healthy meal ideas for toddlers and mommy

I just thought it might be nice if parents shared different, healthy meal ideas for their kids. including healthy, fast food meals which unfortunatly sometimes have to be resorted to.

my two year old daughter loves egg sandwitches, on whole wheat bread and with organic American cheese. I usually serve it with some type of fruit salad.

I make my own spaghetti sauce (using olive oil, garlic, onions, tomatoes) add ground turkey and serve it with whole wheat elbow pasta. My son loves it!

I also make a chicken chili, just using chunks of chicken breast instead of ground beef and adding chopped veggies, beans, fire-roasted tomatoes, chicken stock and some spices, too.

My son's newest favorite snack is chopped apples or bananas drizzled with melted peanut butter (he has no allergies)...it is similar to the old classic of apples and peanut butter, but he doesn't have to dip it.

*bump* and I thought of another one :) More of a snack, though.

Homemade frozen yogurt popsicles. You just pick your favorite yogurt, fill the ice cube tray with yogurt and add a popsicle stick. After it freezes it is the perfect size for little hands, and mommies too!

I also experiment with lots of chicken and veggies over rice or whole wheat pasta. If the chicken is fresh (not frozen) it cooks very quickly, and you can throw in veggies (fresh or frozen) and by the time the pasta/rice is done, the chicken is done too!

As far as fast food goes, most places offer alternatives to fries and soda....fruits and milk. McDonalds has apples, Wendy's has oranges, Subway has raisins (I think). Even so, I allow my little guy fast food once a month at the most...so fries and soda wouldn't hurt, imo.

"fast food meals which unfortunatly sometimes have to be resorted to."

Just because fast food has to be a part of your life doesn't mean it has to be happy meals and the likes. 

Could try Subway and grab one of those "mini" subs and the fruit (I believe theirs is apples but I'm not entirely positive it's been a year or two since we went there).  At McDonald's get a fruit and yogurt parfait and apple dippers as a large snack/light lunch to hold them over.  Wendy's chili and oranges isn't a half bad lunch either.

I'd post a lot more meal ideas (as we HAVE to feed one of our kids meticulously and there's no wiggle room) but I have surgery (YAY TUBAL!) in like, an hour :\.

I'm not usually a fan of Taco Bell, but you can get little sides of rice and/or beans, which at least resembles real food.  My two-year old also likes homemade wraps, soft tacos, quesadillas, etc.  Just takes a little bit of construction to make sure there is more "wrap" than filling, and even so we do a lot of re-wrapping.  ;)

I'll confess we do a lot of meals that aren't traditional... I'll give him a little applesauce, then a yogurt, then a little cheese, then maybe some Cheerios or crackers, etc.  I relied on this while my husband was out of town for a few days... my goal was to avoid cooking since I had a toddler and baby to handle, but I noticed that skipping an "entree" meant healthier meals for me, too.  I like cooking but I struggle making myself a 500- or 600-calorie dinner.  For me, eating a couple individual items like what I'm feeding my kids is more successful... at least it was for a few days.  Now husband is back and we'll see!

You can make some really good homemade, healthy, chicken nuggets that can be frozen and then heated up any time you or your kids want them.  Same thing with pancakes, meatloaf, mini muffins, mini quiches etc.

What still works with my boys is sweet potato fries - you can get them pre made and frozen (trader joes has good ones), but they're pretty easy homemade as well.

Oh, and I never went wrong with make-your-own-pizzas using mini pizza crusts or english muffins.  It was messy when the cheese was flung around a little bit, but they had fun, and liked eating something they made themselves.

I find that if i give my kids raw veggies and dip or salad to snack on while i cook they gobble them right up.  When i give them veggies sitting next to their chicken and their sweet potato fries they never get touched.  I also  tried  those new veggie chips from flat earth, they love them and there is something like  1/2 serving of veggies  in them. 

I know this forum isn't new but I read it and wanted to share.  I bought some of the frozen ravoli.  If you need a quick healthy meal once the water starts to boil it only takes 5 minutes for the ravoli to cook.  Also, I bought some frozen diced carrots and peas.  I threw them into the boiling water with the ravoli while they were cooking.  I separated the ravoli and veg's on his plate and just served them plain.  This is something healthy and quick and my little man really loved it...he's one!  I'm still trying some new things out because he's not wanting the baby food anymore.  If you wanted to make it for mom and dad you could do that too...(just add a little red sauce maybe!). 

More great ideas are mozzarella sticks are good and quick.  Just one and there you go.  I'm also a big fan of the diced DelMonte fruit cups.  I drink or pour the juice out then give it to him.  Jello cups are good too. 

I love this forum!  Thanks for all of the great info!