Need ideas for quick, toddler-friendly meals, please

s-a-r-a-h · January 2011

I'm really struggling with what to give H for dinner now that she's primarily eating table foods. Right now she usually gets cubed cheese, whole wheat pasta, small pieces of veggies and/or fruit and a protein. We usually don't get home from work/daycare until 5:45 or 6, so I don't have time to cook a full meal before she has a meltdown and needs to get bathed and into bed. We try and give her what we're eating when we can all have dinner as a family, but sometimes she can't eat what we're having. Do y'all have any tips/recipes for quick and easy toddler foods? The hubby and I can eat after H goes to bed, so it doesn't need to feed us, too. And bonus if I can refrigerate/freeze it. Thanks, ladies!

BLONDIE6FT · February 2011

we save dinner each night and serve it when t needs to eat the next night. we ran into a time crunch and meltdowns, too, so this helped. she eats everything we eat, but i try to make noodles she can pick up (instead of couscous or mashed potatoes). i keep a little cup of cooked noodles each week in the fridge. sometimes i have cooked chicken that is cut up. then if we are in a pinch, i heat up noodles and pasta sauce, add some chix and we are ready. i also buy a variety of canned veggies. i open one, then put it in a tupperware. i heat those up for a few days. i also buy the frozen veggie burgers and those can be heated in the microwave. i also put turkey and cheese on a tortilla and heat that, then cut it up small and she loves that. hope some of this helps you!

spinach · February 2011

Startch - boil cubed potatos, basmetti rice (costco) use more water to make it softer and serve with a tad of soy sauce for flavor,

protein - frozen lima beans, bake tilapia, bake drumsticks (i defrost the night before and put it in my small oven, takes 15-20 minutes. scrambled eggs with spinach(frozen) and onions. chop onions ahead of time.

vegetables - frozen mix vegetables, peas, fresh spinach (we season with salt/pepper, olive oil, garlic and put in microwave for 1-2 minutes).

If you have at least one of these you can get her started while you finish up the rest.

ali-1411 · February 2011

Have you been on this website? I liked it because you can make the dinners ahead and reheat.

Nurturebaby

ebat · February 2011

We do lots of frozen veggies in the microwave. Black bean burritos, tortilla, sauteed onions, black beans, cheeese, avacado(mashed), then cut up into strips. Also we have something I made on the weekend and froze like lasange. We also make tortillini soup, dice and saute an onion and garlic, add a large can of stewed tomatoes, chicken stock, bring to a boil and add tortellini, when cooked add a bag of spinach

smb29 · February 2011

We keep a lot of frozen veggies in the freezer that we can heat up in the microwave. We also have organic chicken fingers, fish sticks, black bean burgers and veggie burgers in the freezer that we can cook up really quickly. Sometimes I buy hotdogs. You can also cut up sweet potatoes really small and roast them and freeze as well.

ACR · February 2011

If I'm not giving him some leftovers from dinner that week,I usually have some staples in the freezer. When I make a dinner that I know he likes in particular (like pot roast or beef stew), I'll make extra to freeze in small portions for him later on)

Freezer: turkey meatballs, Dr Pragers spinach bites, sweet potato bites, or broccoli bites (get these at whole foods), Whole Foods salmon balls (they're like frozen salmon meatballs), lima beans (he'll eat these like candy), homemade veggie burger patties

mlf625 · February 2011

Ditto the turkey meatballs - both of my kids love these. I also make a toddler goulash type thing that I freeze in little containers, it's really quick to warm up and hand over. I think I got both recipes from the Wholesome Toddler Foods site.

michelleaxo · February 2011

I have a spreadsheet I made from a post a long while back with some ideas and a few links to recipes in it. If you (or anyone else) would like it, e-mail me at michelleaxo at aol dot com.