Toddler Meal suggestions--please help!

[Liet]

Usually Bill and I do not eat with Molly--when I get home from work, she starving, so I usually make her something quick (sometimes leftovers, sometimes something just for her), and then start dinner for Bill and me.

Molly is a good eater--she likes vegetables and fruit, and tends to not care for meat. She likes cheese and tofu, but not beans.

I am realizing that we tend to give her the same food night after night: pasta with tomato sauce, whole wheat bread with melted cheese (made in the toaster oven), scrambled eggs with veggies. She loves these meals--but I clearly need to vary her diet. We usually accompany these meals with veggies and fruit. Sometimes she eats some cheese, a slice of bread, some veggies, some fruit. It's kind of a boring diet.

What kinds of things do your toddlers enjoy? Ideally I'd like to make her something Bill and I can eat as well (and thus nothing too rich--mac and cheese is too caloric for us). Do you have any great suggestions?

[Mom2TJ]

Let me think about this for awhile. I can give you one suggestion--Sam loves sauce and eats meat much better if it's in a sauce. So, he likes sloppy Joes, spaghetti, stuff like that.

[jadejong]

Weston gets served whatever we are eating. But if he doesn't like it, he'll just eat lots of homemade applesauce and drink a big cup of milk. We tend to eat boring meals - meat of some kind, veggies, potatoes or rice and salad.

I would probably feed her something like you are when she gets home and then offer her some of whatever you are having for dinner so she gets exposed to a variety of foods.

[lambchops]

Zack gets whatever we are eating. He doesn't get anything else.

For lunch he tends to have chicken nuggets or a peanut butter sandwich. For breakfast he usually gets oatmeal, applesauce (no sugar added), and a granola bar. He gets cheese and dried bananas mostly for snacks.

He really likes sauerkraut, noodles (go figure), bread (he's a carb boy), meat (sausage, pork, and chicken are favorites), and asparagus.

[trips+1]

My girls have what we are having as well, unless it's something like chili or something spicy, which is a rarity. If that is the case I will make them fish sticks or mac n' cheese, a baked potato is always a huge hit. My girlies all like pasta too. Somedays coming up with breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas are tough! At times I want to rip out my hair!

[AthenaD]

Barging from March...

I have a VERY picky eater. It drives me crazy! Here are a couple of things that she loves that I discovered...

The only way I can get her to eat meat is to make the following:
En-Cor frozen Chicken Parmigiana (I've made my own, but she only likes this. I think it's the orange tomato sauce!)
Mac and Cheese with hot dog cut up in it
Hillshire Farms Cheddar Wurst (smoked sausage with cheese in them)