Feeding My Toddler

R's diet has been a source of stress to me as a non-cook. Thanks to various commenters' suggestions, I have been trying to give her a bit more variety (even if the cooking part isn't going so well: my cooking class has been fun but actually motivating myself to make stuff at home is another matter). It's been relatively successful.

B is in charge of dinners, so I feed her three meals daily (breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack). She doesn't get food at other times.

Breakfast is pretty much always the same: Cheerios with milk and some kind of fruit (here, honey mangoes). Often she gets yogurt too (aloe and coconut flavor here). Plus water (she only gets non-water/milk as a special treat). 

Here's R at lunch: Kashmiri pulao (this is Indian-style rice cooked with raisins and nuts: obviously I didn't make this!), milk, kidney beans (with a little bit of olive oil and vinegar) and fruit (pineapple I think?). I have been taking Jessica's advice to give her one fruit/vegetable, one protein, one grain and one milk per meal, which has been working pretty well so far.

Snack time is usually not that healthy. I think of it more like tea time, especially since she eats it around 4:30 or 5 (we eat dinner at 7ish). I am going for the "French system" I guess? (Bread with chocolate and a glass of milk being the the snack of choice there, per Bringing Up Bebe).

Here R is eating chocolate cake (she picked it out from the local bakery due to its rainbow sprinkle topping, but didn't enjoy it much: cake is not something Asians do well), yogurt drink, part of a bagel with goat cheese, and a tangerine.

We often (usually) eat dessert. I have a theory that making dessert a normal part of eating will reduce temptation to binge eat on sugar (My evidence: I didn't eat sugar before age 5 and look at me!), but honestly the dessert thing is just because I like sweets.

Here R is working on her dessert of coconut jelly, prepared inside an actual baby coconut (this is readily available at our local grocery store). This is a more typical Asian dessert.

For dinner last night we ate Taiwanese takeout (green beans, rice, Beijing-style pork burritos, onion pancake and pork dumplings), plus mini custard pies for dessert. R here is eating avocado, green beans, rice, custard, and her very favorite pork dumplings (she ate 5/8).

She loves them so much she lined them all up on the table before she ate them, to gloat over their beauty I guess? Cute.