The Voracious Appetites of Toddlers (and Preschoolers)

Lately, it seems like I'm spending all my time cooking or preparing food for my kids. Part of this is my choice since pretty much everything we eat is homemade. It takes time to prepare real, nutrient rich food! But in the last few weeks, my kiddos seem to have gotten a lot more hungry. So, I've been trying to find ways to get more calories in them while still keeping to our healthy lifestyle. My biggest challenge is actually balancing all the fruit and veggies they eat with, um, more "bulky" food. We've had a few days lately where they clearly had waaaayyy too much fiber in their diet. Hopefully, I'll get it figured out soon!

Here's how a typical day goes for us. Need I say...Everything is either organic or grown naturally and locally as often as possible? :)

Breakfast
Eggs, toast and some kind of fruit like an apple or banana.
or
Steel cut oatmeal (no sugar - they prefer a little salt and butter) with raisins
or
Plain organic yogurt with honey

Snack
Green smoothie - usually involves apple, pear, banana, frozen mango or strawberries and LOTS of spinach. We use water as the liquid and no sweetener. The fruit is super sweet and it tastes awesome!

Lunch
PBJ sandwiches
or
Homemade pizza (with a lot of veggies and goat cheese)
or
Cheese quesadillas.
or
Cut up veggies, goat cheese and other finger foods

Snack
Usually more fruit of some kind but sometimes special "cookies" that involve mainly oats, honey, eggs, veggies like carrots and zucchini, apples, raisins, nuts etc.
or popcorn with trail mix stuff

Dinner
Amazing stuff made by my husband - lots of veggies with meat or lentils.

When I write it out, it sounds like so much food. But, they only eat a little of everything and they DO-NOT-STOP-GOING all day! Plus, I believe in teaching them to listen to their bodies when it comes to food. I refuse either to force them to eat everything on their plates or to refuse them food when they're truly hungry. That said, I'm not into wasting food - so if they don't finish everything and they're full, I'll put their leftovers in the fridge for a later snack. Also, if my oldest is too "full" to finish veggies, she definitely doesn't get dessert - even though it's usually made with fruit.

Anybody have other healthy snack ideas for growing munchers? Please share!