Can someone please share a reasonable sample menu starting breakast to dinner for a 2 year old and a 5 year old?
I was reviewing some menus from US websites and some Indian ones. Some daily recommendations are very different.
Re: Sample daily menu
For the two year old.. breakfast should be a good healthy cereal like cheerios, some sort of sliced fruit.. like half apple or orange... even a banana is fine and a cup of milk.
Throw in a snack in the middle of the morning... something light like graham crackers or animal cookies... no more than 3... with fresh orange juice or apple juice... whatever she prefers.. lunch could be something like a cheese sandwich, pretzels and a peach..with water... umm dinner... how about chicken breast... or chicken nuggets, baby carrots, baked potato.. water.. and dessert could be pineapple slices with ice cream... or strawberries with whipped cream...?
the five year old.. breakfast could be a bowl of cereal... something like corn flakes with berries.. milk... banana... and a boiled egg or muffin or something.. snack in the morning could be flavored yogurt... saltines (2) and orange/apple/grape juice.. whatever she prefers... lunch... a cheese sandwich or even an egg sandwich.. with baby corn.. and water or fruit juice.. dinner... wacky mac... its fun shaped macaroni and cheese... or you can also give her chicken nuggets and peas and dessert... same as the 2 year old... instead of ice cream you can do frozen yogurt.. or a fruit cup...
if they want mid afternoon/evening snacks... I think pretzels or saltines with a little bit of cream cheese is good... it's not too bad for their health and yummy too! They also have flavored rice cakes out now which taste pretty good! Granola bars are also a good healthy snack for lil ones..
I dunno if its too much for kids that age.. but it sounds alright.. no??
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Actually that sounds excellent Riya. A good mix of grains, carbs, protein and fuits & veggies. Are you in this field?
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Hehe actually I'm not... but I have a younger brother and growing up he was SO picky with desi food at first, so this is basically how we fed him... kids like easy, fun to eat food... and instead of mcdonalds and all that other garbage... better to just make those dinners those so called "tv dinners"... you know the perfect mix of veggies and meat and bread and all that at home.. at least you know what's going into it and theyll be satisfied enough not to want junk food!
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That's right Riya. I used to struggle with salans and roti shoti with my two as well, but eventually I figured out that the pastas, grilled chicken, etc. work well. They do like aloo gosht and daal chawal though.
I am working on some more healthy snacks.
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cheese strings! perfect snack for any age! pretzels (the healthy, low salt kind) are awesome snacks too.
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yogurt smoothies, carrots and dip, cheese slices are so far working well.
Re: Sample daily menu
oh another thing, try to get them into the habit of eating celery sticks with peanut butter or ranch dressing as a dip... its soooo healthy for you.. I regret not having been bought up with it.. cuz now everytime I try to eat it cuz I know its good for me, I end up gagging... im so not accustomed to its taste :( Cottage cheese is good too.. but not sure if kids would like it so much/
Oh yeah I also remembered... raisins... good snack... pb&j sandwiches.. good once in a while..
oh another thing, try to get them into the habit of eating celery sticks with peanut butter or ranch dressing as a dip... its soooo healthy for you.. I regret not having been bought up with it.. cuz now everytime I try to eat it cuz I know its good for me, I end up gagging... im so not accustomed to its taste :( Cottage cheese is good too.. but not sure if kids would like it so much/
Oh yeah I also remembered... raisins... good snack... pb&j sandwiches.. good once in a while..
I feel the same way.. I wish I was brought up like this so I would enjoy my veggies.. but im trying to get my 18month old into good habbits..
Niksik, I wish I coudl give you a diet plan lekin my bachi eats for 2 weeks then stops.. so she has no cycle...
I have a two year old baby and my schedule is like that
In morning she takes one cup of milk then breakfast is roti anda or vege noodles etc, then after 2 hrs I give her cheese, in lunch time any type of rice like biryani, tahri or mutter pulao etc, then after one hr juice, after 2 hr she takes milk then go to sleep, in evening fruit is a treat. In dinner again noodles in chicken soup or roti or rice, then in night milk again. In dessert icecream but not on daily basis.
Re: Sample daily menu
Awesome Jias. That's great.
Sadzz, my daughters have their moments of eating and fasting as well!
For the celery sticks, try cutting them in pieces a little bigger than your index finger, then fill them with pimento cheese. My mom used to make this for mAy brother and I when we were younger, I loved it! Also, fig newtons are a good snack, or have the kids drink V8splash juice. Lots of fruit and vegetables, it's probably better for them to start liking veggies at an early age.
For a treat, grilled cheese sandwich is fun for the kids(if not very healthy...)
Also, for breakfast, sometimes try making Mickey mouse pancakes with pancake mix. My mom would make one big one and two small cakes for us. She used to arrange the 2 small pancakes at the top and make it look like Mickey Mouse(hence Mickey mouse pancakes:)).
Have fun!
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what should be for 1 year old boy?
One year old khichri, dahi, fruit, yogurt, chicken+vege soups and juices are the best, make chicken+veges+rice+daal khichri grind them use it, this is full of nutrition. I did this and she liked it very mcuh.
Re: Sample daily menu
my son who is 2.5yrs old now MashAllah eats anything i give him including roti n salan even if its spicy, he was eating roti like mashed up with salan at eight mnths,
i strted his daily menu like this
breakfast
paratha boiled egg milk/weetabix milk/toasted wholemeal bread half boiled egg, then he would have sme grapes if he wanted a snack,
lunch
2 fish fingers, boiled brocolli/mixed veg mash potato n beans/noodles with chicken n roti n sme fruit yoghurt as dessert followed by juice if he wanted otherwise milk/water
whenever he wants a snack in between i always give him fresh fruit especially soft fruits like strawberries peaches grapes banana mango etc, they are easy for kids to chew n digest n they enjoy them, y not try cutting cucumber into long strips my son loved it he stil does now
dinner
salan roti salad n water/ baked potato with tuna salad/ fish n noodles depending on his mood
p.s- if u do give veggies try n give fresh boiled ones if u cant then get the frozen ones but opt for the baby carrots n baby sweetcorn etc it tastes mch better hence kids will like them more
Celery hardly has any vitamins...mostly dieting girls eat it because the fiber in it is indigestible so it's empty filler. So if you don't like it, try another veggie.
For feeding kids, they have natural instincts so don't try to force excess food on them but try to guide them to healthy food choices.
Re: Sample daily menu
McDonalds happy meal : )
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Great ideas people! And Samad, no matter what people say, my kidos loveeeeeee a fish sandwich & fries from MacDonalds. They’re happy, I’m happy. Kabhi kabhi chalta hai. Kar lo jo karna hai 