Toddler Meal Ideas - Kansas City,MO

We create little bites of several things...

-like cut up cheese, meat and crackers (similar to a Lunchables)
-fruit salad on top of yogurt or cottage cheese
-make whole chicken breasts, then dice them up. Use them with various --dips like ketchup, ranch, etc. along with some veggies.
-use the diced chicken and mix it into mac n cheese or some other pasta with a light sauce.
-make a "trail mix" out of various cereals - we use chex, cherrios and fruit loops. Add milk or let them eat it dry or put it on top of yogurt.
-create "parfaits" using yogurt, fresh fruit and your trail mix putting it in layers. If poss let them help build it or use see through cups so they get to see the layers.
- my kids will eat ANYTHING with bacon on top. So we mix it into veggie pastas and they devour it.
- finger sandwiches or use a cookie cutters to cut fun shapes. Kids love kid-sized portions
- go gurts!!!! We eat them outside, sometimes frozen as a snack.

Great suggestion from LilacMom - I also do little pizzas like that with naan bread (which I buy frozen from Trader Joe). The kids can also help build the pizzas which is fun.

Some of my other go-tos:

1) Grilled chicken - I buy an organic brand of grilled chicken strips (no breading) fully cooked and frozen - I just heat a little bit of veggie or chicken stock in a saucepan and thaw & rehydrate them a little. Delicious!

2) Pasta - I cook dried pasta and then add a little butter, garlic powder, and tiny bit of salt w/parsley flakes. My 2 kids (including my not quite 2 year-old) LOVE it!

3) Edamame - I pop them out of the shell for the little one but my 4 year-old squeezes them out himself.

4) Grilled cheese - you can also add bits of tomato and/or ham.

5) Sweet potatoes - cut into wedges and do fries, or bake until soft and mash (skin on or off depending on what your kids like) - add a little bit of butter, brown sugar and organic cinnamon and bake again for a few minutes until bubbly.

5) Homemade apple sauce - roast your own apples (@ 350 degrees until soft) then peel, core & puree with or without organic cinnamon. You can also freeze into ice cube trays for a yummy frozen treat.

6) Frozen sweet peas - it's weird - toddlers love them. Frozen.

7) For the 2 & 3 year-old, sweet corn on the cob. Wrap cobs (husks on) individually in foil and roast them at 350 for 30 minutes - perfect every time.

8) Wraps - I melt cheese on an open face tortilla in the oven and slip in little bits of red pepper - wrap it up and serve like a taco or burrito once melted.

9) Scrambled eggs with tiny cubes of pancetta and cheddar or gruyere cheese melted in. Yum!

10) English muffins toasted with peanut butter & jelly or peanut butter & honey.

11) I was a vegetarian for a long time so I'm still not totally adept at cooking red meat - I try to go to our local butcher or Whole Foods once every so often and get a high quality cut of organic beef to serve them (so I don't screw it up!). :)

12) And you can't go wrong with adding fresh, whole foods as side dishes - like blueberries, strawberries, bananas, cashews, walnuts, dried cranberries, carrot sticks (mine like them with hummus).

Good suggestions so far. My kids also really like cream cheese or hummus on top of Ritz crackers. We also eat
apples and peanut butter, celery and cream cheese or cut up veggies dipped in Ranch.

My daughter loves lunch meat and ate it even at 1, my son won't touch it, but that got us by for a long time! They both will eat those ham cubes they sell in the store that are used in things like quiche and stuff, even my son will eat those.

Dried fruits...I get the freeze dried kind from whole foods and my kids love them! Also frozen blueberries is a bit hit as well as smoothies.

quesadillas with shredded chicken or ground turkey/beef with a little cheese and salsa. I just throw them in the microwave for a few seconds to melt the cheese and slice them with a pizza cutter

Here's how I make pizza for my two toddlers sometimes.

I buy either the whole wheat round deli thins or bagel thins and then top them with a little sauce and cheese and put them in my toaster oven, it's a quick and easy lunch. Serve it w/ fruit.

The thin bread makes it easy for them to eat.

They can eat anything you are eating. We have always fed DS exactly what we were eating (chopped up when he was little). Things we do for lunch (we pack his lunch for daycare)

Hummus on veggies or whole wheat bread. When DS was younger we used steamed carrot sticks since they were a little softer. Now we do carrots sticks, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans (all raw).

Plain yogurt with fresh fruit chopped into it. I buy either the plain Stonyfield Farm or Fage greek yogurt in the large (32 oz) size at Costco. Buying the larger tub is cheaper and there is no sugar added like there are in Gogurts and the small flavored ones.

Black beans and brown rice. You can make a big pot of black beans and then freeze for later.

Chili over brown rice or quinoa. Sprinkle with chopped fresh green peppers and tomato to add more veggies. I usually do turkey chili (freeze ahead) but veggie chili is great also. You can add cashews for additional protein (and they are yummy).

Fritattas - basically an omelet filled with veggies (add meat if you like). We do asparagus and cheese, sweet potato, spinach, tomato and red pepper, but just about any combination works. They are great for any meal and work well to cut into slices and pack for lunch.

If you make your own 'toaster' pizzas they are a bit healthier - use whole grain rolls, add tomato sauce (I make in a large batch and freeze), veggies and cheese and then either broil or put in the toaster.

Chick peas, edamame, steamed, roasted or baked veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, beans, peas, carrots, squash, sweet potato)

Lots of fruit (mostly just as part of the meal when DS was 1 or 2). Now that he is 5 we generally have fresh fruit for dessert.

Peanut, almond or cashew butter on veggie sticks.

Our supermarket has whole grain 'rice cakes'. They are much thinner and smaller than the big round ones and are 100% whole grain, no salt added and they actually taste good. We use them instead of crackers.