These are the munchies I laid in at the beginning of our quarantine. All for my 13yo, who’s so picky we’ve been calling him “non-nivorous” since age 2. They’re hidden in a cooler on top of my fridge, because if we didn’t ration them out he’d have devoured every bit of it in the first week.
If you’re living with a picky eater you’ve probably noticed that my quarantine meal plans don’t include instructions for adapting recipes to suit them. Frankly, I’m not exactly sure how to advise you, since every picky kid—and every pantry stash—is so different. My own guy currently eats very little that comes from the pantry and isn’t snack food. Life is… challenging. At least he’s old enough to mostly fend for himself.
So tell me: How’s it going with your picky kids? What problems are you facing? Let’s brainstorm together!
I have a picky eater. If he doesn't get sweet snacks he starts eating the granulated sugar (white or brown) by the spoonful. Luckily he also likes a lot of fruit, so I figure that counts as healthy and just do what I can to limit processed sugar. Besides that, he only wants to eat white bread, white rice, and white pasata.
I'm worried about the time when we run out of the specific brand of bread and type of hummus that Ms. 13 finds acceptable. I've stocked up on that, marinara, pasta, and cheese sticks. I think you can freeze cheese sticks? I did.
I had this vision we'd be cooking together and trying new foods, but honestly, I get tired of being the only cheerleader so mostly this does not happen.
I rarely make two meals - usually I make one meal for everyone and try to have something I know each kid will like. But these past few weeks I've found myself giving up on that a bit and preemptively just making what I know they'll like. Yesterday I made a nice Easter dinner for my husband and mom (who is living with us through all this) and made my kids PB&J sandwiches, which they ate along with farro and apple slices. It is what it is! I usually comfort myself with the idea of looking at the big picture of what they consume over the course of a week vs every meal. Oh, also I save any leftover fruit or fruit that's about to go bad in the freezer and use it to make smoothies along with kale or other greens and we make smoothie popsicles which they love so that makes me feel better too.
Knock wood, we’re doing okay so far. Dealing with disappointment more than anything. The store didn’t have x so we can’t have it. Sorry about it. Tons of “this is dinner, eat it or don’t” Beans and tuna night one kid ate tuna and one ate beans. I was happy enough.
My kids have just been so sad when their usual snacks are finished up. And they hated when I had to Sophie's Choice who got the last remaining whatever because they are used to getting three matching snacks for the three of them. Though my husband got out shopping again for the first time in weeks and bought more but then the kids forget and ate a whole bag of grapes in one day! So we feel like we keep disappointing them and it sucks. They somehow don't want beans and rice for snacks like I am okay with as an adult. <3
Our menu has been pretty limited for a while now, due to the shift to full-time RVing. I think Little Kid has gotten slightly more flexible, but I really only make 5-6 different dinners, so it's not like there's a ton of experimenting. It's more that he's tried eating things that he would have refused in our old house.
The routine that keeps us all sane is:
My husband makes breakfast, and everyone must eat fruit.
The Kids make their own lunches, and everyone must eat a carrot, or other serving of raw veg.
I make dinner, and everyone needs to take as many bites as they are years old (everyone=Little Kid)
Most of my dishes feature a legume and a cruciferous vegetable, and Little Kid is eight, so the bite rule gets quite a bit of nutrition into him. I'd like him to eat more, but small steps.
So much Mac and cheese! Lots of peanut butter on everything- especially apples and carrots. For some reason they will eat roasted broccoli. I have two teen boys and I have a hard time rationing the food as they become ravenously hungry...our Ritz crackers definitely ran out the first week!
I've decided now is not the time to deal with my picky eater (10 yo), but we have started putting together a meal plan at the beginning of the week since there are only so many defrosted pizza slices I can let him eat and he wont eat the sandwiches he would force down at school at home. So now at least he isnt asking for pizza every day and getting disappointed if he cant have it. Making him eat one sun nut butter and jelly sandwich a week, cheerios, and ensuring he still eats raspberries and grapes as long as they're still good. Dinner plans mean he knows in advance which days he will be ok with dinner (bacon garlic pasta, homemade pizza rolls with crescents) and which days he has to fend for himself which is typically yogurt tubes, raisins, apple sauce, etc. And we've given him 1 bag of pretzels at the beginning of the week and told him its up to him to make them last bc if he eats them all on day one, then no more until the next weekend....
It seems like it might be a useful time to let picky eaters know that they can't always have what they want, that things are limited right now and everyone has to do their part not to make things worse. My motto has become 'first, do no harm,' trying to get the kid to understand that asking for things right now isn't helpful, and it's time to make do with what we have -- from food, to art supplies, to clothing etc. Maybe a valuable lesson for non-corona times as well.
I'm the picky eater around my place, which makes it easier since I can just get the same things every time for myself, but keeping up with a partner who doesn't like leftovers is exhausting. We finally just stopped shopping together, which I'm not sure we can justify during the stay at home orders.
I make what I know they’ll eat. This often means making two meals for dinner, but I don’t want to fight all day about food. I also don’t want to waste food they won’t eat or waste my time cooking food nobody likes.
My 18-month-old has learned the word "cookie" and now demands them at dinner, crying for them. The plan of doling out cookies to the 4-year-old but not the 18-month-old just got a bit more challenging. Meanwhile, I'm trying to not just give the 4-year-old some variation of starch and PB or starch and cheese for every meal, every day. She will luckily eat apples and grapes.
I have a picky eater. If he doesn't get sweet snacks he starts eating the granulated sugar (white or brown) by the spoonful. Luckily he also likes a lot of fruit, so I figure that counts as healthy and just do what I can to limit processed sugar. Besides that, he only wants to eat white bread, white rice, and white pasata.
I'm worried about the time when we run out of the specific brand of bread and type of hummus that Ms. 13 finds acceptable. I've stocked up on that, marinara, pasta, and cheese sticks. I think you can freeze cheese sticks? I did.
I had this vision we'd be cooking together and trying new foods, but honestly, I get tired of being the only cheerleader so mostly this does not happen.
I rarely make two meals - usually I make one meal for everyone and try to have something I know each kid will like. But these past few weeks I've found myself giving up on that a bit and preemptively just making what I know they'll like. Yesterday I made a nice Easter dinner for my husband and mom (who is living with us through all this) and made my kids PB&J sandwiches, which they ate along with farro and apple slices. It is what it is! I usually comfort myself with the idea of looking at the big picture of what they consume over the course of a week vs every meal. Oh, also I save any leftover fruit or fruit that's about to go bad in the freezer and use it to make smoothies along with kale or other greens and we make smoothie popsicles which they love so that makes me feel better too.
Knock wood, we’re doing okay so far. Dealing with disappointment more than anything. The store didn’t have x so we can’t have it. Sorry about it. Tons of “this is dinner, eat it or don’t” Beans and tuna night one kid ate tuna and one ate beans. I was happy enough.
My kids have just been so sad when their usual snacks are finished up. And they hated when I had to Sophie's Choice who got the last remaining whatever because they are used to getting three matching snacks for the three of them. Though my husband got out shopping again for the first time in weeks and bought more but then the kids forget and ate a whole bag of grapes in one day! So we feel like we keep disappointing them and it sucks. They somehow don't want beans and rice for snacks like I am okay with as an adult. <3
Our menu has been pretty limited for a while now, due to the shift to full-time RVing. I think Little Kid has gotten slightly more flexible, but I really only make 5-6 different dinners, so it's not like there's a ton of experimenting. It's more that he's tried eating things that he would have refused in our old house.
The routine that keeps us all sane is:
My husband makes breakfast, and everyone must eat fruit.
The Kids make their own lunches, and everyone must eat a carrot, or other serving of raw veg.
I make dinner, and everyone needs to take as many bites as they are years old (everyone=Little Kid)
Most of my dishes feature a legume and a cruciferous vegetable, and Little Kid is eight, so the bite rule gets quite a bit of nutrition into him. I'd like him to eat more, but small steps.
So much Mac and cheese! Lots of peanut butter on everything- especially apples and carrots. For some reason they will eat roasted broccoli. I have two teen boys and I have a hard time rationing the food as they become ravenously hungry...our Ritz crackers definitely ran out the first week!
I've decided now is not the time to deal with my picky eater (10 yo), but we have started putting together a meal plan at the beginning of the week since there are only so many defrosted pizza slices I can let him eat and he wont eat the sandwiches he would force down at school at home. So now at least he isnt asking for pizza every day and getting disappointed if he cant have it. Making him eat one sun nut butter and jelly sandwich a week, cheerios, and ensuring he still eats raspberries and grapes as long as they're still good. Dinner plans mean he knows in advance which days he will be ok with dinner (bacon garlic pasta, homemade pizza rolls with crescents) and which days he has to fend for himself which is typically yogurt tubes, raisins, apple sauce, etc. And we've given him 1 bag of pretzels at the beginning of the week and told him its up to him to make them last bc if he eats them all on day one, then no more until the next weekend....
It seems like it might be a useful time to let picky eaters know that they can't always have what they want, that things are limited right now and everyone has to do their part not to make things worse. My motto has become 'first, do no harm,' trying to get the kid to understand that asking for things right now isn't helpful, and it's time to make do with what we have -- from food, to art supplies, to clothing etc. Maybe a valuable lesson for non-corona times as well.
I'm the picky eater around my place, which makes it easier since I can just get the same things every time for myself, but keeping up with a partner who doesn't like leftovers is exhausting. We finally just stopped shopping together, which I'm not sure we can justify during the stay at home orders.
https://melanietheconstantreader.substack.com/publish?utm_source=menu
I make what I know they’ll eat. This often means making two meals for dinner, but I don’t want to fight all day about food. I also don’t want to waste food they won’t eat or waste my time cooking food nobody likes.
No gefilte fish or matza ball soup this year!
Thanks for sharing this, and for the meal plans!
My 18-month-old has learned the word "cookie" and now demands them at dinner, crying for them. The plan of doling out cookies to the 4-year-old but not the 18-month-old just got a bit more challenging. Meanwhile, I'm trying to not just give the 4-year-old some variation of starch and PB or starch and cheese for every meal, every day. She will luckily eat apples and grapes.
My youngest two (7 and 9) are being surprisingly flexible. I’ve explained we get what we get right now and it has nothing to
Do with me and everything to do with shopping limitations.