It’s time for another installment of Finn’s recent eats and the rodeo that is feeding a toddler. Buckle up because it’s a wild ride at two years and two months.

Spoiler alert: Finn’s new favorite thing to say is, “I don’t like it.” Never mind that he hasn’t tried it. And doesn’t matter if he used to happily eat it. It can even be a previous favorite food. He just looooooves to say, “No, don’t like it.”

Given all the things I’ve read online and heard in my chats with other moms, this is perfectly normal so I don’t push the issue. I feel like if I were to do so that it would only exacerbate the situation. As of now, I try my very hardest not to react and continue to offer a variety of foods (even if I know there’s no chance he’ll eat it). I also try to model eating all sorts of different foods myself and talking to him about them. Not saying that it’s easy but trusting that it’s a phase.

In the meantime, thank god my child loves scrambled eggs. You’ll be seeing a lot of those! It’s the protein that I can get him to eat most frequently. Also worth nothing is that you’ll mostly see breakfast and dinner here. Finn is not into lunch. He’s always so ready for his nap and not interested in eating. I just try to do substantial snacks or snack plates before and after his nap, and an early dinner.

BREAKFAST

Finn likes bagels with cream cheese a lot so this is a pretty typical breakfast for us. This is a Dave’s Killer Bread Boomin’ Berry bagel with butter and cream cheese. Cottage cheese scrambled eggs and fruit on the side.

Cottage cheese scrambled eggs, FAGE Total 5% plain with peanut butter and honey mixed in and toasted homemade sourdough with butter.

Banana muffin served warm with butter (Finn calls this “cake”) along with eggs, strawberries, raspberries and peaches.

Dave’s Killer Bread 21 Grain Thin-Sliced toasted with butter and cream cheese, eggs and kiwi. I joked on Instagram that Finn didn’t eat the kiwi but at least we talked about how it was green. For the record, he didn’t eat ANY of the fruit you see above.

Half of a cinnamon roll and scrambled eggs. He only ate the eggs. I was shocked that he left the cinnamon roll.

LUNCH/SNACK

Often looks something like this. A bar with cheese and fruit or cheese and crackers with fruit. This is a Perfect Bar Kids. (He didn’t touch the applesauce here.)

DINNER

If I had to pick Finn’s staple foods, they would be eggs and rice. This is buttered rice and steak but he only ate the rice.

Look at this beautiful burger plate! Tater tots, grass fed local ground beef burger, toasted and buttered bun, sliced peppers and pimento cheese. I thought surely he’d eat the burger as he loves dipping things in ketchup and generally likes ground meat but nope. He only ate the tots. He ate what you see here + half of my plate!

Shrimp, black beans, corn and rice. Guess what he ate? Yep, just rice.

Annie’s Organic macaroni and cheese, breaded cod from Trader Joe’s, watermelon and strawberries. He ate the cod and the mac and cheese on this night. I was thrilled.

Leftover burger with mac and cheese and applesauce. Barely touched any of this.

Grilled cheese, scrambled eggs and gnocchi with Italian sausage and some other things. I tried serving only the gnocchi (he used to love it) and he had a massive meltdown. He was so tired, hungry and asking for eggs and toast. I very much try not to go back and make a different meal when he doesn’t like what I’m serving but I couldn’t help it on this night.

One dinner Finn can get on board with is pizza. This was the night that my dad made homemade pizza and he gobbled it up. He really likes to use his fork so we ended up cutting the pizza into bite-sized pieces for him to eat with a fork rather than strips to pick up.

Story. While we were in Florida, my dad designed our menu for the week around foods that he thought would be Finn-friendly. Things like spaghetti and meatballs (Finn used to love meatballs), a shrimp dish (he was a shrimp fanatic for a long time), pizza, etc and this was the only dinner that Finn would eat. Every night he would look at what my dad made and emphatically state that he didn’t like it without even picking up his fork. It made me a little sad but luckily my dad remembers the toddler days and didn’t take it personally.

DESSERT

My boy has a sweet tooth like his mama. He loves to ask for cookies, marshmallows, chocolate and ice cream. Of course, he only gets these things on occasion but what better time to eat a chocolate fudge bar than at the beach! I got these greek yogurt chocolate bars and they were really good and I liked that there weren’t a lot of crazy ingredients in them.

Last thing, Finn has decided that it is NOT acceptable to sit in the high chair with the tray any longer. He’ll sit in his chair pulled up to the table but no tray. This is an improvement from the streak he went on where he’d only eat if he could “sit mommy.” (Sit in my lap.)

Fun times, my friends! 🙂

Here are Finn’s previous recent eats posts:

Our Journey Into Solids
Finn’s Recent Eats: 9 Months
Finn’s Recent Eats: One Year
Finn’s Recent Eats: 15 Months
Finn’s Recent Eats: 20 Months
Finn’s Recent Eats: 21 Months
Finn’s Recent Eats: 23 Months

QUESTIONS

How do you handle the whole “I don’t like it” toddler response, especially when they don’t even try the food?

What foods are a big hit with your toddler this summer? Give me some ideas! 

Favorite easy lunches or snack plates?