2yo just doesn't seem to want to eat

[delancepants]

thanks guys!  yes creations, you hit the nail on the head, it's just too much work making dips, i've been trying to concentrate on the main part of the dinner so far.  (honestly, I just can't believe how busy it is with two kids, before I had kids I thought it would only be this busy if you were trying to be supermum, but personally i'm only just, actually often not even covering the basics and I'm still run of my feet every second of the day!! actually now we mention it is there anywhere on the forum i could get help with scheduling my day?)

I do make hummus already and I'm going to start making satay sauce (basically peanut butter with lemon juice, garlic and chilli stirred in) so I guess it's a start.  I actually used to givewhile  DS1 plain tomato puree as a dip when he was a baby and he loved it, even though it's so sour!!  Yes I also need a snack the size of lunch for outings, at the moment I'm struggling with that, but i don't have an oven, so that is really limiting.  I am going to start trying the shaped /faces thing.  DS1 was never fooled by it but I haven't tried yet with DS2.

Yes, suggestions would be more than welcome!  The healthy stuff here is basically red lentils, brown lentils, chickpeas, chickpea flour, yardlong beans, green peas, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkin (but I don't know how to cook it, every time I do it it's not nice), peanuts, almonds and cashews (both expensive), raisins, dates, figs (very tough and chewy!).  Then there's rice, which is very poor nutritionally but they love it.  I've tried mixing other stuff in but most of the time they won't touch it like that.  There is brown rice but it's very mushy when cooked.  There's also pasta and noodles which they both like.  Then there's papaya, bananas, mango, watermelon.

[delancepants]

oh and also i bring haricot beans and butter beans from england, I still have a few left in the cupboard.

[creations]

is there anywhere on the forum i could get help with scheduling my day?

Yes!
Home Management and Organization

I also used to make a dip with tom puree, but I used a bit of water, oil or wine vinegar to slacken it off a bit. Not a big job, I just stirred a tiny amount in a cup.
Yogurt on it's own or with a bit of mint is a lovely dip.

What amount something like this for the pumpkin?
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/fried-pumpkin-balls
I haven't made this but it was little burgers/fritters like this that my DS ate a ton of for his large snack/lunch, I cooked in batches then stored in the fridge and just served them cold when we went out.  I never follow a recipe properly anyway as I never have the right things in so for instance I'd grate the pumpkin but then prob mix with onion and spices as there's zero chance of me having fresh mint and parsley in.  You could sub the plain flour for chickpea flour to make it more nutrition packed.
I made lots of lentil burgers, any left over vegetables mashed or whizzed and just formed into little patties then fried (do you have a blender?).
What about these pea fritters
http://mylovelylittlelunchbox.com/2013/07/01/pea-fritters/

I would image you could make some banana and raisin pancakes, I haven't tried with chickpea flour, but I have tried with ground almonds rather than regular flour and they are yum (can you get ground almonds? almond flour?). They are also great for a large snack.  If you start with a sweet pancake (not sugar but using banana and sultana - if you have a blender it makes them even sweeter) then later on you could use just about anything in a basic pancake mix. Not that I think kids food should all be sweet but it can help when coaxing kids into some new foods.

[delancepants]

Thanks for the links, they look nice, I bet DS1 will eat them.  I've been trying out the 'patty' theme lately but DS2 isn't impressed so far.  I guess we'll just have to stick with it over time and see how it goes.  I make chickpea flour raisin pancakes and also savoury chickpea pancakes already which seem to go down quite well.  I got a lot of new ideas for pancakes off the internet the other day so I'm quite positive about them as a pretty good staple going forward.

Right, off to check out home mgmt!

[delancepants]

Just checking in with an update for anyone following.

So two months have passed and we are doing great!  The first two weeks were tough, he basically started refusing to eat.  He lost a bit of weight and then he got sick and ate even less!!!  He was very skinny after all that and then we went to visit my mother in law and it was impossible to avoid the junk given by the relatives.  However I stuck to offering healthy foods at home and he must have got the message because when we got home he suddenly started eating better! 

The homemade smoothie ice creams have been a great success and also I discovered that he's much more likely to eat veggies, lentils, chickpeas etc if I put rice and soy sauce on top (ok the soy sauce isn't great, but i don't put salt in the rice when I cook it and I only put a tiny bit of soy sauce on).  But in general he is eating more healthy foods and more quantity of food.  I was thinking that he probably just needed a week or two for his tastebuds to adjust back to enjoying healthy foods.  He's not eating bombay mix any more and junk food has greatly reduced, he's still eating more than i would like but that's mostly due to the lack of healthy foods outside the house (we've been out a lot lately) and when we visit friends.  So over the last month he's managed to put on the 1kg that he lost from refusing food and being sick and now he's put on an extra 500g as well!

I've watered down the pediasure even more and he's still having it the early morning but the weather is cooler now so my older son can sleep in a separate bedroom while we get rid of it.  My husband returns from travelling tonight so I'm hoping we can cut that morning feed from tomorrow.  I have a couple of questions though - he will be hungry in the mornings (partly due to just being used to having the feed but also because he finds it difficult to eat when we're out of the house and then often is too tired/hyper to eat in the evenings) and he may well be waking up quite early while he gets used to the new routine so I need something quick and easy to feed him once we get up especially as I will be rushing to get DS1 ready for school.  I have a few ideas but wondered if anyone could suggest anything else?

thanks

[creations]

Sounds like things are moving in the right direction and you sound much happier with the progress

Could you prepare pancakes in advance and just offer them straight from the fridge in the morning? I always gave DS chilled pancakes from the fridge, he didn't mind although perhaps not all LOs like them that way.
Omelet are fast, would he eat one? It sounds like a drag but I make one for DS in the morning it takes 2 mins tops.

[TB9]

Yay!  Great update! 

DD2 has a scrambled egg every morning and it is very quick to make.  We went through a rough patch when dd1 wasnt eating breakfast very well, so I started keeping fresh fruit prepared in  the fridge.  I would just take it out of the fridge and set the containers down in front of her and she got to pick what went on her plate at breakfast time.

[delancepants]

well he doesn't seem to like eggs, pancakes and fruit we do already.  he will quite happily share DS1's green smoothie when he's really hungry, but the problem is that I'm not sure if he will even wait 5 minutes on some days when he's really hungry.  i'm still giving him the pediasure when he wakes up but i'm thinking maybe tomorrow i'll try holding him off with a few bites of banana while i'm making porridge or something.  i would really like to see a situation where he's not reliant on the pediasure.  i guess i'll have to experiment.  thanks again everyone!

[creations]

I would just stick to pancakes and fruit for super fast food in the morning, pre-made pancakes that is. I see no harm in having the same (or very similar) thing every day. Maybe just switch around the type of pancakes you make, some fruit, some chickpea, some almond, some vegi yk.
I made some cupcakes from beans recently, really yummy, taste like cake but nothing bad in there at all which I was thinking would make a great instant breakfast, but I think you said you don't have an oven - unless you know someone with an oven your could borrow to batch cook then freeze them.