Need Lunch Ideas for 1 Year Old

Lots of great suggestions. My rule of thumb is that as long as it's a healthy food, it can be eaten whenever.

My son disliked anything but babyfood for a long time--I think it was a texture issue. But I did try him with some yummy stuff. Here are a few of my favorites:

blanched carrots dipped in hummus (blanching softens the carrot in texture and taste)

lentils with veggies and rice: just about any cookbook can give you some ideas on how to prepare lentils. I like to cook them with chopped carrot and celery and some garam masala. This, mixed with some rice and, if you like, cottage cheese, is a complete meal and pretty tasty. Make sure to season it instead of leaving it too bland.

hard-boiled eggs. Some kids like the yolk removed. These are easy because you can make up a whole batch in one shot and have enough for a couple days. But limit to one per day until you get a sense about allergies. I myself was allergic to high-protein foods until I was older. (eczema)

pumpkin or squash: cube and steam or bake and serve. sweeten with a little maple syrup or make savory with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

pasta with a little butter and parmesan. add in any favorite veggies, sauteed or steamed. you can make a larger bowl of this and use it for a few days.

One thing I can tell you from experience is that kids do tend to like flavorful foods, so don't shy away from seasoning things within reason. Little kids seem to like sliced olives (good source of good fats) and things they can eat with their fingers. I think that if they are happy and engaged with their food (yes, self-feeding is messy) they will become more interested in foods in general.

Hummis on pita bread is good, mac and cheese always a favorite (homemade), grilled cheese (cut into fun shapes), quesidilla (grilled cheese on tortilla), quite often I would stick to finger foods, like cut grapes, sliced olives, melons, bananas, along with some cheese and maybe a cracker or 2.

You said you eat pb&j's, I know the current theory is to wait until closer to 2yrs to introduce, but chances are if your eating and breastfeeding and he is not having any issues then he is not allergic. I was unaware of the recomendations of not eating pb while pregnant or nursing, an the waiting until 2yrs with my oldest (who is almost 6yrs old) Pb&j was what I lived on -- it's the only thing that sounded good and would stay down while pregnant, lol. Of course I continued to eat it regularly even after birth, I gave my daughter her first bite or two when she was about 15months old. We do not have peanut allergies in my family so I felt pretty safe. Also, I'm not sure if the recomendations are for just peanuts or if it is all nuts, but we eat a lot of cashew butter -- a friend's daughter is allergic to peanuts, almonds, and hazelnuts, and cashews are safe for her.

HTH
E.

Finger foods. Home cooked peas, green beans, cheerios, cooked spaghetti, yogurt is always good again.

My daughter loves organic spinach ravioli (costco), Amy's spinach pizzas, ham and cheese quesadillas, bow tie pasta with red sauce, fish sticks, hummus and crackers, fruit smoothies, spinach lasagna and pesto tortellini (trader joes), chunks of deli turkey etc. Hope this helps.

Hi! My husband is allergic to all nuts so we haven't yet given any to our two year old. For lunch in place of pb&j they have roasted tahini and jelly sandwiches. Fred Meyer carries it in the organic/natural foods section alongside the nut butters. We use the roasted salted tahini and it smells and tastes pretty similiar to peanut butter. It's just a little thinner. We store it upside down in the refridgerator after opening to keep the oils at the bottom of the jar. :)

I always just give my daughter dinner left-overs from the night before. Only if there wasn't enough do I offer some other alternative. Try bits of tortilla, with hummus and tomatoes. Or you could make some seasoned potato fries and beans with veggies. Just make lunch simple and quick...your day is busy enough as it is :) If he can't eat PB&J try tahini or almond butter with fresh mashed fruit but check with your pediatrician if you have a family history of almond or sesame seed allergy.

how about tortillas with mashed pinto beans or organic refried beans. You can roll it up and slice into small bite sized pieces. You can add cheese for extra calcium. this is my daughters favorite
Or cooked beans with steamed vegies in it.
Fresh or frozen blueberries (frozen are kind of messy but kids love them)
Shredded cheese and small chunks of turkey or chicken and whole grain crackers for a homemade type lunchables.
Cooked pasta with a little butter and parm.
I use to make my daughter sandwiches - turkey/cheese or tuna or grilled cheese and cut them in small chunks.
Whole grain bread with hummus or cream cheese and unsweetened fruit spread or mashed banana.
Morning star vegie nuggets or try making tofu nuggets.
Garden burgers are awesome!
Organic frozen meatballs.
I could go on forever.

THe things he's eating for breakfast and dinner are just fine for lunch. Jam sandwich? Fruit? Yogurt? Hard boiled egg? Sound like normal "lunch" foods. Almond butter is yummy. :)

Hi Y.,

We've had to steer away from processed food due to allergies. Lunch doesn't have to be tough if you plan ahead...

*If he still needs baby food texture, check out a baby cookbook by Annabel Karmel from the library. She has good combo meals you can make ahead, mash and freeze.

If he can handle food that needs a little chewing...

1. When you make tender meat for dinner (our favorites are chicken breast and pork tenderloin) make a little extra to keep in the fridge. You can even cut it up small enough for your little guy and freeze individual servings in ice cube trays.

2. Keep frozen peas on hand. One kid-sized serving takes about 30 sec. to thaw in the microwave under just enough water to cover. Drain and finish heating for a few more seconds.

3. Instant mashed potatoes are quick and easy, and the flakes are usually just dried potatoes with little processing. For my daughter pour milk (or broth) into a bowl, heat it in the microwave, and stir in the flakes.

4. Other grains. My daughter is allergic to wheat, so we've experimented with other grains. Keep cooked rice, barley, quinoa, etc. In the fridge and mix with a protein food, veggies and a little cheese.

5. Cornmeal mush--Recipe on the back of the cornmeal box--when freshly cooked, it resembles oatmeal. Then pour it into a pan to cool. Cut into sticks. When ready to eat, heat sticks (in a skillet will give them a little crust). My daughter likes them with Parmesan cheese or molasses. I've used them for sunflower seed butter, too (peanut allergy).

6. Sweet potatoes are another quick and easy-to-microwave veggie. Mash them or eat as cubes. Tiny cubes of carrot take longer to steam in the microwave but are good. Again, cook more than one serving so you have them on hand to reheat.

And for a cold lunch...

1. Large curd cottage cheese or small cubes or crumbles of other cheeses (my daughter even loves blue cheese and feta!).

2. More fresh fruit. Frozen or canned in juice are good, too.

3. Dry cereal.

4. Ham in small bits, if you eat cured meats.

5. As another reviewer mentioned, if you're still avoiding peanut products...There are lots of good seed and nut butters as alternatives. You can thin them with a little milk or water if they're too sticky in texture. I dip rice chex cereal in sunflower seed butter for my daughter.

6. If he can eat egg, keep some hard boiled ones on hand, cooked and ready to go.

Best luck. I know how easy it is to get into a rut when figuring out meals and snacks for everyone in the house every day!

I would start introducing those fruits and veggies now and stay away from mostly carbs so he learns to like them from the get go. Also let him feed himself. I would hope you are eating more then just a PB&J if you are still breastfeeding him, maybe he needs to see you eat foods like he does at dinner. Kids like to mimic.

Hi there! I'm actually in the same boat! My DD doesn't seem to want to eat much of anything except breastmilk and avocados! She is also 1.

I do have a couple of suggestions: avocado and pasta with some fresh tomato sauce. DD loves her avocados and would eat them at every meal if we let her. She also likes the pasta with the sauce.

Hope that gives you somewhere to start!!

This might be a little over simplified but lunch around our house is typicaly dinner leftovers, or a combination of what you would feed the kids for breakfast and dinner. Dinner type main course (typicaly leftovers), or a sandwich, or veggie soup, plus what you would normaly serve on the side at breakfast: fruit, yogurt, veggies etc.

don't know if he can't have pb&j for allergy reasons, but many peds are now recommending that babies be fed nut products before 2 or 3...however, if you don't want him to have pb, he can have soynut butter or sunflower butter with jelly. There are some organic brands of mac&cheese and ravioli (Annie's) for a quick fix...otherwise, we gave our son tofu, yogurt, quesadillas (cheese and bean), cheese and crackers, pasta salad, fish sticks, left overs from the night before, hummus...

Hi!
When my son was little we did the whole foods for the most part. The first thing he really liked was mashed potatoes. Now his favorite is hashbrowns. It's fairly easy to cook up some things that you can freeze in ice cube trays. (You can line with plastic wrap and then just cut out what you need.)

Bake a potato for mashing..and you can even leave the skin on if you add a little milk and butter. Just make sure you chop the whole thing really small first. You can chop up pieces of chicken, ham, cook up sausage, or any number of meats and add to the potatoes. Use frozen or fresh (frozen doesn't take much time to cook up and you can just pull a few from the bag vegetables) Peas and carrots mixed, (they come in cubes so less choking hazard and easy finger foods). You can serve them separate or mix them in when you heat up the potatoes. Elbow macaroni, ramen noodles without the flavor pack, (simply drain and add whatever you like). I still make "cheesy ramen" instead of mac and cheese sometimes for my kids and you can add spaghetti sauce..which basically makes "homemade" spaghetti-o's. You can take regular bread, cut off the crusts and add various things too it..tuna and cheese, sausage and eggs, ham and cheese, spaghetti sauce and a little cheese and olives and some veggies, and or meats. Roll them up and toast them a little. Slice into bites, or little spirals. Hope that helps. I found Ramen noodles and mashed potatoes to be the best bases simply because my son liked them best. You can experiment with any number of ideas. Another thing I did for my daughter was "pancake stuffs" (I guess you could call them) I made pancakes using everything you can think of from berries and bananas to ham, cheese, etc. You can also thin down the pancake batter and use those for your "wraps". I usually add an extra egg to the batter to make them more "crepe like" and thin the batter a little. Hope that helps! I quit buying jarred baby food about a month after I started using it and made my own. It was definitely cheaper, and he learned to like so many different foods because there was so much more variety to choose from. My daughter never saw a baby food jar!