Toddler Meal Ideas

Every day at mealtimes I struggle to figure out what I should feed my daughter. When we started solids, she never really cared for the cereals or purees, so we did a modified baby-led weaning. She liked pouches of purees when at daycare but at home she was all about whatever we were eating, so I just played off her cues.

By 10 months old, she was eating three solid meals a day. I didn’t want to get stuck in a rut so I brainstormed meal ideas. I reached out to friends and asked them for their suggestions. I decided to share my list of ideas but I also am asking you for your suggestions as well!! Along with the meal ideas I will also be sharing some of our favorite placemats, utensils, pouch toppers, snack and sippy cups!

Breakfast:

Waffles
Pancakes
French Toast Sticks
Sliced bananas
Blueberries*
Raspberries
Toast with butter or jam
Cinnamon raisin toast
Oatmeal (this one gets messy!)
Yogurt
Eggs
Cheerios or other cereal
Sausage* (We love chicken & turkey sausage!)

Lunch or Dinner:

Mac & Cheese
Chicken nuggets*
Corndogs*
Pizza bites*
Mini Tacos
Ravioli/Pasta/Lasagna
Peanut butter (or other nut/soy butters) & jelly sandwiches
Lunch meat
Steamed veggies (broccoli trees, carrots, peppers)
Grilled cheese
Cheese quesadilla

Snacks:

Applesauce pouch
Cheese puffs
Granola bars
String cheese/cubes
Teething biscuits
Puffs
Crackers
Graham cracker/Teddy Grahams
Goldfish
Fruit snacks (These ones are in stick form so easy for them to hold!)

(Items marked with an asterisk[*] are ones you need to make sure you are cutting in bite size pieces as they can be choking hazards.)

We have two placemats we use: Nuby & EzPz. Both suction to the surface from the middle. So when kiddos try to grab and pull it from the middle it won’t give but if your kiddo is like mine, she just goes to the corners and flips it over (insert face palm here).

The utensils we use are from Grabease (not pictured). I started following their instagram while I was pregnant and it was one thing I knew I was going to buy when the time was right! I am glad I purchased these. The shape of these utensils are perfect for little hands, and the choke barrier is genius! When Kinsley started showing interest in eating we had tried a longer spoon but she would grab it and I was afraid of her gagging on it and ordered these immediately!

I have searched high and low for a sippy cup my daughter will use. I have finally found a winner, I think. I came across these new Nuk Evolution Learner Sippy Cup and Kinsley took to it right away instead of throwing it back at me! So that’s progress! Her daycare says she does better with this one too so it’s not just me! We are also working on transitioning to the Nuk WOW 360 Cup which has been going very well! Advice to mamas during the bottle to sippy transition is just be patient and work with their cues! These cups worked for us to get rid of the before bed night time bottle at 15 months.

Another product that was a life-saver for us are the ChooMee Pouch Toppers!! No more squeezing of the pouches and the contents go everywhere because these pouch toppers do not let that happen! I always keep one in our diaper bag along with an applesauce pouch for an on-the-go snack!

–>And I’ve got a Promo code for you!! Use “RAISINGKRZY25” at http://www.choomee.com to receive 25% your purchase!!<–

And last but definitely not least, let’s talk about SNACK CUPS. I had registered for the plastic ones with semi-pointy plastic tops they put their hand into and my daughter would always get her hand stuck. When she would take her hand out sometimes the snacks would go flying (true story happened to us at a hockey game and it flew into the rows ahead of us!!). I followed the Munchie Mug instagram and even though it was a little pricer I decided to buy one and see how it compared to the others. We LOVE these cups! The closure where your child sticks their hand into is a soft, stretchy fabric that is completely spill proof when turned upside-down and shaken!