Munchkin meals (13 months)
I love reading these posts from other mamas because it helps me think of new snack and meal ideas for Oliv. Posting “munchkin meals” was popularized by Brittany, and you can read a great list of Munchkin Meals and link-ups on her blog. They usually occur the first Thursday of the month (so technically I’m early -or late?- to the party); feel free to join in and participate this next week if you’d like!
Liv and I will often share the same things, but it’s always surprising to learn her food preferences. For example, she’ll kill my green juice before I get to drink any, and I ordered a farm fresh juice which had more citrus and less greens and she hardly touched it. I love to watch the excitement (or rejection) when she tries something new. If it’s truly delicious, she’ll say “mmmmmm” while she’s eating and if she’s not a fan, Bell and Caro get the rejected pieces thrown their way.
Here are some of the meals and snacks she’s been enjoying lately:
(right now she’s just under 13 months)
(eating fish taco, black beans, rice, chips with salsa and veggies last night at Blanco)
Breakfast:
-Fruit (banana, kiwi, berries, apple, pear, persimmon, melon, clementines…. whatever we have on hand)
-An egg
-Oatmeal, a yogurt (Stonyfield Farms Yo Baby or Yo Toddler) or pancake
Lunch:
-Fruit and/or veggies (I try to mix up steamed veggies and raw, and will also do cooked fruit purees or raw)
-Leftovers from dinner the night before
-Yogurt if she hasn’t had any yet, beans, chicken or fish
I tend to give her lots of different things on her tray and let her pick and choose:
(Hot bar leftovers: mac n cheese, baked apple, turkey parmesan -her fave of the bunch- and grilled cilantro fish + some veggie soup, bites of my salad)
Dinner:
Whatever we’re eating 🙂 If I’m going to heavily season or salt something, I keep her serving on the side and make it a little more plain, even though she seems to enjoy some herbs and spices.
Some of her favorites are pizza, salmon, turkey burgers, anything with marinara sauce, chicken (depending on how it’s flavored), sweet potatoes, bites of raw salad (only if it has good dressing), enchiladas, Indian food.
Snacks:
-Juices. We’ve been having at least one fresh juice everyday for the past few weeks, just because I realized how much she enjoys them and it’s an easy way to get in awesome nutrients and fruit/veggie servings. At home I’ll usually make her carrot-apple (carrot-apple-beet-ginger for me) and when we go to Whole Foods, she likes the Green Gitty Up with lemon (cucumber, kale, apple, and parsley)
-Fruit (she can eat a whole banana!), yogurt drops, Annie’s cheddar bunnies, Snap crisps, homemade oat bars, Little Ducks, turkey lentil muffin
The only thing she seems to dislike for the most part: noodles. She’ll eat the macaroni and cheese from the hot bar sometimes, but the rest of the time, she’ll cram about 4 noodles into her mouth, suck off the cheesy sauce and then spit them out. She also despises wearing a bib now and will immediately detach the velcro and throw it on the floor. Lucky for us, she’s a pretty neat eater.
(Helping me make dinner. I put the sweet potatoes and seasonings in a bag and let her mash them around)
New developments:
-We started giving Liv cow’s milk this past week. As you guys know, I was on the fence about it since Tom and I both drink almond milk instead. (You can read more about why I avoid dairy here.) I researched some alternative options, like hemp milk, but wasn’t particularly happy with the nutrition stats or ingredients for something to be consumed on a daily basis. Many hemp milks contain an ingredient called carrageenan, which is a red seaweed derivative and at first sounds fairly harmless. You can read about some of the effects of carrageenan here, but in the end, I decided I wasn’t comfortable giving that to Liv. I’m happy with our decision as the milk we purchase contains 3 ingredients: organic whole milk, DHA and Vitamin Ds. Please don’t let our choice persuade you, as its important to thoroughly research available options and make the best decision for your family, but I wanted to share our decision since a few people have asked about it.
We give Livi milk in the morning and late afternoon, or if she happens to ask for it. When she does drink the milk, she seems to enjoy it, but then again, anything has to taste better than the stinky formula she drank for the past year. (If you’ve never smelled formula before, I can’t say I recommend it. It also makes a horrible accidental coffee creamer.)
Any fun munchkin meal ideas? I recently got some sunflower seed butter for her to try, so we might have some sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches this week!
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We gave our daughter, who is now 20-mos old dairy and found out that she is dairy-sensitive. She now drinks unsweetened coconut milk. However, I am happy that we tried milk because I feel it is important to let her experience all kinds of foods even if I don’t like them. Have you tried plain goat’s milk yogurt? She loves it with a tad bit of honey, or even by itself. I like that fact that there isn’t the extra sugar in it…besides the honey I sometimes will add. We get the huge tub from TJ’s!
I’m in my first trimester and have already pinned you organic baby food post. Must pin this too! I love that Livi has such a variety in her diet and I hope that my baby will be the same. The fact that she enjoys spices and seasonings is awesome too!
You are such a great mother. You’re an inspiration 🙂
I love how diverse Livi eats! Just like her mama.
We made the decision to give Eli raw milk – mostly goat, as it seems to work best on his digestive system, but a little cow here and there for the B vitamins that goat’s milk doesn’t have. He is crazy for it.
I also give Eli whatever we are eating – it’s a pretty good way to keep the eats around the house top notch 🙂
PS – so cute with the green juice!
What was she getting prior to the switch to cows milk?
a combo of breastmilk and formula
I love the sensitivity of your writing. Example: “I’m happy with our decision as the milk we purchase contains 3 ingredients: organic whole milk, DHA and Vitamin Ds. Please don’t let our choice persuade you, as its important to thoroughly research available options and make the best decision for your family, but I wanted to share our decision since a few people have asked about it. ”
Frequently as parents we are bombarded with propaganda of the “correct and only way” to do things. When in fact every parenting decision we make is personal, and often needs to take into account family considerations, dynamics, needs, and budgets. Your awareness of this is refreshing. 🙂
Where did u buy that cover for the table liv was eating on?
it’s the tiny diner placemat, from amazon
Thanks for sharing your munchkin meals 🙂 My son loves green smoothies! Another fun idea is toddler-“risotto”: rice, chicken (or other protein), tiny chopped veggies, tomato sauce, mushrooms, parmesan and sometimes a little cream (he’s skinny and needs to gain weight!), all stirred up in a bowl It’s easy and we have a few lunches for the week for him. I guess it’s pretty adaptable to a vegetarian/non-dairy diet as well.
PS: I love that placemat with the little food catcher at the end. Do you mind sharing where you got it from?
Oh my goodness, seriously laughing out loud at the accidental formula for creamer 🙂
My daughter is 20 months old and eats everything we eat as well! So happy she’s not a picky eater!
I feel like I say this in every comment, but Liv is beyond adorable!
She is so cute…It is great that you give her healthy options…That way when she grows up she will want to eat healthy foods 🙂 I am going to try those blueberry oat bars!
Wow, they grow up fast, don’t they?
Does Liv get any formula at all anymore? Of course, we’ll talk to our ped when we go for the one year check up, but I like to hear how other parents make the transition.
Don’t you love being able to give her whole food now?:) Someone just asked me at dinner tonight if feeding my son is getting more difficult now that he’s getting older (almost 11 months) and I’m like,”No way. It’s so much easier now!” He can pretty much eat what we eat. No more puréeing every week.
My little one is eight months, and I am now up to mixing half formula with half homo milk…Each day I increase homo milk by one ounce in each bottle that he gets. 🙂
sorry i’m just now getting back to this! we’re mixing the milk with formula right now, too
So cute! What a great eater Liv is…although I didn’t doubt she would be cause her mommy is so healthy:). We decided to go with goats milk and it is going great. Jack (15 mo) drinks it with breakfast and dinner. Thanks for the juice ideas, I definitely need to try some different flavors.
Thanks for sharing! My lil guy is getting to that year mark and I love getting more suggestions of what he could try. I don’t want him to get in a rut and sometimes it surprises me how much he wants to eat real food (vs formula) and how much he loves it! it makes me realize once again that he is growing up.
He doesn’t love everything- he is not a fan of pasta either! we make homemade soup that has rice, mixed cut veggies, and chicken in it and he will gobble that up. he also likes eating little cubes of frozen yogurt vs regular yogurt out of the fridge and he loves bananas!
Our daughter is eleven-months old and only has four teeth so we are still pureeing lots of food. We are finally getting a Vitamix (yay!) and I’m curious which model you have since there seems to be so many?
Thanks for all of the great baby meal ideas 🙂
What a good eater! Beautiful healthy girl… 🙂
Everyone I know that has an older child (five and up) that eats everything…veg, different proteins, tries everything ..was started by their Mom on many tastes when they were just a toddler.
I think it’s a wonderful philosophy, something I plan to do when I have kids!!!
Love the pictures!
Those eyelashes! I’m totally swooning 😀
she is outta control 🙂
Thanks for this post! I have a 15 mo. old who is all of a sudden super picky. I have been giving him smoothies packed with spinach, which he loves, but I need some new ideas!
How long did it take Livi to learn to drink from a straw? I’ve been working with Squishy for about a month on it, but he just wants to chew on it (he’s just over 13 months). I’d love to share my juices with him, he loves veggies of all kinds!