Dinner Ideas to Feed a 3 Year Old and a One Year Old

When my son was 1, I made him 'mac-n-cheese-n-chick." I minced up grilled chicken breast and put it in the mac n cheese. As for your fruit lover, maybe you can dice up some grapes into the meal?? My son (now 2.5) will eat the strangest combinations. May sound gross but I bet they'd eat it.

Also, I love chicken salad with grapes in it. The mix of sweet with savory is wonderful imo.

My 2.5 yr old will eat more items on his plate if I make it 'fun.' I use cookie cutters for lunchmeat sometimes. I also decorate his plate so that the food looks like a smiley face then say "oh no. don't eat my nose!" sarcastically and my son giggles and eats it. And have you tried toothpicks? Everything seems to taste better when eaten with a toothpick (according to my son).

Can you sneak in diced carrots into the mac and cheese. Also make sure it is the whole grain varity. Fruit based meal are fine, just add some fruit, some vegetable and some meat - and no more fruit until other two options are gone!

My kids are also 3 and 1 and the dinners they love the most are:

1. Breakfast - eggs, pancakes, waffles, fruit
2. Pasta - you can sneak veggies in here easily - into the marinara sauce! You can also add in veggies/chicken if you want to make it different and do a butter/garlic sauce.
3. Mac and cheese- but they only get it about 1x a week and I usually serve it with applesauce and cucumbers or green beans (with ranch - my daughter will not eat them without ranch!) and before she can have seconds of mac and cheese, she has to eat a few bites of her fruit and veggies.
4. Pizza - another one you can easily sneak veggies into.

As long as my kids get a tomato based sauce, I count that for a fruit/veggie. You can also serve fruit to satisfy your 1 year old as a dessert. Put healthier items out while you are cooking (veggies/hummus, ranch/carrots, etc). I've tried this but honestly with the veggies it does not work in my house. My kids suck off the sauces but don't eat the veggies!

We usually do pork chops of some kind and steak of some kind one night a week and give my children some of this. If they don't like it, they do not have to eat it but I do not make them their own meals. The only time they have something different from us is when we have leftovers and I know they will eat them. I'd just start giving him what you are having. If he never eats it, he will not perish from hunger. He'll start eating it or you can serve him a healthy snack at night. We've instituted a rule that if she doesn't eat at least some of her dinner, she cannot have a bedtime snack (which is usually a fruit snack, pudding, yougurt, ham or applesauce).

www.Weelicious.com

I have found SO many great meals, to cook for my son. It's a great site!!

Tonight I made Chop Suey (from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook). I put a few different ingredients in it and both boys (also 3 and 1) gobbled it up. For my 1 yr old I put it in the Magic Bullet to make it a better consistency for him. My older son is also a Mac and Cheese nut, but my 1 yr old is MUCH better. He ended up licking his bowl clean :)

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Happy Holidays!
VillageMom
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