I need some meal ideas

[RiverandJulie]

I am feeling very uncreative in feeding my 14 mo.  Especially snacks. He likes to eat many times a day.   He can eat most of what we eat, and eats with us some, but he snacks often and we start bedtime at 6:00 or he falls apart, so dinner is often on his own.  

Plus, when he decides it is time to eat-that is it, we need to eat now! or it is clingyness, which makes it hard to prep anything.......

So, what I need are ideas for food that are quick and easy to prepare, or can be made ahead of time to eat throughout the week.

Here are his food challenges-

Gluten free

He is mostly dairy free, some yogurt seems to be ok, and a little cheese, but I want to keep these to a minimum.

He is gassy alot! So, we try to keep gassy foods to a minimum.

He only has one molar just poking through, so he needs foods that are simple to chew.

We dont have a microwave.

Thanks!

[tzs]

we also are molar-challenged but it doesn't seem to matter much.....

i make peanut noodles which are super easy and full of stuff i like and i suppose you could do it with rice or rice noodles. just heat coconut milk with peanut butter and add a touch of soy sauce, rice vinager, sesame oil, red chili flakes....or however you like it. you can add scrambled eggs for extra protein or some chopped peanuts.

actually eggs are our go-to meal at least once/day. poached, scrambled, with refried beans and rice, with veggies, with salsa, with salami.....

oatmeal with add-ins....figs, cranberry sauce, flax seed, apples, canned pumpkin. (is oatmeal gluten????)

dd loves her some "sushi salad" which is just sushi rice with any sushi fixins you like folded in....avocado, fish (even canned salmon is really easy0, veggies, nori strips, some soy with wasabi, sometimes i make a wasabi mayo to drizzle on top. it's great because the sticky rice is easier to eat for her...especially before utensils.

a tomato/cucumber (or whatever veggies you like...this is our preference) salad with vinagrette and tuna.

you could make a veggie enchilada casserole which would last for several meals with corn tortillas (or does that have gluten??) i would fill it with like...black beans, maybe sweet potatoes roasted with cumin and salt/pepper/olive oil, cilantro. zucchini would be good...corn....we do it cheeseless and basically mix the enchilada sauce with tofutti sour cream and then pour it on top. (although i'm not sure how good fake sour cream is for dd but she doesn't get so much of it)

falafel with hummus. you could make a big batch of falafel and freeze (or buy premade)

for a snack you can do cucumbers and hummus

we had shepards pie tonight. one batch yields lots of leftovers which you could heat up for the kiddo easily in a pinch.

i like to open a can of collard greens in a pinch for a veggie. but i like mine with a little extra vinegar added and some chili flakes.

we do smoothies alot for afternoon snacks. we make them non-dairy with the coconut-milk fake-kefir instead of yogurt.

i'm getting hungry.

[RiverandJulie]

i make peanut noodles which are super easy and full of stuff i like and i suppose you could do it with rice or rice noodles. just heat coconut milk with peanut butter and add a touch of soy sauce, rice vinager, sesame oil, red chili flakes....or however you like it. you can add scrambled eggs for extra protein or some chopped peanuts.

ohh-yes, we made those once and he loved it! simple....I wonder if I can freeze it.

actually eggs are our go-to meal at least once/day. poached, scrambled, with refried beans and rice, with veggies, with salsa, with salami.....

oatmeal with add-ins....figs, cranberry sauce, flax seed, apples, canned pumpkin. (is oatmeal gluten????)

Oatmeal is gluten free-i need to try adding new things to it

dd loves her some "sushi salad" which is just sushi rice with any sushi fixins you like folded in....avocado, fish (even canned salmon is really easy0, veggies, nori strips, some soy with wasabi, sometimes i make a wasabi mayo to drizzle on top. it's great because the sticky rice is easier to eat for her...especially before utensils.

a tomato/cucumber (or whatever veggies you like...this is our preference) salad with vinagrette and tuna.

you could make a veggie enchilada casserole which would last for several meals with corn tortillas (or does that have gluten??) i would fill it with like...black beans, maybe sweet potatoes roasted with cumin and salt/pepper/olive oil, cilantro. zucchini would be good...corn....we do it cheeseless and basically mix the enchilada sauce with tofutti sour cream and then pour it on top. (although i'm not sure how good fake sour cream is for dd but she doesn't get so much of it)

Corn tortillas are fine too, but the beans just cause painful gas,,,,I need to try different beans

falafel with hummus. you could make a big batch of falafel and freeze (or buy premade)

for a snack you can do cucumbers and hummus

we had shepards pie tonight. one batch yields lots of leftovers which you could heat up for the kiddo easily in a pinch.

i like to open a can of collard greens in a pinch for a veggie. but i like mine with a little extra vinegar added and some chili flakes.

we do smoothies alot for afternoon snacks. we make them non-dairy with the coconut-milk fake-kefir instead of yogurt.

i'm getting hungry.

Great Ideas-thanks for the help, wanna come over and cook for me?!
 

[carmen358]

DD (and I) are gluten, dairy and soy free...here are a few simple ideas that are staples for us.

Quinoa with black beans and mango

Cook quinoa in coconut milk (I use about 75% coco. milk and 25% water), add in some sauted shallots or onion, lime juice, can of black beans and fresh mango. SO good! I"m sure you could try different beans or maybe a veg instead.

Stir fried veggies with just garlic and olive oil served with quinoa or rice. Seems obvious but I hadn't actually tried it with her and she loved it. We had been sticking to steamed veggies.

DD loves hummus so we put it on rice cakes or just give her a spoonful and she eats it with a spoon or her fingers.

Kale "chips" as a snack

Smoothies are a great idea as mentioned above

[tzs]

we just had spaghetti squash tonight for the first time (seriously, i have no idea how i've never had it before...i think i'm pretty well-rounded in terms of food knowledge!)

we topped it with spaghetti sauce and cheese but you could do the sauce and something else....

[GuavaGirl]

I keep prepped foods in the freezer.

I cook things like crock pot chicken (thighs), meatloaf, season lamb, roasted root veggies(potato, carrot, parsnip, beet, sweet potato), squashes, baked cinnamon apples, baked green beans, etc. just for toddler food, and then freeze them on a cookie sheet in chunks and pop them in freezer bags.  I also do some fruit purees (prune, mango, fig) in ice cube trays.  Those are good to mix with applesauce or to coat the cut up meat with. (like a sauce)  

He usually eats what we eat, but sometimes he needs to eat before it's done or I don't want him to eat what I'm eating, either for health or chewing ability reasons.

I do warm the food in the microwave though.

Snacks:  chopped banana rolled in almond meal, cut up oranges, applesauce, thawed (from frozen) blueberries, or anything from the prepped freezer bags.

Edited by GuavaGirl - 3/14/11 at 8:08pm