munchkin meals: 21 months

It’s taken us over a year, but I finally think we’ve got a good routine going when it comes to MacKenna’s meals.  I know that we should be changing things up a lot more than we are, but I am starting to realize that if I keep her meals pretty standard for the most part, Kenna will choose to try new, good-for-you foods.

It’s amazing how much more I feel like she is eating now than she was just a month ago.  Well, maybe not more, but she is certainly eating better!  We’ve come to know her likes and dislikes well (although, I’m sure they’ll change again next month) and we’re not “forcing” certain foods on her that we want her to like (like tomatoes and broccoli – 2 of my favorites, but she won’t eat them unless they’re covered in cheese).

Breakfast, as usual, is a waffle and yogurt.  If I put peanut butter on the waffle, she’ll only take a few bites of it, but plain, she’ll eat at least one, if not 2, waffles.  And yogurt is always a favorite.  I bought a package of 8 GoGurt tubes and she finished the entire box in a day and a half.  Girl LOVES her yogurt!

And I think I FINALLY figured out lunch!  Yea me!  I’ve tucked the tasting tray away for now (too many options that she just wasn’t liking) and have been making her a sandwich everyday.  Most days she gets avocado and cheese melted on whole wheat bread, but I try to change it up and give her peanut butter and jelly too.  She LOVES PB&J and prefers that over avocado and cheese, but she loves her “cado” as well.  I give her some Goldfish crackers on the side as wells as a serving of fresh berries and amazingly, she is actually eating the berries before the Goldfish!  Who is this child and what has she done to my healthy food hater?!

I will note that she eats much better at lunch if she does NOT have a mid morning snack.  Matt likes to sit down with her when he gets home from XC practice and eat a bowl of cereal with her.  Yes, it’s been a few hours since she ate breakfast, but I can always count on her not eating a very good lunch when she does this.  But, that all ends today since Matt is back at school.

(Side note:  We were talking yesterday about how much harder it is to leave MacKenna this summer than it was last summer.  I think because we have gotten to spend so much time with her and she understands what is going on.  It’s going to be really hard on all 3 of us next week when we’re both back at work and she goes back to the babysitter.  *tear*)

Dinner now is always what we’re eating.  Some days she likes it, most days she doesn’t.  If she doesn’t, she ends up eating yogurt (hmmm, that would be why we went through that yogurt so quickly) for dinner.  I don’t know if it’s too much flavor for her in our food or if it’s just her appetite, but it is what it is.  She’s growing great (for her – she’s still a petite little thing) and is extremely healthy for a child (very few illnesses, no ear infections, no puking, only 1 or 2 fevers ever), so I can’t complain too much.

Not a lot of change this month, but I know things are going to be much different when she returns to the babysitter.  I’m hoping that with this food routine we have, she’ll eat better for the babysitter.  Praying she does at least!

Do you change your meals up for you child daily or do you give them pretty much the same basic meals every day?