Suggestions for Toddler Meals

I make pancakes and put shredded carrots, zucchini, and cheese in them. They still taste just like regular morning pancakes! I got the idea from this website: http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com/toddlerfastfoods.htm

My son also loves "chicken quesedillas" - I just make them with chicken pre-cooked in slow cooker so it's very soft, cheese, and tomatoes.

I think in general kids need to snack more and eat lots of little meals since they eat smaller portions. In our home that means, cottage cheese (with defrosted frozen berries usually), scrambled eggs with minced veggies and cheese, "build your own" hummus/wholesome crackers/veggies/cheese, grilled cheese, quesedilla's are great, b/c I can put just about anything in it. We also do "roll-up's" that are also anything goes. Might be a slice of cheese and turkey or might be a wholesome wrap with hummus and veggies..I usually fold it like a burrito and then melt cheese on the flap, so that it doesn't fall apart when my daughter is handling it. We make homemade waffles in large batches - filled with wheat germ, ground flaxseed, nuts - whatever - and freeze them. Yogurt is a "sweet treat" b/c no matter the brand, if it's flavored it has surprisingly high sugar content. Toast w/ peanut butter and banana or honey is super fast and recently I decided that a low sodium can of soup on hand is a nice back up.
If your child is eating mostly what you eat your probably doing a great job, so don't worry too much about the variety of "snacks". Just the nutritional content ;-)

good luck.

Hi C.,
Breakfast ideas: Nutrigrain cereal bars, scrambled eggs with cheese, cottage cheese with fruit, yogurt bars, cream of wheat, Quaker oatmeal breakfast cookies, toast with a variety of preserves (apricot, strawberry) use a cookie cutter to cut the toast into a fun shape.

Lunch ideas: whipped cream cheese and grape jelly on whole wheat bread, turkey dogs, bologna and american cheese cut up in different shapes, black olives sliced, peanut butter and sliced banana grilled on wheat bread (made the same as a grilled cheese), creamy chicken noodle soup, sometimes I offer the Graduates Toddler meals, cold pasta salad with diced tomato, olives and mozzarella cheese with fat free mayo. Melba toast with toppings, spinach balls, also check out some of the items at trader joes in the frozen food section, my child loves the pesto/tomato and cheese flat bread. Lots of little snacks throughout the day, cut up fruit, crackers, yogurt, fruit rolls.

Dinner ideas: Uncle Ben's 90 second rice (garden vegetable flavor is a hit) add in some ground beef or poultry.
Miniature meatballs with alphabet shaped pasta. My child loves mashed potato and brocolli and whatever meat/fish I make. Homemade pizza made with american cheese and fresh veggies, mushrooms and crushed tomato. Butternut squash soup (trader joes) with soup crackers and a grilled cheese, hot dog or tofu dog wrapped in a croissant, some kids like liverwurst, sweet n sour chicken with white rice (recipe is SO simple - 1 packet of Lipton onion soup mix, 1 bottle of Russian dressing, 1 jar of 8 oz. apricot preserves, mix 3 ingredients in a pan, add your chicken and bake, serve over minute rice. Good stuff!!

One of the best suggestions I got about feeding my daughter when she was that age is tofu! I don't cook with it so it never occurred to me, but my friend told me his daughters will eat cubes of it cold from the fridge -- and my daughter does, too (YUCK!!!). If she hasn't gobbled it all up straight from the fridge, I cube it, saute it with a tiny bit of olive oil, add some gerber diced carrots (already cubed and cooked) to warm through, and throw in a little ground ginger. It takes about 3 minutes and I can make a big batch so lunch the next day is ready to pop in the microwave. It is her absolute favorite and one of the few ways she'll eat veggies!!

Hi - My daughter loves pasta especially ravioli. I usually make it for our dinner and I will also make an extra bag so I have lots of leftovers for either her lunches at daycare or for a quick dinner for her. I also make my own 'chicken nuggets' by cutting up chicken breast and breading it and cooking it and she loves to dip that into bbq sauce. I always make sure I have leftovers to heat up for a quick dinner for her while i cook for us. Hope this helps.

I don't really think counts as a meal, but my son loves baby corn. I just satay in a little butter and a drop of soysauce and a little water. Also he loves soup. So tonight I cut up leftover chicken, carrots, baby corn and put them all in low-sodium cream of chicken soup with small noodles and rice and he ate it all up. He also loves to eat fajitas. I cut the chicken up really small and put it with sour cream and cheese in a wrap and he really enjoys eating it. He'll also eat it with ground beef. My son will be two in May. Good luck!

I love Anabel Karmel's books. I make meals ahead and freeze them in small quantities, and then I have meals ready to go when my kids need to eat first or when they won't like what we're eating.

I have a 23 month old and if she is hungry before diner is ready, I give her frozen peas or corn; green beans not as much. She loves them!!! My oldest still loves them adn she is 6. The veggies are sweeter when frozen and helps with teething;-) Frozen fruit is a good option too, but in our house we stuggle more with getting veggies in our girl and this helps a lot.

http://mealplanningmommies.blogspot.com/

this blog just did a while week on toddler meals - maybe that will give you a few ideas.

My daughter eats what we eat - better than my DH :)

For snacks - we give her cups of fruit, yogurt, rizk crackers, gold fish, and cheese sticks.

good luck

Hi C.-
My daughter loves pbj, but wont eat it with bread instead we uses wraps and roll them like fruit roll ups.

Hi, Our kid flat out refuses to eat differently than us, so what we do if there is a timing issue (it dinner time but food's not ready) is to give him a slice of cheese or some small snack to tide him over and occupy him (it helps that he is in the high chair with the cheese also) or just reheat leftovers from the day before. Obviously mac and cheese with a veggie mixed in, or worse comes to worse apple sauce and cottage cheese or some other protein/fruit or veggie combo that is in the house already. Best of luck.

Nat

I have one people don't usually think of but my kids enjoyed as toddlers. Baked beans. You can serve them with hot dog, pb&j, chicken or whatever.