Toddler moms - healthy food/snack ideas

juliemay623

Moms of toddlers, I am running out of fresh ideas of breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack ideas for my 2.5 year old. I thought it might be helpful to everyone to throw out some of your go-tos so we can all get some more variety and new things to try!

juliemay623

DD1 loves pretty much all fruit, so we do a lot of fresh berries which are easy to pack in lunches as well as fruit cups or applesauce.

For veggies, she likes cucumber slices and green beans. We get freezer packs of beans you steam in the microwave for 6 minutes which are super easy and actually taste really good. I definitely need some more ideas here.

She likes pretty much all of the things you think of as kid staples like chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, quesadillas, PB&J, hot dogs, but i would love some other healthier options.

She sometimes has what we're having for dinner, but I often end up making her something else or just loading her up on veggies snd other "sides" if she won't eat the protein.

I'm excited to hear what you other mamas are serving!

JessicaB0627

We do a lot of fruit: strawberries, apples, bananas, watermelon, blueberries, pineapple, raspberries, grapes.
For cold vegetable snacks she likes baby carrots and broccoli. I also like to get those microwaveable sweet potatoes and cut it up into squares. We do that for dinner but sometimes as a standalone snack as well. She also loves yogurt, cheese sticks/cubes (her favorite is Colby jack), veggie straws, applesauce, and dried fruit (mango, craisins). 
DD1 would rather snack and graze all day long than sit down and eat a meal so I try to keep them mostly healthy. 

Bltbear82

We've been doing a lot of veggie or protein enriched pasta (I think Ronzoni makes it), whole wheat Israeli couscous (we call it baby pasta and he loves using a spoon), soft boiled eggs with toast strips, steamed broccoli and carrots, cucumbers cut like mini pizza wedges, kale salad, turkey hot dogs,

For snacks he loves dried kale with vegan cheese (odd choice but he loves it), siggis yogurt squeeze packs frozen and cut in half, baked snap peas. I also make little fruit pops with leftover yogurt and fruit blended, and also do cut fruit on toothpicks.

I stopped giving him a plate of food during a food protest and he's a much better eater when I give him everything separated in little bowls. 

JennyS86

We need more ideas here too!  One of the twins is a fantastic eater, but the other is kinda picky - she doesn't really like meat or vegetables.  Thanks for your tips!  They love fruit and dairy.
 
 The other day I made spiral pasta and cooked some fresh spinach with the pasta, drained it, added tomato sauce.  The girls ate most of the spinach!
 
 Lunches are generally PBJ and string cheese.
 
 I got tahini this week - hope they are in the mood for hummus!  dipping and sandwiches

Bltbear82

Oh we also get frozen whole wheat pizza dough and he "makes" his own pizza, or scrambled eggs. I also bake mini veggie muffins and freeze them but I don't have time to make them right now! But they're a great snack or even with a meal. I do carrot and zucchini and even my husband loves them. 

Bellodomani

I don't have too many specific meal ideas because we just feed him whatever we are eating, but if you're having trouble with them refusing the main protein or veggies, I find it helpful to make meals that have everything together in one dish because it's just a lot more effort to be picky. For example, if I just gave him shrimp straight up on his plate he'd probably only eat a bite or two, but last night I made sesame noodles (rice noodles with a tahini/ soy/ chili/ garlic sauce) with mint, cilantro, basil, and cucumbers, and I just chopped the shrimp up and tossed them with the noddles and he ate like 6 of them. Other meals that use this same strategy- rice or quinoa bowls with beans and roasted veggies, fried rice with tofu and lots of different shredded vegetables, hashes/ scrambles at breakfast with spinach, sausage, sweet potatoes, etc, stir fries of all kinds, lentil bowls with salmon broken up and mixed in (he WILL NOT touch whole salmon, but happily eats this), quesadillas with shredded chicken and arugula, and my personal favorite, cheesy mashed potato bowls, where I make mashed potatoes and mix them with cheese and a bunch of vegetables- current winning combo is pepper jack cheese, baby kale, and peppers. 

If I let Miles snack much, he hardly eats anything at meals, so I'm pretty strict about snack only being between lunch & dinner (after nap). If we're at home, it's usually veggies & hummus, a smoothie, avocado toast, plain full fat Greek yogurt with fruit and granola, or something that we bake together like muffins. We often make a batch of mini muffins that we'll freeze so we can defrost one for an easy snack. 

Here's my question- what kind of snacks do you pack if you're on the go that have protein in them? He's weird about string cheese (will happily eat basically any other cheese, because toddlers are illogical) and I struggle to come up with other ideas that aren't just all processed carbs. When I can make it to trader joe's I get those individual packs of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit to keep on hand, but they're expensive and pretty wasteful with all that extra packaging. I guess if I had my shit together I could make my own little packs in reusable Tupperwares. But I don't! Any ideas?

juliemay623

I'm loving these ideas! Particularly the smoothies and muffins where you can hide the veggies and it still tastes great! My daughter loves muffins and I think the smoothies would be a hit too.

For smoothies, do y'all use a blender or like a magic bullet or handheld frother thing? I'd rather not make a huge mess of my blender and have to take it all apart every time to clean it...

Bltbear82

@Bellodomani I like the little Justin's peanut or almond butter packets with apple slices or we do a kefir yogurt squeeze pack for protein heavy snacks. I also get those annoyingly expensive nut packs too, but mostly because I'm lazy and I like them as well. Teddy similarly will snack a lot too and then refuse meals so we offer snacks after nap or sometimes if he's done something particularly physical like swim lessons in the early morning and it's too long between meals. 

camillaandcarson

Banana dogs are a hit here for a quick snack with protein 
https://weelicious.com/2011/02/16/banana-dog-bites/

kbrands7

DS1 eats most of what we eat-- or he at least tries it. At mealtimes, I make sure to give him at least one thing I know he'll eat along with whatever we're eating.

His favorite snacks are pieces of roasted chicken or turkey, swiss cheese, freeze dried fruit (especially strawberries and tangerines), apples with peanut butter, olives, pickled beets, graham crackers with peanut butter, raisins and cashew pieces, raspberries, sweet potato cubes or fries.

He's great about eating protein, but is extremely picky about vegetables. Roasting veggies is my best chance at getting him to eat them, but it doesn't always work.

Bellodomani

@camillaandcarson @Bltbear82 Thanks for the ideas ladies! I'll have to see if they have kefir squeezies at our store, I bet he'd be into that. 

@juliemay623 My in laws gave us their old Vitamix a few years ago and I use that for smoothies because you just clean it by putting some soap and water in it and running it on high for a minute or so, super easy. I don't think I would have ever spent the money for a Vitamix, but I will say that now that we have one, it's an indispensable tool for me. 

juliemay623

@bellodomani Yeah, I've heard the Vitamix is awesome, but I don't think I can justify the cost when I already have a regular blender and barely use it...