What to feed a toddler?

[I'm a red panda]

Difficult to write this without sounding judgey, but maybe, since you have a child now and your diet of cereal isn’t adequate, maybe, you could invest in cooking lessons so you can make some decent meals for yourself and your child so you’re not dependent on your husband or anyone else?

Nah, our division of labor is working fine- I like cereal for dinner, it's perfectly adequate. Lots of people eat it daily for breakfast, so I don't see the problem eating it fairly regularly for dinner (I usually have a homemade breakfast, as DH cooks that daily).  This thread has given me lots of good ideas on how to feed her for now.  As she gets older hopefully we can move dinner later.

[charis]

Difficult to write this without sounding judgey, but maybe, since you have a child now and your diet of cereal isn’t adequate, maybe, you could invest in cooking lessons so you can make some decent meals for yourself and your child so you’re not dependent on your husband or anyone else?

Nah, our division of labor is working fine- I like cereal for dinner, it's perfectly adequate. Lots of people eat it daily for breakfast, so I don't see the problem eating it fairly regularly for dinner (I usually have a homemade breakfast, as DH cooks that daily).  This thread has given me lots of good ideas on how to feed her for now.  As she gets older hopefully we can move dinner later.

Is it a division of labor issue? This is a conflicting response because you said that you dont (or cant) cook, and he can't or won't until after the rest of the family has eaten.  The obvious solution is that you start cooking or prepping a meal when you get home. It's a valuable skill for both parents as children age.

[MrThatsDifferent]

Difficult to write this without sounding judgey, but maybe, since you have a child now and your diet of cereal isn’t adequate, maybe, you could invest in cooking lessons so you can make some decent meals for yourself and your child so you’re not dependent on your husband or anyone else?

Nah, our division of labor is working fine- I like cereal for dinner, it's perfectly adequate. Lots of people eat it daily for breakfast, so I don't see the problem eating it fairly regularly for dinner (I usually have a homemade breakfast, as DH cooks that daily).  This thread has given me lots of good ideas on how to feed her for now.  As she gets older hopefully we can move dinner later.

Is it a division of labor issue? This is a conflicting response because you said that you dont (or cant) cook, and he can't or won't until after the rest of the family has eaten.  The obvious solution is that you start cooking or prepping a meal when you get home. It's a valuable skill for both parents as children age.

Thank you. Geez, I thought I was having a stroke. Talk about learned helplessness. This lady is asking internet strangers on advice to feed her child, not friends or family or a pediatrician and they give advice on things you could google in a minute and now she’s hyper-confident, sorted and doesn’t feel any need to learn to cook at all for her child!?!  Sometimes people baffle the hell out of me.

[Goldielocks]

I get it.  I have a friend that doesn't cook.  At all.  (she doesn't have a kid, though).   It took me a long time to wrap my head around it, just like it took me a while with the other friend that doesn't read.  (not illiterate, just does not read other than say, buying groceries or ATM machine use).

And my sister didn't really cook for a very long time, even with kids.  She just bought heat and eat foods, raw veggies, and things like yogurt and cereal, cheese, precut veggies, salad kits in a bag, cut up fruit and bread / muffins.  Boiling / roast carrots for dinner once a week for a fancier option.  She did spend quite a bit more on food purchases. 

 After 10 year of this (with kids), she started to cook and knows how and does well, but even now, likely only ever cooks 10 recipes and mainly when people come over, not daily.   Her DH works long hours, so only does weekend breakfasts.

[I'm a red panda]

Difficult to write this without sounding judgey, but maybe, since you have a child now and your diet of cereal isn’t adequate, maybe, you could invest in cooking lessons so you can make some decent meals for yourself and your child so you’re not dependent on your husband or anyone else?

Nah, our division of labor is working fine- I like cereal for dinner, it's perfectly adequate. Lots of people eat it daily for breakfast, so I don't see the problem eating it fairly regularly for dinner (I usually have a homemade breakfast, as DH cooks that daily).  This thread has given me lots of good ideas on how to feed her for now.  As she gets older hopefully we can move dinner later.

Is it a division of labor issue? This is a conflicting response because you said that you dont (or cant) cook, and he can't or won't until after the rest of the family has eaten.  The obvious solution is that you start cooking or prepping a meal when you get home. It's a valuable skill for both parents as children age.

Thank you. Geez, I thought I was having a stroke. Talk about learned helplessness. This lady is asking internet strangers on advice to feed her child, not friends or family or a pediatrician and they give advice on things you could google in a minute and now she’s hyper-confident, sorted and doesn’t feel any need to learn to cook at all for her child!?!  Sometimes people baffle the hell out of me.

Telling me to learn how to cook is a division of labor issue. That's not my household job.  Obviously I'm having to change some of my routine for a toddler, lots of things change. But I'm not going to be the primary cook in our house. I said I -don't- cook.  Not that I can't.  I just really despise doing it. That's why I don't cook for myself and often eat cereal if I don't want to wait on him to eat, or don't eat what he makes (I don't eat pork or fish.) Just like he doesn't do laundry. It's not that he can't. It's that I do it because that's how our household works. When he was injured and couldn't cook I made him meals. I didn't make our bread from scratch, but I cooked everything else; I even ground our meat from scratch because we don't buy that pre-ground. I don't have time after work to do that daily. You'll notice in my first post I mentioned ideas I can prep on Sunday.  That's not how he works- as he shops daily so he can bike groceries home.

Nearly all the of the ideas people have given me are more food that needs to be heated, not cooked. Getting cooking lessons really isn't going to do anything on that.  Kids are toddlers for a pretty short period of time. Eventually she won't be going to bed at 6:30 and she can eat dinner when my husband cooks it, after he gets home. Right now she can't stay up late enough for that, and as I said in the first post- I don't always have a meal from him to reheat.  Honestly, I don't think I could start cooking when I get home and have a meal ready by the time she goes to bed. We're only home for about 2 hours on an ideal day. That would be zero time to INTERACT with my daughter, which is more important to me.

90% of what people ask on this forum could be googled. It is interesting to know from personal experience what other people are doing. Most people are still feeding their 1 year olds ingredients, not meals- which makes this much easier on me.   I'm so glad you are morally superior to me. You should take pride in that.

[charis]

You don't have to be the primary cook to aid in meal planning, prepping, or even cooking sometimes. I'm not the primary cook at all. But some nights I have to get dinner on the table for the family. So I do, usually within 30-45 min because we meal plan and shop on the weekends. So it's easy to throw something together, usually a pasta or rice dish. If your husband's goal, as the cook, is to feed the family, I imagine he'd be willing to reevaluate the situation to achieve this goal.

[gaja]

I can remember how life with toddlers was. One of mine would not eat unless it tasted pear. Porridge with pear sauce is good, pasta with pear sauce gets a bit stranger, meatballs with pear sauce takes you into the alternative reality. (I will not talk about the phase when everything needed to be mixed with liver pate. The smell. It is still there.) But she grew up, and eats everything now, from seal to fruit salads.

Iowajes sounds like she is doing a great job! The kid is happy, eats a varied diet, and gets enough sleep. How anyone went from that to facepunches, I do not get. I 100% agree that spending time with the baby is much more important than making conplex meals for a toddler (who normally  prefers eating ingredients).

[CNM]

My kid's favorite meal is spaghetti with meatballs.  It's fast and easy.  Can you boil pasta?  Or, ask your husband to boil up a whole bunch on day? (It will store in the fridge decently). 

Then, heat up frozen meatballs in the microwave and some tomato sauce. 

Combine and done!

Also, if you are OK with making mac n' cheese (out of a box is fine), you can add some cauliflower florets as a veg.  Just put a couple of frozen florets in the boiling water at the end to heat them up.  Once they are covered with the cheese sauce, like the rest of the macaroni, they are practically undetectable by the child and eaten with glee!

[Cressida]

Thank you. Geez, I thought I was having a stroke. Talk about learned helplessness. This lady is asking internet strangers on advice to feed her child, not friends or family or a pediatrician and they give advice on things you could google in a minute and now she’s hyper-confident, sorted and doesn’t feel any need to learn to cook at all for her child!?!  Sometimes people baffle the hell out of me.

I'm curious if you would feel the same way about a man who opted out of cooking as part of the household division of labor.

[I'm a red panda]

My kid's favorite meal is spaghetti with meatballs.  It's fast and easy.  Can you boil pasta?  Or, ask your husband to boil up a whole bunch on day? (It will store in the fridge decently). 

Then, heat up frozen meatballs in the microwave and some tomato sauce. 

Combine and done!

Also, if you are OK with making mac n' cheese (out of a box is fine), you can add some cauliflower florets as a veg.  Just put a couple of frozen florets in the boiling water at the end to heat them up.  Once they are covered with the cheese sauce, like the rest of the macaroni, they are practically undetectable by the child and eaten with glee!

Spaghetti is super easy, and basically my go-to meal for myself. She's not eating much pasta yet though. I'm just too scared about choking. (I choked on spaghetti as a teenager after a surgery, so it's high on my radar.)

I hadn't thought about macaroni and cheese. That's super easy, and I could easily buy boxes to have on hand (we don't keep much convenience food in the house; which is why I am probably not thinking about obvious things, because they just aren't part of our normal diet).  Elbow pasta is probably OK for the choking thing.

I asked my husband to buy a few cans of beans so I can make those more easily. We usually cook them from dry, which means I have to set them out in the morning to soak, and then while the pressure cooker is fast- it isn't near immediate, which is more what I am looking for.

[asiljoy]

My kid's favorite meal is spaghetti with meatballs.  It's fast and easy.  Can you boil pasta?  Or, ask your husband to boil up a whole bunch on day? (It will store in the fridge decently). 

Then, heat up frozen meatballs in the microwave and some tomato sauce. 

Combine and done!

Also, if you are OK with making mac n' cheese (out of a box is fine), you can add some cauliflower florets as a veg.  Just put a couple of frozen florets in the boiling water at the end to heat them up.  Once they are covered with the cheese sauce, like the rest of the macaroni, they are practically undetectable by the child and eaten with glee!

Spaghetti is super easy, and basically my go-to meal for myself. She's not eating much pasta yet though. I'm just too scared about choking. (I choked on spaghetti as a teenager after a surgery, so it's high on my radar.)

I hadn't thought about macaroni and cheese. That's super easy, and I could easily buy boxes to have on hand (we don't keep much convenience food in the house; which is why I am probably not thinking about obvious things, because they just aren't part of our normal diet).  Elbow pasta is probably OK for the choking thing.

I asked my husband to buy a few cans of beans so I can make those more easily. We usually cook them from dry, which means I have to set them out in the morning to soak, and then while the pressure cooker is fast- it isn't near immediate, which is more what I am looking for.

My 4 year old digs black beans so we started cooking bags of dried beans in the insta pot (I rinse the beans and then throw the whole bag in the pot and cover with with water, drain when done), and then eat a meals worth and freeze the rest in meal sized portions for our family in pyrex containers. If you repeat that pattern with other foods you find that your kid eats (rice/chicken/quinoa/veggies/etc) , you'll end up with a freezer full of easy meal components in no time.

[MicroRN]

I asked my husband to buy a few cans of beans so I can make those more easily. We usually cook them from dry, which means I have to set them out in the morning to soak, and then while the pressure cooker is fast- it isn't near immediate, which is more what I am looking for.

Yeah, we prefer to cook beans from dry, but always still have a few cans each of black beans, white beans, chickpeas, and refried beans for busy nights.  The refried beans make for a super quick quesadilla, or huevos rancheros.

[shelivesthedream]

I've been doing some freezer cooking for myself and made risotto and thought of you. You could make it extra-mushy and actually just cook the rice plain for the freezer if you wanted and then add toppings.

[MrsDinero]

I just recently made some egg muffins for the kids (and myself).  One toddler liked it, the other toddler didn't.

Using a regular muffin tin, grease each tin (Pam, Cricso, etc).

Chop any veggies into small bits (I used leftover roasted cauliflower)
Chop bacon, sausage, protein, etc into small bits (I used bacon).
Crack 6 eggs into a bowl and scramble.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Pour some of the egg into each cup, sprinkle the veggies & protein into each cup.   Sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top of each cup.  I omitted the salt because I felt the bacon was salty enough.

Bake at 400 for about 20-25 minutes.  Put in container or freeze.