Toddler’s Tray Basics

As a mother of three toddler’s I’m pretty effing busy, and whether you have one, two, three or more little ones, you are likely to be as well. Toddlers are hard work. And they can also be expensive to feed, if you want to provide them with un-processed, varied or even organic food.

For this reason it’s good to have some basics and routines in place for cooking and shopping, that’ll save you time and money in the long run. There are probably as many ways of doing these things, as there are mothers and fathers out there, but here’s my take on it all. – It might work out as a starting place for you, if you don’t have a routine down already.

Shopping and planning:

• Take ten minutes every weekend to check for on-sale items in the ads of favorite stores. Note these down, and try to plan 3-4 meals based on these discounted ingredients. If you look at recipes, keep in mind that most ingredients can easily be substituted for another with a similar taste and/or texture. For example a soft vegetable like eggplant for a soft vegetable like squash. A pumpkin for sweet-potatoes. Beans instead of chickpeas etc. Don’t be scared of improvising!
• Write down what you need, and go shopping just once or twice if possible. It will save you time, but also money, as you’ll avoid impulse-purchases.
• Buy in bulks! (Organic) food can be expensive, so whenever there’s stuff on sale, stock up. Especially stuff like lentils, grain, and coconut-oil that have long expiration dates is easy to bulk-buy, but also items like frozen berries, or even meat can be purchased ahead. Short-expiration date items like meat can be frozen and saved for later.
• Prioritize. If you can’t afford doing everything organic for example (we can’t), then choose the most important items. These will typically be thin-skinned fruits and vegetables (high content of chemicals), as well as meat (penicillin left-overs and whatnot, not to mention animal-welfare.)

Prepping and cooking:

• Healthy and varied food can be time-consuming to make from scratch. Try to allow for this by prepping ahead. Prepare and freeze foods like chickpeas, beans, lentils and quinoa, so you have them at hand when a recipe calls for it. You can either cook a pot here or there while you are doing the dishes anyway, or you can take a few hours every two weeks or so and get it over with (personally I prefer the last-mentioned.)
• Keep the freezer  (at least loosely) organized, so the stuff in there is easily accessible, and freeze your basics in a practical portioned and easy-to-defrost manner. Spread out chickpeas flat in a zip-lock bag before freezing, and freeze small grains like quinoa and lentils in ice-cube trays (I recommend silicone-ones.)
• Try to plan just three meals a week which the whole family can eat (you can leave out salt and strong spices if you have a young toddler, and just add it to your own plate),  and make enough to make it last two days + some items for the freezer. You can always vary the meals a bit on the second day by using a different topping, or by adding an item from the freezer.
• By always making a little extra food for the freezer, apart from the basics, you always have great food at hand if you are too tired or busy to cook. You can also use it for lunch-meals, or bring it on the go (if you bring it with you straight from the freezer, you don’t have to worry about it getting spoiled, or bringing a cooler. It’ll stay cold on its own for quite a while.) You’d be surprised how much food can be frozen – you can get away with most stuff, and still pull a tasty meal out of there.
• Choose some short-cuts. I often buy frozen vegetables, organic and slightly blanched. They practically have the same nutritional value as fresh vegetables, but is soooo much easier and quicker to cook.
• Don’t be afraid of using a microwave. The microwave is your friend. You can easily cook, steam and boil ingredients, or even cook a quick meal in it, and you wont have to worry about it burning, if you turn your back for a minute. Make sure you add water to cover, if you are boiling vegetables or potatoes really soft for a small baby, or they’ll get a rubbery texture.

If all this sounds like a lot to remember, don’t worry. Just start up small, anyway you like, and you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to do, than to read about 😉 So why not have a look at some of the recipes?

∼ TDD 2015 ∼

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