Healthy Tasty Meals for family with a 2 year old?

We struggle with this a little- despite always serving consistently healthy meals- as most kids do just prefer junk (as do most adults- lets be honest!).

Mine are 6 and 8, now. Here is how we handle it at our house.

1. We talk a lot (even starting when they were much younger) about how they get to choose what to put in their mouth, but one of mommy and daddy's jobs is to make healthy choices for them- so we will serve a healthy meal, and they get to choose to eat or not. Of course at 2 this does not fully sink in- but you start laying that groundwork.

2. We always offer a veggie, and usually a fruit, with every meal. They can choose not to eat it, but they aren't getting more helpings of anything else unless they try a bite of what is being offered (we are big on not knowing if you like it until you try it) and eat a serving of veggie, either the one served with dinner, or plain carrots/cucumbers/etc.

3. We limit cheese to 2 times a day because our kids are cheese addicts and would prefer to eat everything covered in cheese. This may or may not apply to your kid. We give them some control over it though- if DD says she wants cream cheese toast, I say that is fine, but then you are having peanut butter for lunch because dinner has cheese. And SHE gets to make that choice.

4. We let them have some ownership of meals, they each pick a dinner meal each week. We talk about how sometimes the meal is their favorite, sometimes it is not their preference, and everyone has to take turns. I got them a color picture cookbook so they could look through it and pick recipes before they could read. I have found adult cookbooks with lots of pictures are a better bet as many childrens ones have virtually zero vegetables.

5. My kids are picky about protein so we have a rule that each meal must have protein. If they hate the main dish I will cook them an egg.

6. If they throw a fit and refuse to eat, that is fine, that is their choice. We don't make food a battle, we don't fight with them about it, if they prefer to wait to eat until the next meal that is totally up to them. But I also will not listen to it- they are welcome to go have that fit in their room. Simply refusing to engage about food is very freeing and the fits stop if you are consistent.

7. As I've said above, if they do give the food an honest try, they are welcome to another healthy alternative, but that doesn't mean I am cooking a whole separate meal. They can have an egg or peanut butter sandwich or cut up raw veggies, I am not a short order cook.

8. If snacks are a battle (all mine want is crackers) I find that setting out a snack dish for the whole day (or keeping it on the low fridge shelf) works well. I put a few crackers, some fruit, veggies, slices of cheese, nuts, etc in small portions in a dish, that is the snacks for the whole day. One for each kid. They can have more- but not unless the whole dish is eaten. Of course at first they eat all the crackers at 9 am and beg for more- but over time they figure out how to regulate themselves.

There will be a transition period where he may battle you for things. Once you break the habits and establish new expectations, it gets much easier. Obviously there are kids where medically you can't be that firm, but for the average kid, they'll be fine if they miss a few meals while testing boundaries. We find that if food causes battles, it is better not to have it in the house for awhile.

It takes about 3 or 4 sometimes more times of introducing a new food. Starting him off young is the best way to go. My husband's siblings were amazed when we went out to restaurants together and my children were ordering "grow up food" and not chicken nuggets and fries. Just keep serving the veggies he will catch on.

You have a wonderful opportunity to educate your little one about healthy eating and about how cool it is to try different things. It does take several times for a food to become familiar so even if they dont try it the first time, keep at it and one day it will not be so strange to them and they will eat it - start with small portions. I dont know how this suggestion will be received, but with mine, I really restricted my kids access to thing like hot dogs and other typical childhood go to's as it was too easy to make and be assured that they would eat it, but when they werent around, I could honestly look my son in the face and say "sorry honey - we do not have any hotdogs in the freezer right now, thats why mom is feeding you spinach and rat poop casserole (because I am sure thats what he thought I was doing). Also, your attitude toward food and trying new things is important too, as your little one will pick up any hesitation you may have about certain foods and be the same.

Family meals I make low calorie and gluten free with veggies: tacos, shepherds pie, soups, chili,fish sticks( yes gluten free), chicken thighs(kids tend to like dark meat). Some times we buy gluten free pasta and do that with tons of veggies. I do frozen fruit smoothies for the kids and my husband with almond milk( can't do lactose). Turkey burgers w/ g free buns( not sure how bad it is for you I know some people can't even touch anything with gluten otherwise you can do regular ones for the kids). I do a lot of stir fry and rice noddles for Thai dishes. Spaghetti squash. I also meal plan for a week before shopping and have it listed on the fridge so everyone knows what mom is cooking. It helps them to know what is for dinner. They also get to pick a meal. I will star the meal that was big hit with everyone and rotate it in and out often. My kids can read now and know not to ask me what is for dinner because my answer is always ' food'. You have to keep at it when it comes to healthy options. Your taste buds change, literally and something they don't like one day they might love the next. My kids are on a banana triple berry smoothie kick right now, one of them for three years has been telling me bananas are ' disgusting' and he would rather starve to death then eat one. He is seven now and apparently matured!!haha.

Meatballs! I shred a bunch of veggies into them and hardly anyone notices. My DD (2) loves veggies and dip like hummus, like above poster, she tends to like her veggies better raw. She would never eat carrots cooked but loves them raw. She basically eats anything we do. It helped a lot to get her involved, at the store or at home I ask for her "help" even if all she did was put pepper into the soup she seems to feel proud and is more likely to eat the soup.

Toddlers tend to be pretty good at knowing what they need. Some days dd wont eat veg and loads up on chicken the next day all she eats is veg. We try to limit foods we don't want her to eat often such as cookies, because she will want those over anything else if we have them in the house.

Totes wouldn't worry about the cheese, if its shredded it likely isn't a whole lot.