Best Toddler Recipes

My kids are 2 and 3 and wont eat veggies, but love juice.. I trough in about 2 handfull of baby carrots and 2 or 3 green apples into the juicer, they Love it... My 3 year old loves when I say "lets make juice" she helps and tosses the carrots in.

try peas in the mac and cheese, they are smaller and hard to pick out. i put frozen ones in, it cools off the hot mac and cheese and cooks the peas at the same time. plus i grind up veggies and add to spagehtti sauce, baby carrots and low fat salad dressing for dipping. apples with low fat caramel sauce (like Mcd's) whole wheat pasta, i add extra veggies to stuffing, like corn and peas. serve the tops of the broccoli cooked but cold so they can be hand eaten. how about apple slices to dip in the peanut butter?

I guess I am kinda lucky as my children actually like veggies...but here is a recipe that they BEG for!

It's Veggie Ranch Pizza

Ready made pizza dough (or you can make your own)
1/4 package of Ranch dressing mix
1/2-3/4 cup of mayonnaise (we use Smart Start)
2 c. Mozzarella Cheese

Roll out the dough on your pan
mix the dressing powder with the mayo
spread onto dough
finely chop your veggies (we use carrots, broccoli, green pepper)and sometimes we add grilled chicken too YUM!
cover with cheese and bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted....I usually do 400 degrees for about 20 mins.

It's very easy and takes just a few minutes. We eat apple sauce or grapes or a salad with this!

Last night I made Chicken Veggie Soup...YUMMYY!!! My 5 yr old said it looked gross. At first he would only eat a biscuit, but when I said he would not leave the table or get another biscuit until he at least "tried" the soup, he decided to taste it... then ate the whole bowl! It really was good!

3 chicken breasts
2 cans of potato soup
16 oz of chicken broth (can use more if you want)
1 bag frozen mixed veggies (corn, peas, carrots)
1/2 cup half and half
Salt and pepper to taste

Grill up chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces.

In your crock pot,(med-high) put the frozen veggies in.
Mix in a small bowl the potato soup and chicken broth, pour over veggies. Add chicken bites. Cook for 4 hours. Next add the half and half and cook for another 30 minutes. Make some biscuits and EAT!! YUMMY!! (I thickened it up just a bit by adding a mixture of flour and water because my husband likes creamier soups).

My daughter (13) was upset this morning that she couldn't take it to school for lunch because they were going on a field trip today!

The other ideas about pureeing the veggies are great too! Good Luck!!

I just got the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld for Christmas. Although, I have not had time to make any recipes yet, I have looked through it and it looks great. It is a great way to sneak in veggies to your picky eaters food. My 4 year old son is the worst at eating anything, but PB & J. It's worth a try. Good Luck.

I make cornbread and either add a jar of baby food squash or 1/4 of a smushed up roasted acorn squash.

Moms have been doing this for YEARS, but it has only become common knowledge (and our cover has been blown) since Jerry Seinfeld's wife penned a "cook book" with our secrets. Buy a small FOOD PROCESSOR that you can dedicate to the task, and puree any quick steamed veg and sneak it into anything! I mean cauliflower & squash in Mac and Cheese is AWESOME! sneak some veg into cakes and brownies, muffins, soups, sauces. they'll feel better, you will too knowing that you are making them healthy. Very empowering. in a few years you can spill the beans and have a good chuckle!

You can put anything on a pizza. Definitely check out the Deceptively Delicious cookbook that was mentioned earlier. Spaghetti is really easy to hide veggies in. Do some hummus as a dip for pretzels or fresh veggies. Cover veggies in cheese. Cauliflower in the mashed potatoes.
I wish I knew a "tried and true" solution, but it's willpower and you can't make a child eat. You can just keep offering it. Maybe he'll try it again... eventually.

My 2 and 4 year old are veggie hatred ;) except for raw carrots. So... I make a smoothie every morning at breakfast: 1/2c plain or vanilla yogurt, 1c oj, 1/2c carrot juice, 1 banana, 1/2c frozen strawberries, 1/4c frozen blueberries, 1 cucumber, 1 teaspoon flax oil, and 2 servings of probiotic powder. It tastes great and is a great way for me to get good stuff in them (and myself). I also freeze the smoothie into Popsicles for after dinner treats. I make chocolate chip zucchuni bread (with 65% dark chocolate), pumpkin bread, apple carrot mini muffins, add shredded carrot and zucchini to pancake mix with some shredded cheese.

I puree frozen veggies into mashed potatoes... in tiny pieces like that, they can't pick around. Also, add some cheese, so they don't even taste them! :)

I also add veggies to mac and cheese and half the time, she eats them before she even realizes it! :)

I am also a huge fan of hummus, all flavors.

Good luck,
K.

My son loves edamame (soy beans). I get them still in the pods and steam them, put a little olive oil and a tiny bit of salt on them. They are as much fun as boiled peanuts to eat which I think is the attraction. And they have great attributes like a lot of protein (I have a hard time getting him to eat meat so this is great), calcium, iron, vitamin A and C. If you haven't tried it it could be a fun nutritious treat for a day.

D.

i make my own pizza. wheat pizza dough(store bought) sauce, and a layer of finely chopped veggies, we usually have brocoli, zuchini, squash, peppers, mushrooms and then put a layer of cheese. she never even knows she is eating her veggies because they are covered by the cheese.
i also started letting her dip celery, carrots and cucumbers in ranch and she loves it. i do have to remind her to bite the veggie and not lick off the ranch.

T.,

I haven't checked it out yet, but supposedly Jessica Seinfeld wrote a cookbook about this very issue...Might be worthwhile checking it out...

My son (28 months) will eat anything dipped in ketchup or applesauce. I get the unsweetened, organic applesauce so that's not a problem. But I really hate him eating ketchup all the time. Does anyone know of a good ketchup that has some nutritional value to it and less sugar and sodium?

Another thing that works for my toddler is to have anyone else feed him. He will eat broccoli, spinach, carrots, fish, you name it, as long as his care provider feeds it to him. Or my mother or my sister-in-law...just not me. They can even feed him something I cooked and he'll eat it. Go figure. ???

-T. Q

The only way that I can get my 5 year old to eat veggies other than green peas is to buy the spinach or sun dried tomatoe turkey wrap from publix deli. I have them put everything on it except for onions and jalepeno's. He eats it without hesitation minus the black olives. He's been picking those out if he sees them.
Also, making carrot cookies, zucchini bread and pumpkin bread he will eat. Cut the sugar in 1/2 on the zucchini and pumpkin bread though.
My other kids (12, 19) I have to blend it up and put them in things that they will normally eat. Like blending up a variety of cooked squash and use them as a base for chili or stews and soups.
I don't know why they are like this about veggies. I love all of them and can eat them raw or cooked doesn't matter.
I love the carrots in the pb&j. I am going to try that little trick.

I have a toddler too and a husband who does not like veggies. The best thing I have done is to add pureed veggies to various meals like meatloaf and pasta. It's easy, you just use a blender or food processor. There is an excellent cook book that I highly recommend. "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. Good Luck!

My two year old now refuses to eat any kind of veggie. I'm definatly going to try the puree thing otherwise he will eat around it.

One meal I can always get my whole picky family to eat (3 kids and husband) is spaghetti. I make my own sauce and put lots of veggies in it, then puree it, which helps to camouflage them further. Even using bottled sauce you can add a jar of baby food such as carrots or something. You could let him dip his finger food into anything-applesauce, ranch dressing, hummus, mild salsa, peanut butter. The combinations could sound awful to you, but it is always fun to be creative and letting them find their own "taste" is part of the learning process. A few nutrients may find their way into that little tummy with less of a fight
Good luck.
J.

Hi there. My son turned 2 yesterday and he ate everythign until more recently. He now is being very picky as well. The only thing I know to do is to trick them. For his veggies at dinner, I usually mix applesauce with them and he eats them right up. he also will not eat eggs for breakfast so my husband squirts ketchup on them and he eats them up. He also like to "DIP" his foods, so put gravy or a sauce on the side, he'll have fun dipping the food and it'll give things a differnt taste. Good Luck. Oh yeah, My son loves bread, meat, and things as such. So what we do is give him his veggies on his plate first and tell him to eat a bite of the veggies and then he can have a piece of meat. He fusses at first but in the end, he gets what he wants and so do we!

Hi T.,

I have a 25 month old, and we're definitely feeling the veggie challenge too. Right now, I sneak veggies into the mac & cheese (along with canned tuna fish) which she loves, and I mix finely chopped veggies into multi-grain rice. She loves to eat her rice, so it's a huge boon. I go to www.allrecipies.com to get ideas of how to sneak veggies into casseroles, even meatloaf.

Good luck!