James' Meal Planning

Hi Everyone! 

First time trying a pickle.  I guess I could add that to the list. 

A month ago if you asked me what James was having for lunch tomorrow I probably wouldn't have a clue and now most days I still don't, until I look at my fridge.  One day when I was prepping my grocery list it dawned on me why don't I just create a little calendar for James' meal likes I do (sometimes) for me.  And it's so nice to just look at the fridge and see what I have planned for him to eat since of trying to remember what I bought at the store last week or giving him the exact same food for lunch for the fourth time in a row.  

I even did a quick version of this when we went to Chicago to see my sister and the new baby and it worked out perfectly there.  Just pulled up the picture I took on my phone and knew 'okay, lunch is PB&J and string cheese' 

James is still a picky eater unless it comes to carbs, cheese and ice cream and he still isn't at the place where he is eating what I'm eating.  So trying to come up with a lot of different meals for him during the week is a little difficult.  I found that coming up with two different meals for each mealtime works best for me/us.  It allows James to have a little variety to his meals.  I've started to notice that if I give him the same food multiple times in a row he's starting to get a little least interested with it. So doing two different meals allows him a little variety and me not having to spend a ton of time and money on food for him. Given that it's about a 50/50 chance he'll eat it. 

Eating yogurt from a bowl by yourself for the first time

Another thing that I've noticed with this is that he's starting to eat a lot more whole food.  I saw a picture posted from a girl that I worked with in College and she wrote the caption 'this is what my 8 month old eats in a week' and I looked at it and said, does James eat that much.  But since during this calendar thing and making sure that I try to eat all the key food groups (or at least offer them) I believe that he does and more. I read a little article the other days and it was titles things your pediatrician wished you knew and one of them was don't worry about how much your kid eats as long as you offer them healthy food.  And thats what I try to do with James.  I try to offer him healthy food and just let him eat as much or as little as he wants and trust that we will expand our preferences soon. 

This is actually this weeks calendar. I was too lazy to type it out. 

I try not to repeat the exact same meals two weeks in a row but like I said before we don't have a huge selection to pick from so I do repeat a lot of the same foods just with other foods. One week we might string cheese with pears and goldfish crackers for lunch and then next week it's string cheese for dinner.  And I have found myself using the same breakdown for each meal time.  

Breakfast - carbs and fruit
Lunch - carbs, fruit, dairy (sometimes deli meat)
Dinner - carbs, fruit, protein, veggie

James doesn't really like any protein (meat) or veggies but I keep doing what everyone says, I keep offering just in chance he chances his mind one night. 

Last weeks quick calendar because of the short week.

How I usually start the menu/calendar is just on a piece of paper handwritten.  I move things around a lot, switching around the fruits and veggies as things pop into my mind.  So after I have made my final selections, I write down everything that I need for on my grocery list and hopefully within that day or the following day print out a copied version.  I just like how it looks on my fridge all typed out 
and neat.  

Calendar from two weeks ago. All typed and so so pretty.

For those who are wondering here are a list of some of the foods that I found that works well for our menu system.

Breakfast - Carbs - waffles, french toast, pancakes, cheerios
                   fruit - strawberries or banana
                   other - yogurt (big hit) 

Lunch - Carbs - Crackers, goldfish crackers, PB & J, Mac & cheese, waffles
                 fruit - pears, apples, banana, strawberries, applesauce, peaches, sliced oranges
                 dairy - string cheese, cheese, yogurt
                 protein - ham or turkey slices, hard boiled eggs 

Dinner - Carbs -  Mac & Cheese, crackers, peanut butter bread, plain pasta
               fruit - pears, apples, banana, strawberries, applesauce, peaches, sliced oranges
               protein - chicken, vienna sausages, meatballs, hamburgers, black beans
               veggies - peas, green beans, corn, potatoes, spinach, carrots

I think I covered everything but I'm sure that I probably forgot something. 


Were your kids good eater or picky eaters?
How did you remember what was for dinner everyday?

-Megan