stretching my food budget & a picky toddler - HELP!

[hsingscrapper]

I need advice from the Hive on two problems.

 

Mr. Picky Pants REFUSES to eat meat. He smells his food and if it's there, he clamps up and nothing is going down. He's willing to eat dairy and bread for days. He might eat pepperoni but not always.

 

We all workout now. Fury (14), DH, and myself lift weights 6 days per week and Dragon (10) does yoga 3 times per week. We eat about a gram of protein per pound. We get $450 per month for food stamps and it's never enough. I need ideas on how to boost protein without going broke. DH and I eat 40-40-20 and the kids eat 25-50-25.

 

HELP me please, Hive!!

[Tmhearn]

Well, that is about what I spend for 6 of us, but I don't have a growing teenager. :-) The cheaper sources of protein we eat would be chicken, tuna, eggs, and Greek yogurt. Whole chickens, legs, and thighs are what I usually buy. I make tuna patties or salmon patties at least once a week. I make a frittata from eggs sometimes. We either eat Greek yogurt straight up or make smoothies.

 

Regarding your friend Mr. Picky Pants... (Is that his full name as listed on his birth certificate? Ha ha!) You might not like my answer, but I think some people just don't like meat. You can try dressing it up with cheese, sauces, etc. Or you can try hiding it by mixing it in with other things. But, really, the kid just might not care for the taste or texture.

[Spryte]

 

Regarding your friend Mr. Picky Pants... (Is that his full name as listed on his birth certificate? Ha ha!) You might not like my answer, but I think some people just don't like meat. You can try dressing it up with cheese, sauces, etc. Or you can try hiding it by mixing it in with other things. But, really, the kid just might not care for the taste or texture.

 

:lol: I have one like this, too.  She will not eat meat, aside from the occasional pepperoni or sausage.  

We keep offering it, if we're having it, but I'm not overly worried about it.  We are former vegetarians here, and our oldest was a vegetarian till he was 14.  He's 22 now, and going strong.  So I'm not in the camp that meat is essential, as long as we are watching nutrition in other ways and boosting other sources of proteins, etc.

 

If meat consumption is a very important point for you, though, I'd keep trying different presentations, different meals, different textures until you find something he likes.  That's been our approach with our picky girl, and once in a while she'll try a few bites of something.  

[Ameena]

Will he eat eggs? Those are fairly cheap, and a good source of protein. They can also be hidden - bread pudding using a ton of eggs & milk has a lot of protein. French toast?

 

ANd I hear you on Food Stamps not covering it. We get $347 for a family of 2, and it barely lasts the month with me hitting clearance sales. I have been using our local big chain here in TX's freshness policy to get another $80 or so of freebies a week - mostly bread, milk, cheese, produce, etc. The Expensive stuff lol. We do eat meat with almost every meal though, and eat hearty.

[hsingscrapper]

He will eat eggs and anything resembling bread. French toast and pancakes are some of his favorite things. I wish we could find Greek yogurt cheaper than $1 per serving.

[zoobie]

He will eat eggs and anything resembling bread. French toast and pancakes are some of his favorite things. I wish we could find Greek yogurt cheaper than $1 per serving.

Greek yogurt is fairly easy to make, and that's much cheaper. You can also strain plain yogurt through cheesecloth and a mesh strainer which makes it thicker like Greek yogurt. I think there are a few threads on here about making yogurt.

 

Homemade bread is also much cheaper than purchased.

[rebbyribs]

We're vegetarians.  I'd suggest peanut butter and beans for cheap protein sources.  PB is good on toast, w/ apple or slices, blended w/ banana & milk into a smoothie, and made into peanut sauce to go over rice & veggies.  Beans are good in soups or stews, burritos, and can be made into a spread or dip.

 

My kids are all big fans of fried tofu.  (Drain, cube, coat in cornstarch, and pan-fry in oil.)

[Ausmumof3]

I had a non meat eater... We used nuts a lot. Pasta etc does provide protein but you have to combine with veges to get all the types of amino acid or something you can google for more info. Nuts here tend to be comparable in price kilo for kilo to lean beef anyway.

Mine also love toasted pumpkin seeds so I do that whenever we have pumpkin as a free nutritional bonus.

 

Eventually we were at a neighbours and they prepared this super thin crumbed steak and he actually decided he liked it. Now he eats most meat but is paranoid about cutting off every scrap of fat.

[Laura Corin]

Beans and lentils?

 

L

[TXMomof4]

I had a friend whose son hated meat. She would cook up a pound of beans - whatever flavor - and he would eat plain beans all.the.time. For his snacks he had plain pintos, black beans, whatever. My kids eat pb whenever they don't want whatever meat I'm offering.

[SKL]

My kids ate no meat for quite a while, and then they only ate a little.  It is not something I have ever pushed.  There are so many alternatives.  Google the protein content of what they do like.  Oatmeal was one thing my kids would eat that contained a good amount of protein.  Boiled eggs mixed with rice/curry/yogurt dishes went over well.  Peanut butter on brown bread.  Milk and yogurt.  One of my kids loved beans.  There might have been other things.  When I added up all the protein they were getting without any meat, it was more than they supposedly needed for their age.  I've read that in the US, people are more likely to get too much protein vs. not enough.

[Tammyla]

Eggs, peanut-butter, cottage-cheese, yogurt, milk, nuts, cheese, hummus, beans, and smoothies all have protein and can stretch a budget.

 

I raised on meat-lover and one vegetarian and I have no idea how it happened.  My veg and meat-lover were fed the same diet, but dd just one day stopped eating meat.  It took me years, but eventually I gave up trying to get her to eat it.

[hsingscrapper]

Would homemade Greek yogurt (aka straining the regular stuff) have the same protein as the pre-fab?

 

We are gonna run out of things this month. We did our shopping for the month and our freezer died last night. :(

[Plateau Mama]

Do you have a crockpot?  If so this recipe is super easy.    It won't let me copy a link.  Go to crockpot365.blogspot.com and click on the yogurt recipe.  I added fresh fruit when I served, or jam and the kids loved it.

 

As for the meat don't sweat it.  I have an 11 yo who has never eaten most meats.  Even now the only thing he will eat is chicken, bacon, salmon and shrimp.  (yeah how about that for a budget buster).

 

 

 

[Amy in NH]

Food stamps (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) are meant to supplement the grocery budget, not cover the entire budget.

 

Beans are the cheapest source of protein...  how about some homemade hummus?

[KrissiK]

I have no advice for you, but I will say that toddlers refusing meat is not uncommon. Only one of my children ate meat as a toddler and I did nothing special with their diet to make up for that fact. They did eat a lot of yogurt and dairy products, though. They are all extremely healthy and active, so I think they were ok.

[LibraryLover]

If you buy yogurt in the large tubs, it's cheaper than $1 for serving, especially a serving for a toddler.  I agree with folks who say don't push meat. When you say meat, do you mean beef only? Will he eat meatballs or pasta sauce made with ground turkey thigh  (inexpensive)? Shredded chicken, tuna? What about cheese cubes or cheese sticks?   I agree eggs are your friend in this case. So is peanut butter.  Lots of people don't like the texture of beef, so I wouldn't worry.

[alisoncooks]

My oldest has always been meat-picky.

When she was little she ate lots of Greek yogurt, peanut butter, all sorts of canned beans (loves chickpeas), hummus, eggs, cottage cheese, smoothies with added protein hiding in it.

 

She tries -- and likes -- meat more now that she is older.

 

[hsingscrapper]

We don't eat a lot of beef except when dh's parents get a grass fed cow slaughtered. We usually opt for chicken, turkey, tuna, and tilapia. Every once in a while, we get pepperoni but not often. He won't eat the mini pepperoni or diced but he will eat the quarter sized circles on pizza or cold if I cut them into fourths.

 

Fury and Dragon both had their food hangups but they were nothing like this.