Toddler food - lunch and dinner

I remember freaking out when my oldest outgrew baby food.  I had NO IDEA what I would feed her.  At the time, she was in daycare, so she ate the baby food we provided.  Being new to parenthood, I was amazed when she started eating real food from the daycare kitchen with the rest of the older kids.  It never occurred to me that someone so young could eat real food.

My second daughter was never in daycare; one of us has always stayed home with her.  This child has never eaten store-bought baby food, and on the rare occasion when we tried to feed it to her (while traveling), she didn't like it.  When she was a baby, we pureed whatever we ate. 

Now we have it down pat.  The kids eat what we eat, and we eat healthier and cheaper than we ever have. 

How do we do it?  Frozen vegetables are our friends!  Walmart has the cheapest frozen vegetables, and their Great Value brand is just as good as any.  I usually stock up once every couple of weeks on broccoli, carrots & peas, plain peas, edamame, lima beans, corn and various "stir fry" mixes.  It only takes about 3 minutes in the microwave to cook most of the veggies, and each bag will last us for several meals.

Occasionally we find fresh vegetables as cheap as frozen.  For instance, we can get a 5 pound bag of fresh carrots at Sam's Club for less than $3.  I'll cook a big batch of sliced carrots and freeze them into smaller portions. 

We usually keep cooked frozen chicken cubes, frozen fish filets, or frozen pork BBQ for the protein portion of our meals.  The chicken is our girls' favorite; I boil boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut them into small cubes and freeze them in ice cube trays before transferring to larger freezer bags for storage. I save the broth to make soups later.  We also use plain, low-fat yogurt as a meat substitute for lunch. 

For lunch, we make meals with one meat/protein, 2 vegetables or a mix of veggies, and fruit for dessert.  The fruit is usually applesauce or frozen blueberries, but we will also use fresh seasonal fruit and canned peaches and pears. 

For dinner, we usually have a meat dish (my husband requires meat for dinner) - usually meatloaf, grilled pork, chicken or steak, spaghetti with meat sauce, baked fish, or some other meat recipe.  Then we add a fresh mix salad or veggies on the side.  My 2 year old has always liked salad; we cut the spinach into tiny pieces and let her dip it in dressing. 

I used to dread meal planning, but now it's a piece of cake.