Food for thought.

From the minute she started shoveling drippy fistfuls of rice cereal into her mouth, Josie has never looked back. She loves food. Food of all kinds. Vegetables, fruits, meat, cheese, grains, you name it. She now has twelve teeth, and she fully intends to use them to the best of her ability. We have ceased to be surprised at what our daughter will willingly ingest. (Our disgust has yet to wane, however. Her personal definition of food is quite a bit looser than ours; sand, dirt, cat kibble, grass, crayons and rocks all seem perfectly edible to her.) The photo above is of Josie about to dig into my Philly cheesesteak sandwich at the Island County Fair.

Today at lunch, Josie had a turkey burger, steamed carrots, cheese and watermelon; all of which she devoured. As her own plate quickly emptied, her eyes started wandering to the next one over, which happened to be mine. I gave her a bit of arugula from my salad, which she liked, but was unable to chew very well. So her sights turned to my spicy peanut sauce soba salad, and I thought, "okay, if you really wanna try it..." And she did. And she loved it. Spicy peanut sauce and all.

Even though le petit gourmand will eat most anything, I still find that I have trouble coming up with great lunch and dinner options for her. As we both work during the week and Josie's bedtime is still rather early, Colin and I make our own dinner after she's down for the night. And there is a very small window of time between when we get home from work and when Josie expects to chow down. So we tend to cycle through the same 10 meals or so. All of them are pretty healthy and good -- comprising a variety of fruits and veggies and healthy protiens, but I think we're all getting a bit bored with the go-to list.

So a call to all you readers out there: Any ideas for quick, healthy, tasty and toddler-friendly meals? Until Josie's bedtime is a bit later and we have time to eat real dinners together as a family most nights, we are in need of some help in this area.

Anyone?