petite filet--my DS eats everything and MORE than I eat.

I think the key is to eat wholesome foods, everything in moderation, and make sure your plate is very balanced. My toddler may eat more steak than I do because he can have more fat and protein, I will be eating more salad.

Anonymous wrote:We don't eat anything processed nor do we eat fast food. We don't eat red meat. We make our own meals and serve just a tiny piece of protein (fish, chicken, turkey burgers, etc.) with a lot of veggies/fruits/salads. No processed cereals either. We make oatmeal or pancakes/waffles for breakfast, have salads with a little protein for lunch and have something a little bigger for dinner. Try not to eat anything white -- pasta, bread, etc.

How many calories are you eating a day? Are you able to exercise regularly without much protein?

We don't eat anything processed nor do we eat fast food. We don't eat red meat. We make our own meals and serve just a tiny piece of protein (fish, chicken, turkey burgers, etc.) with a lot of veggies/fruits/salads. No processed cereals either. We make oatmeal or pancakes/waffles for breakfast, have salads with a little protein for lunch and have something a little bigger for dinner. Try not to eat anything white -- pasta, bread, etc.

OP: we eat mostly organic food. I say mostly because it's not possible 100% of the time. My boys are required to try everything at least once. They eat what we eat minus raw fish (but will eat veg rolls), spicy, and salads. So I don't have specific examples of food since its whatever we're eating for dinner (curry, meatballs, yakisoba, chili- I try to keep their palates diverse). I don't worry about calories and cholesterol because they're growing and because I feed them fresh food- not packaged. I do worry about sodium, especially in "snacks"- it is scary and it all adds up! I really believe in everything in moderation so yes, we will grab McDonald's French fries, other treats (donuts, ice cream) when they sound amazing but I find that they really regulate themselves. They never finish these treats and it's usually just a few bites that satisfies them.

Anonymous wrote:Op I know what you are asking. And yes, I'm confused by what is healthy and what isn't. My mom was very very strict about what we ate, and now I kind of freeze up in the grocery store. Everything I think is healthy also has an unhealthy side
Peanut butter? Fat
Cottage cheese? Sodium, cholesterol
Yogurt? Sugar
Deli meat? Sodium
I just try to use my common sense and not feed them too much of anything

PP, I don't know how old your children are or what health concerns they face (obesity, pre-diabetes) but fat and natural sugars in milk/yogurt are acceptable and healthy for children and fat in a young child's diet is necessary. Ditto the natural cholesterol in cottage cheese. It's added fats in processed foods "Transfats" that you need to avoid, and added sugars. Try to watch overall sodium.

OP - are you looking for specific healthful foods that kids like, or are you looking for more gourmet suggestions? To me, food snob can mean foodie/gourmet or it can mean crunchy/organic.

Once DD was old enough to eat real food and old enough to stay up late enough to eat dinner with us (through the toddler years she needed dinner w/in ~10 min of getting home and then straight to bed), she gets what we are having for dinner. We do minimize the hot spices and try to be sure that there is at least one thing on her plate that she likes (or at least will tolerate).

But around age 3 or 4 she went from liking everything she tried to eating almost no vegetables, disliking shellfish, no nuts (but loves nut butters), and generally picky.

At age 8, she is slowly becoming more adventurous again.

Fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, legumes, nuts, fish. (No dairy or soy because of allergies.) I procure these fantastic products at destination location known as a grocery store and prepare them in a mysterious and elusive place in my house typically referred to as a kitchen.

They get whatever we eat. I WOH and we eat at home almost exclusively (I won't say that I cook everynight since we have leftovers ~2x/ week).

They don't always eat it (or eat it selectively, ie, eats the roll, picks a few bites of meat and leaves the veg). But since there's no rhyme or reason to what my kids eat or how much, so I don't stress. They are 1 and 3 yo.

I know a lot about nutrition, and I care about nutrition. I am not, however, a food snob.

Anonymous wrote:

We don't prohibit anything. We just don't buy it. If we're at a party DC will eat whatever is served as long it's not in our allergy list.

Thankfully, we have no allergies but this is what we do.

Wow a few of you are real jerks
Thanks for the smart ass replies

6 year old. WOH parents. Some lunches at school.



breakfast--scrambled eggs and kefir. Sometimes hard boiled eggs. Once in a great while, he'll have oatmeal. Usually a fruit too.

Snack--larabar

lunch--school lunch or if I'm packing--sunflower seed butter and jam sandwich on Ezikiel break. Two mini cucumbers. Pouch of kefir. Fruit--clementines or blueberries lately.

Dinner--lima beans are a big hit for his vegetable. Saurkraut too. (Fresh from the farmer's market.) Salmon burger, roasted chicken, pork chops. Once a week I usually make some type of ground beef dish--chili with a ton of veggies and can of pumpkin, spaghetti sauce with onions, carrots, mushrooms and summer squash. He'll eat that without hesitating, even though he would never eats those vegetables on his own. More fruit at dinner.

Sometimes there are cheese sticks as a snack too.

A PP asked incredulously if a person who cooked 6 nights a week SAH. I'm a different poster, but I cook 7 nights a week (Friday pizza night is now at home, too, due to finances) and I WOH. I time shift so I am home by 4:30, though. I get a meal on the table in 30 minutes made from whole ingredients, some of them frozen over the summer, like roasted tomatoes. Dinner last night was chili - a pound of grass-fed ground beef and a jar of roasted tomatoes, onions and peppers from the summer, simmered together for 15 minutes - and thrown together biscuits. So that is what my kid eats. He is 6, and is just now coming out of the little kid pickiness, when feeding him was harder.

We both WOH, and we cook every evening and most mornings. It's just what we've got to do. It's hell on our time management, but with a GF, DF, nut-free, egg-free child, it's what's required. Processed, freezer-to-microwave, takeout, and drive-through sadly aren't part of our existence. I wish they were.