Are you the type of mom that meal plans and prepares all her meals from scratch?
I wish I was. After having twins and starting my own freelance writing business, I realized how little time I have to do anything.
My glasses broke in December. It’s March and they are only being held together with glue.
I finally went to the salon to get my hair cut. I think it has been over seven months since I last went.
Sure, I have help everyday and my husband works from home, but my twins are my life. I take care of them, feed them, wash them, play with them and teach them.
So, while I am very much capable of cooking, I don’t do it as much as I’d like. And my twins aren’t the best eaters.
My Twins’ Eating Habits
So my daughter is the better eater between the two. She eagerly tries new foods and eats a variety of fruits, vegetables, meats and carbs.
My son, on the other hand, is a very cautious eater. He is hesitant in trying anything new and before he does, he has to see it, touch it, smell it and be exposed to it dozens of times before he even attempts to try a new food.
Because of this, his diet is limited.
So, finding food that the whole family likes and will eat is a huge challenge for me. So I shoot for dinner time where we all eat the same food.
Breakfast and lunch, the kids can choose what to eat or I feed them something I know they will like.
I also know that this is just a phase. I hear stories all the time of when such and such was little all they ate was peanut butter and jam sandwiches until they were eight. So, even though my son’s lack of trying new foods keeps me up at night, I know he’ll eventually outgrow it.
Both my twins drink only milk or water during the day. It’s rare if they have apple juice. My daughter doesn’t like much sweet things so prefers milk or water most times.
I feel that my job is to only expose my twins to different types of foods and model for them trying new foods on a regular basis, rather than force them to eat new foods.
So, want to see what my twins will eat in a typical day?
Breakfast
About a half hour after they wake up, my twins have a cup of warm milk. Then about an hour after this, they have their breakfast.
Typical foods they eat are:
- peanut butter and toast with fruit
- cereal and fruit
- breakfast sausage or bacon, eggs, potatoes
For this meal, they chose plain yogurt with mango sauce I made and I served a fruit salad of bananas and strawberries. They had water to drink. They ate one or two bowls of both yogurt and fruit salad.
Lunch
Lunch is typically easy going. Before lunch we are either playing around or outside bike riding, walking or shoveling the snow banks.
This usually means lunch is easy and quick. I don’t typically eat the same lunch as they do. I might eat sushi, a sandwich, egg burrito or leftovers.
Lunchtime is also when I like to introduce new foods to the twins. This is because there’s more time in the day for reactions from eating new foods.
Typical lunches my twins will eat:
- chicken fingers (homemade) with rice and a veggie
- taco meat with rice and beans
- plain yogurt with fruit sauce (a standard favorite any time of the day)
For this lunch they had Italian Wedding Soup (not homemade. I’ve made this soup in the past but the twins didn’t like it. Go figure) with crackers, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks and snap peas.
My son only ate the tomatoes from the choice of veggies I gave them, but my daughter loved the snap peas the most (but also ate tomatoes and carrot sticks).
Both my twins finished their soup and even ate the meatballs. They only ate one cracker and ate all the tomatoes. My daughter also ate some snap peas and a carrot stick. I ate the remaining veggies. Then we had a “juicy orange” afterwards.
Dinner
Today we had an easy dinner – Butter chicken with rice and cauliflower. For dessert the twins had fruit.
But, dinner time is when I have the most time to actually cook something. I sometimes alternate with my husband and we take turns hashing something up for the family.
Typical dinner food include:
- spaghetti
- chicken tacos and beans with Mexican rice and avocados or tomatoes
- Pork fried rice with peas or broccoli
- deconstructed hamburger with bun and tomato
My son ate all his rice and tried two bites of chicken and only touched the cauliflower. My daughter took a bite of cauliflower, ate most of her chicken and had a few spoonfuls of rice.
After dinner they had blackberries.
Don’t Beat Yourself Up
I hated that my son would only eat bread and fruit and barely touch his chicken or beef. I hated that I can’t just make shrimp pasta or chicken Alfredo or spinach lasagna because my twins won’t eat it.
I used to beat myself up about this, but I eventually learned to just give that up. I work from home and I don’t have the time to cook elaborate meals. I’ll crock pot a meal, bake chicken or whip up a fast pasta sauce and be okay with that.
I’m even okay using boxed or jarred food.
I know my twins are happy and are eating a fairly good diet.They don’t eat junk food or eat many sweets and they rarely have juice.
We provide probiotics, vitamins, fish oil, an iron supplement and do our best to expose them to a variety of vegetables and other foods.
With time, my son will be less cautious and my daughter will be open to even more new foods. So, for now, I have to make best with what I have 🙂
Over to you – do you work from home? If you do, what are your go-to meals for your family? Let’s share our what we eat for dinner for inspiration.
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