Five Days of Food

My link-up over the weekend included how to make your kids' food creative and fun. This has nothing to do with that post, really, except this post is also about food for my 20-month old. (Twenty months!) I struggled for a while when we began to transition Big Brother over from baby food to grown-up food. Struggled is really an understatement. After many failed attempts to get him to eat real solid food and him getting through the day mostly on Goldfish crackers, cheese, and smoothies (the only way we could manage to get most fruits and vegetables into him) we stayed consistent and we are finally on the other side of that long road. Now, he's still a pretty picky eater, but we have managed to figure out what works (which is fruit most of the time!) and stick with that. Smart! So here is a peek into Big Brother's weekly lunch menu:

Big Brother is a fan of yogurt. It has always been one of his favorites since the first time he tried it. YoKids squeezable yogurts have been a dream come true for us. He thinks he's big stuff eating them all by himself. This lunch also consists of whole wheat Saltine crackers with white American cheese, raisins, Buddy Fruit snacks, bananas, and a Pocky Stick.

Two of Big Brother's absolute favorite foods (blackberries & pistachios) join together here with whole wheat Saltine crackers, white cheddar cheese, Cheerios, Buddy Fruit snacks, and a Pocky Stick.

Another one of Big Brother's "I'm a big kid" food items is Buddy Fruits pureed fruit blends. We unscrew the top and he sucks the whole pack right down. This lunch also contains a (half) sandwich with chicken breast lunch meat and mustard, bananas, pistachios, Annie's cracker mix, and a Pocky Stick. 

Blackberries! Blueberries! Big Brother's two favorite fruits. He would eat cartons of these a day if we'd let him. (Or could afford to let him!) Cucumbers, provolone cheese, pistachios, whole wheat Saltines, and mini chocolate chips complete this meal.

Here we have blackberries, mandarin oranges, white American cheese, Annie's cracker mix, leftover mashed potatoes from dinner the night before, and a treat of half a chocolate chip cookie.

As you can tell, it can be quite redundant some days, but like I said: it works! So that's what we stick with. No, he doesn't usually eat everything on these plates. (Which we transfer to his high chair tray so the plates don't get tossed in the floor and shattered.) Some days he gobbles everything down and most days he'll eat until he's full and periodically he'll be in a mood when he's not very hungry at all and just picks at what we offer. Nine times out of ten he'll eat his berries before even touching the sweets on his tray. He really loves berries.

In addition to his food, he'll get juice (which consists of two ounces of juice mixed with seven to eight ounces of water) to drink. Most often it's apple juice, which is usually Simply Apple Juice. Oftentimes we'll give him Naked drinks (also mixed with water), and sometimes he'll get Simply Lemonade mixed with water.

That's a look at five days of (lunch) food with our toddler. Now it's just time for me to get creative with presentation. Other than the ideas I shared over the weekend, do you have any suggestions for me to get creative with Big Brother's food?