Feeding a Toddler: TONS of Meal Ideas and Recipes - Joyfully Prudent (2024)

Finally! I’ve been working on this post for a while, so I hope you find it useful!

I think the one thing that has stressed me out the most about raising a baby so far, is what to feed them. It was easy the first year – breast milk and pureed fruits and veggies. I lived by THIS website for foods age birth-1 year. Finger foods is a whole new ball game. Did he get enough? Why does he hate meat? Why isn’t he eating his sweet potatoes? He ate them all last week. Can he have this particular food? Why is he throwing his food everywhere? Am I feeding him healthy foods? Did I ruin his taste preference when I was pregnant? And on and on!

BASIC MEAL PLAN:
If you have a toddler, I’m sure you’ve asked yourself these questions and more. I’m not an expert on feeding a 1 year old, but I thought I would share some pictures of several meals I’ve fed Beckham the last few months (he’s almost 17 months). I try to serve a meat/protein, fruit, and veggie at every meal. He also has a sippy cup of milk (Organic Whole milk) with each meal (about 20-24 oz. per day). I will explore other types of milk (almond, coconut, etc.…), but until he’s 2, I was advised to give cow’s milk. Most of his foods have to be soft since he’s still working on getting his teeth. He eats crackers, but tough raw fruits and veggies doesn’t work just yet. He can’t eat with a spoon by himself yet, so any yogurt type food is done by me. I let him practice with the spoon afterwards though and a few bites here and there. He’s pretty good with the fork, but if he’s super hungry, he just gives up and shoves it in his mouth with his hands.

DRINK:
In between meals, he gets WATER to drink. I don’t give him juice as I PERSONALLY don’t feel it’s needed for HIM. It just has a lot of sugar and he eats TONS of fruit anyway, so we just do water. I don’t think it’s bad, just not for Beckham right now. If he didn’t eat a lot of fruit, I would probably give him some diluted juice (25% juice/75% water).

SNACKS:
For snacks, he usually eats fruit (tons of clementines), Goldfish (although he’s not really into these right now), peanut butter crackers, smoothies, applesauce, those squeezable pureed fruits/veggies on-the-go, and yogurt. This boy LOVES smoothies! This is a great way to hide foods your kid may not eat. I don’t want to hide foods from Beckham, but sometimes you’re desperate for your child to get certain nutrients. When I make myself a smoothie, I pour him a cup before I add my protein powder. He gulps it down SO fast! See…

Check out my Strawberry-Banana Smoothie HERE and my Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie HERE!

In addition to smoothies, here are some of his favorites:

4 Things I Find Important:

• I’m really trying to keep him from sweets that are not fruit because I just don’t see a point in making that a craving. Don’t get me wrong, he’s had sweets and will have more in the future, but he’s too young to make that choice right now, so mama’s in control! Haha.
• I also let him try as many different foods as possible. I was shocked he liked tomatoes.
• I introduce foods he might not like at first over and over and over again! He JUST ate a bite of avocado for the first time without spitting it out a few days ago. He has hated this food since he was 6 months old. He also ate broccoli (all of mine of course) and he hasn’t been liking that either lately.
• Quick meals are mandatory – Nothing will get you moving faster than a hungry child!

Here are several pictures of some of the foods he’s been eating lately. I’ll start with breakfast foods, then lunch foods, and then dinner. Lunch and dinner tend to be the same at times. A lot of these foods may be the same, but I just took a picture of everything I was feeding him.

There are SEVERAL recipe links below, so be sure to read under the meal title if you’re interested in how I made it.

Pancakes, Eggs, Blueberries

I make a huge batch of plain or whole wheat pancakes and freeze them. When I need one, I pop it in the toaster. Sometimes, I’ll drizzle a LITTLE agave syrup or maple syrup on his plate under the pancakes. Click HERE to see how I “scramble” his eggs in 45 seconds. He’s also eaten hard boiled eggs, but the yolk is hard to eat, so it ends up being just the egg white.

Fiber Muffin, Scrambled eggs with green pepper and mushroom, Strawberries/Blueberries

Click HERE for the Fiber Muffin recipe. This is a GREAT recipe for toddlers and it makes 48 muffins, so you can freeze them for later use. I do recommend only making half the recipe though, unless you have a bowl three times the size of your face…it needs to be huge! Oh and he was not a fan of the peppers/mushrooms in his eggs.

Van’s Pancakes (I get gluten free or whole grains), Eggs, Bananas

I just pop them in the toaster. I don’t just give him 3 banana slices…he had already eaten most of them…I told you he loves fruit!

ELMO pancake, eggs, blueberries

Toast with Peanut Butter, Eggs, Banana

Same as above, but PB on an English muffin with Eggs and Banana

Oatmeal with Mashed Bananas and Cinnamon (no picture)

I heat Quaker instant plain oatmeal with water that covers it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes until it’s soft. You can add a little milk if it’s too dry. Then I mash half a banana and add it to the oatmeal with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Oatmeal days are the days he sits on the couch with me and I feed it to him. You can always prepare the oatmeal ahead of time and keep a large batch in the fridge and reheat it in the microwave when needed.

Peanut Butter Banana (PBB) Sandwich, Carrots, Strawberries

Read BELOW (at the end of this post) how I prepare his vegetables for the week.

Turkey & Cream Cheese Roll Up, Strawberries/Pineapple

He did not care for the roll up. I’ll try again later. It was a whole wheat tortilla, spinach, tomato, turkey, garlic cream cheese. I think he’s too young to eat something like this.

PBJ Sandwich, String Cheese (Weight Watcher’s brand), Bananas, Applesauce

He likes string cheese (for snacks also).

Hebrew National Beef Hot Dog w/ bbq sauce, Green Beans, Grapes

I used to hear the word “hot dog” and cringe! I don’t always like giving him these, but I do feel better about them being 100% Kosher Beef, 97% fat free, no bi-products, no artificial flavors, and no gluten. They’re $3.99 at Wal-Mart, which is the cheapest I’ve found (vs. $5.99 for same EXACT product at Tom Thumb). We do this same concept with chopped grilled chicken. Make sure to cut the hot dogs similar to below (or smaller)…many children choke otherwise. I cut them, drizzle a little bbq sauce on top, heat in microwave for 20-30 seconds, then stir and serve.

PBB, Green Beans, Grapes

HN Hot Dog w/ bbq sauce, Sliced Cheese, Blueberries

PBB, Pretzels, Clementine

HN Hot Dog, Pretzels, Banana

Pasta w/ meat sauce, Carrots, Banana

To make the meat sauce, I use a jar of spaghetti sauce (usually Prego’s Mushroom), a few fresh chopped mushrooms, and ground turkey or beef. I like this shell pasta because it’s easy to pick up for him.

Pasta w/ chicken, Sweet Potato, Banana

For this sauce, I mix a jar of spaghetti sauce and chopped chicken. The easiest way to cook your chicken for this is to boil it in water for 20-30 minutes, then shred or chop it (see BELOW how I cook chicken for the week).

Mmmm…see it’s good!

Same main dish as above with blueberries and carrots/green beans instead

Crispy Baked Tilapia, Stuffing (from a box), Green Beans, Kiwi

He didn’t really like the tilapia and I think it was due to the crispy coating. He likes fish otherwise.

Roast with carrots and potatoes

What would life be like without some good ol’ blueberries and cool whip? Obviously a treat here, but he LOVED it!

Crock Pot Beans, Pickles, Cantaloupe, Clementine

Click HERE for a healthy, vegetarian, cheap recipe of my crock pot beans! This is one of OUR favorite recipes and is great paired with rice. You seriously have to try these beans. We like to eat them with a grilled chicken salad or just load them with toppings by themselves!

See? Yum! He destroys his beans and rice!

Pulled Pork w/ bbq sauce, Strawberries, Carrots

My favorite pulled pork recipe HERE. If you have suggestions for substituting the Dr. Pepper for a NON-soda ingredient, I would LOVE to hear.

A little bit of both from above – Beans/Rice, Pulled Pork, Carrots, Pineapple

Chicken Taco Chili, Sweet Potato, Strawberries

He wasn’t a huge fan of the chili, but did eat some of it.

HN Hot Dog, Pirates Booty Puffs, Strawberries

This was our picnic outside.

Pulled Pork, Green Beans, Cantaloupe

And when you’re stuck in a mall for 2+ hours waiting for your car to get fixed, Chick-fil-a has grilled chicken nuggets. I brought a couple Clementines for a fruit. He actually didn’t eat a lot of the chicken.

ANOTHER RECIPE NOT PICTURED:

–QUESADILLAS– You can pretty much add anything to the inside of a tortilla, add some cheese, and heat it up in the microwave or on the stove for a crispier tortilla. We add finely chopped chicken and broccoli a lot. Beckham would only eat these for a time period. It was our saving grace for him to eat meat. I also heard you can add hummus to the tortilla for a sticky filling in addition to meat, veggies, and cheese. I will definitely try this.

HOW I MAKE GRILLED VEGGIES AND CHICKEN FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK:

-Grilled veggies on the fly:
A little prep work 30 minutes (if that) a week and you have veggies all week you can serve in seconds. I will wash, peel, and cut veggies such as sweet potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. I’ll steam them on the stove and then store them in an air tight container in the fridge for the week. Whenever I need veggies, I take out a few and heat them in the microwave.

-Chicken on the fly:
1. If there is a day we’re having grilled chicken (or anything that needs to be cooked on our outside grill), I’ll have Ryan grill 1-2 extra chicken breasts so I can have a couple of already cooked chicken breasts ready to eat for Beckham. Usually one will be enough for the week. I marinate them with seasonings and Worcestershire sauce before grilling them. Then I can use them for chopped bbq chicken or inside a pasta or quesadilla dish.

2. Boil chicken in water for 20-30 minutes. This will be very plain so it’s good to pair with other ingredients when serving. It’s a much faster and easier way to cook it though. Great for the winter months when you might not be outside grilling.

3. 1-2 chicken breasts in the crock pot with 1-2 cups salsa (we use medium). I also add about 1 Tbsp. of taco seasoning. Cook on low for 2-3 hours, longer if frozen. Shred with a fork! I freeze this a lot of times to have for chicken recipes.

*I just keep the chicken in a baggie in the fridge!

I hope you found these meal ideas and recipes useful! I would LOVE to hear any ideas you have for feeding your toddler, whether it’s a meal, a snack, a cook book, or an idea that gets them to eat better. Other moms and dads are the best resources! Thanks to my “special moms” Facebook group for so much support and idea sharing. You’ve made this first year and a half SO much better!

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