I have always been focused upon my toddler eating healthy foods and developing a taste for a variety of foods. As he goes through his various toddler moods and stages, he starts eating a few new foods, but stops eating others. For a long time he'd eat almost anything I'd give him, but now he is much more particular. He would be quite happy if he could only eat dairy, specifically milk and cheese, and fruit. While he used to gobble up veggies at almost every meal, now he turns his nose at them. He also decided he no longer likes meat or chicken or fish. He certainly looks healthy and his pediatrician is not concerned, but I do find it frustrating. A friend recommended the Toddler Cafe cookbook. It has so many great kid friendly recipes using yummy foods. I also just discovered the author, Jennifer Carden, has a blog too!
So far I've made three recipes from the book. The first I tried was a pea pod pop, something that Andrew tried at my friend's house and liked. They are popsicles that are made from a combination of cream cheese, pureed petit peas, peppermint extract, chocolate chips, and a bit of sugar. A weird combination, but they taste like frozen chocolate chip mint yogurt to me. Andrew never had a popsicle before, but he has been enjoying these. I used lollipop sticks for them and a square shaped ice cube tray to freeze them. They are a hit!
I also made lily pad pancakes, which are a combination of pureed petit peas with some flour and baking powder to make a pancake batter. They are VERY green. When they were fresh made and hot, Andrew seemed to like them, but he hasn't liked them reheated. I tasted them and thought they were a bit odd, but not bad tasting.
In my attempt to get Andrew eating some chicken, I made the chicken tenders recipe in this book. They involve lemon, panko bread crumbs and some parm cheese. I thought they were delicious! Andrew wouldn't even try them. Since his tastes changes every other week, I think I'll pull out this recipe again in a month to try again. Overall, I am very excited by this book and have tagged many recipes to try throughout the summer. Next up is baked tofu...another protein attempt!
I can't really complain about his diet. For lunch he ate half of a toasted cheese sandwich on multi-grain wheat bread, slices of strawberries, and an entire kiwi. Then he fell asleep! He is a funny little guy!
Happy Thursday!
