How to get carbs into 22 month old

[momma.bear]

My daughter has recently started refusing carbs at lunch and often dinner. Breakfast is fine because I give her baby cereal mixed with fruit. But lunch was often bread but she's now refusing it. I've tried all different toppings on the bread, but sometimes she won't even touch it. I've also tried just toast with butter, and giving her a dipping sauce like hummus, but she'll just eat the dip and leave the bread. I've tried crackers also, with little success. Dinners she will always eat the meat, usually try the veggies, but noodles are no longer touched, or if they are, not many. She has a hard time eating rice so she doesn't do well with that, same with quinoa. Basically, for dinners if I give her a bowl of anything, she won't even touch it. It has to be separated into different parts, eg. meat, veggies, pasta/rice.
Would love some ideas!

[anna*]

Is it the 'bittiness' of rice and quinoa that she doesn't like? How about a savoury rice pudding or risotto? Mashed potato? Most foods aren't solely in one food group so for example pulses are a veggie protein but they are carby too so maybe some butter beans or similar?

[momma.bear]

She doesn't mind the taste of rice or quinoa, she just doesn't have enough patience to eat it! And I've tried risotto, but again because it's served as kind of a bowl dish, she doesn't want it. She prefers food that she can easily get onto a spoon or that she can just eat with her fingers.

[deb]

Squash, sweet potatoes and carrots are nice starchy veg - pretty much any root veg, come to think of it.

Quinoa can be bitter for sure.

How about a bean salad with something like Italian dressing? She could finger-feed herself that - mine did! LOL A couple cans of beans - black beans and/or black-eyed peas, for example, and you HAVE to rinse them well first! - and a half-bottle of Italian dressing, toss in a bowl; we added diced sweet peppers and onions and garlic to taste for us and YUM!

[creations]

Maybe try making her rice a little more starchy and roll it into balls for her so she can use her fingers?
I have a big tin of crackers and let DS choose which he wants, the variety excites him and makes him feel like it's special even though it's just crackers.
DS won't entertain any kind of rice, cous cous, anything bitty.  I usually make meals to suit him but if I make curry with rice for example I give him a side of some sort of bread, not our regular multigrain sliced bread but chapati, naan (all different flavours), tortilla, garlic bread, chiabata, those various flavours of tear and share bread from the bakery etc.  Maybe she'd go for a different type of bread?
Does she use a fork yet?  I tend to choose pasta that DS can stab reasonably easily with his fork to avoid frustration.
Like pp said starchy veg, oven baked chips/wedges made from turnip, sweet pot etc.

If carbs at meal times is really a no go then I'd offer some carbs snacks, pancakes, oaty chews, mini muffins, sugar free cake etc.  There are recipes on the weaning recipe board for sugar free versions.  Things like sweet potato mini muffins you get the carbs of the sweet pot as well as the flour, or can split it with oats too.

Another thing to consider is she might be self regulating, maybe she doesn't need so much carbs just now.

[anna*]

I used to fry risotto into little rissoles/balls as finger food.

[momma.bear]

Thanks for all of the great ideas. Will definitely try them out!