How I feed my super-picky daughter

My daughter just turned two a month ago. She is the queen of grazing. Also, there is NO way of getting her to eat something she doesn't want to eat at that moment. Begging, pleading, bargaining, putting a small piece of food in her mouth while it is open...nothing works (although seeing her spit out food and shout, "EWWW, GROSS!" is pretty hilarious). I am left with one option: make sure everything she DOES like to eat is as nutrient dense as possible.

Step one: experiment with different foods because you never know what will be accepted or rejected. Through this, I know that Audrey likes: spinach, berries, pasta, yogurt, kefir, cheese, almond milk, most fruits, French fries, cheerios, toast, granola, nut butters, muffins, and dried seaweed. Not a very long list. Any time I find something that she will eat, I end up buying tons of it (for example, Earths Best organic mini waffles, those have been a breakfast staple lately). Audrey also prefers to eat finger foods (she CAN eat with a spoon, but she doesn't like to), so any time I see something that looks like she might try it, I get it.

Step two: cram in nutrients wherever you can. Audrey loves fruit, especially berries. Blueberries are full of vitamins and antioxidants, raspberries have soluble fiber, bananas are rich in potassium. By picking the most nutrient rich fruits, I can at least make sure she is getting some good out of them. Plus, blueberries are fun to eat!

Audrey's pediatrician suggested that I get packaged muffin mix and shred zucchini in it. It makes the muffins more moist and adds veggies to her diet. This can also be done with carrots or sweet potatoes. A few days ago I made these muffins got Audrey using Trader Joe's banana bread mix with zucchini. Audrey called them "cupcakes" and inhaled them. Win! I've also made these delicious blueberry zucchini greek yogurt muffins from The Little Spork. AMAZING! You have all the vitamin goodness from the zucchini and blueberries, plus the protein punch from the greek yogurt! The lemon zest adds a little tang and enhances the blueberry flavor and the yogurt makes the muffins delightfully moist. Can you tell I ate a few myself?

A "kid food" that gets a bad rap is French fries. Yes, fast food fries are fried in nasty oil and loaded with salt. Potatoes are high in vitamin A. Sweet potatoes are even better! We have been making our own French fries by frying them in a deep fryer in healthy oil. YUM! We definitely need to try frying up some sweet potato fries.

Step three: make things easy. Trying to keep everything healthy can be a pain. Washing and cutting fruit is time consuming. When I first buy all my produce, I soak it for an hour in a sink full of water plus 1/2 cup of vinegar. This effectively washes the fruit because the slight acidity eats off anything gross plus it makes produce last longer! I then dry it all off and put the blueberries and blackberries directly in mason jars, then de-stem and slice the strawberries and load them up in the jars. The mason jars (or any glass container) help the fruit stay fresh longer.

It takes a bit of time once you get your groceries home, but it is worth it. When Audrey is hungry, I just pull out a jar and pour the fruit on her plate! I do the same prep with vegetables because I was having a hard time remembering to use them. I lined the bottom of my veggie drawer and as soon as the veggies are clean and dry, they go right in the drawer! Being out where I can see them and being organized helps me remember what I have and what I need to use whereas when they were left in their produce bags, they would go bad before I had a chance to use them because I couldn't see them. Added bonus: Audrey can pull open the produce drawer because it is at her height. She sees all the veggies and gets curious about them. Broccoli, for example, is something she is inspired to eat after peeking in the veggie drawer.

Hyper-organized...I may just have OCD.

Tomorrow I plan on doing some baking and smoothie making, so stay tuned for another post! (Am I planning on sharing this on Pinterest? Why yes! Yes I am!)