Toddler meal ideas

[BirdIsland]

I need some inspiration on what to feed 16 month old DD. She apparently eats anything and everything at nursery, but is getting increasingly picky at home with me - just wants to eat cheese, carrots, fruit and biscuits 🤨

We eat late so don't eat with her, and tend to eat things that aren't really suitable for her, so I like to batch cook and freeze portions for her. Any ideas for new lunch/dinner recipes that might encourage her to eat a bit more? She is even turning her nose up at cheesy pasta these days!

Mine likes eggs, omelette, scrambled on toast, dippy. They are fairly quick and relatively healthy.

Pasta sauces? Cheesy is their favourite. But I do a tomato and veg sauce, basically sweat down onion, carrot, peppers, courgette (whatever you have), add Passata, herbs and then I blitz mine so it's smooth. That freezes well. Mine like it with a bit of grated cheese or some shredded chicken.

Pizza. You can make an easy dough which freezes well (I think it's a recipe on Sainsburys website). Or use tortilla wraps as a base. Or just buy the ready done ones, I think the Tesco kids pizza has carrot in the bases so it makes me feel better 😂

Cheats toad in the hole! Sausages with the Aunt Bessies bake at home yorkies. Some veg from the freezer and gravy and it's a decent quick dinner.

I make things like cottage pie, mild chilli or curry, fish pie. They all freeze really well.

My 18 month old has taken a liking to cheese toasties not the healthiest but ok as a treat. Lovely with tomato soup! Messy though!

My 5 year old always asks for a picnic for dinner. So bits of quiche, cherry tomatoes/veg, cubes of cheese, some crackers, mini sausages.

I found my 18 month old just wants to feed herself, so it wasn't the food she didn't like, it was me trying to help feed her.

She definitely prefers feeding herself, unless she's feeling lazy then just hands the spoon to me 😂 I like the idea of toad in the hole, I tried a similar tomato pasta sauce to yours last night and she chucked it all on the floor!

Enchiladas freeze well.
Cauliflower cheese
Tuna pasta bake
Fish cakes and falafel are both ideal for batch cooking and freezing, then just pop them in the oven and serve with veg/salad and toasted pita bread.
I also like too batch cook a chicken tagine because it lends itself to being served with cous cous which is soooo easy to prep!
When in a real hurry but want to get some veg in I buy the stir fry veg packs from the supermarket and serve with cooked chicken pieces, add tinned pineapple and sweet chilli sauce and rice noodles.
Also do a chicken, ham and leek bake with a creamy sauce and topped with mash.
Veggie sausage casserole.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/creamy-chicken-stew

Made this for our 1 year old recently. We all ate it, but plenty left to freeze for other days for baby. Used low salt stock and chicken breast instead of thighs for ease. Served with mash.

What sort of things do you and your partner eat? Could you take a bit out for DD before you add the salt/spices or add a bit of plain yoghurt to cool them down?

DS2 (14m) likes chicken tikka with a bit of yoghurt dipped on, and DS1 really likes mackeral which is quite strong tasting.

(Both hate soup though much as I've tried to get them to eat it)

Include her in the family dinner and she will eat a lot more Nothing is unsuitable at that age as long as no salt added

The best thing you could do is model good eating behaviours by sharing mealtimes with her.

Eating on your own is never fun.

Use coconut milk etc to reduce spicyness, or just don't add spice to hers.

Anything dippy, mezze, pasta and sauces, meat and veg that she can feed herself, mild curries with nan.

Thanks for all the suggestions. We eat quite a bit of spicy food, and actually don't eat much meat but use Quorn instead which I read wasn't recommended for toddlers as its actually quite low calorie for its bulk IYSWIM.

I maybe need to be a bit more adventurous with her, and try and eat with her. I suppose I could just eat a bit of whatever she's having and have 'proper' dinner later - I'll end up the size of a house!

Yeah the veg sauce can taste quite bitter depending on the veg used. I do add a little bit of sugar sometimes, it's probably a teaspoon for around 8 portions so not loads. But it does help.

We struggle to eat with the kids. They like to eat early at around 5, dh doesn't get home from work until 6:15. We eat together on his days off. Often at lunch time my 18 month old will eat from my plate rather than her own. She's tried more that way than giving her a plate of her own.

My DS is 22 months old. We generally have herby chicken homemade tomato sauce with pasta, vegetable or meat Lasange with salad, Toad in the hole with broccoli and mash potatoes, lentil curry and rice (he loves this one) Cheesy vegetable pasta bake, chicken, lamb or beef in gravy, vegetables and mash potatoes.

We eat together Friday to Monday them he eats at Grandparents whilst we work, Nanny will have a little bit with him if it's not meat based (she eats fish) and he eats better when she eats with him.

I would just adjust what you're eating and only cook one meal (take some out for her to have the next day if you cook late). Realistically, you don't need to eat spicy food every day. But if you do, then now's a good time to figure out how to make it suitable for her palate, because you'll be needing to feed her for at least the next 16+ years, so it's good for her to get used to the foods you eat as a family. Or just try new things - pasta, stew, tacos, fajitas, all suitable for a toddler. Mine had a curry last night. Tonight we're having sausages and mash (you can get veg sausages that don't have to be quorn). Mine both love lentil stew if you're trying to avoid meat and I usually make a big pot of it and we have it two nights in a row (it's that much of a favourite). It's so much easier to just make one meal. My littlest one has always stayed up and eaten late with us, so it's one dinner time as well, which is a lot less faffing about.