Quick tea ideas for toddlers

[Mrsdoubtfireswig]

We’ve a change in routine coming up where I’m increasing hours at work and DS is increasing time at nursery to a couple of full days a week.

He will eat at nursery but his last food before pick up will be ‘high tea’ of something like crumpets and fruit or beans and toast around 3pm. I’ll be picking him up at 4.30 and need to squeeze in cooking, tea and bath in before bed at 7pm.

Any ideas for quick healthy-ish teas ? He’s a bit fussy but will eat pasta with sauce and also the usual chicken nuggets / fish fingers etc but would like to offer something more healthy and ideally that I can eat also

Scrambled egg on toast.
Boiled egg and soldiers.
Omelette with added veggies.

My toddler loves gnocchi with pesto and cream cheese, takes 10 mins and we like it too.

Noodles are really quick with stir fry veg (can buy frozen stir fry veg for quickness!) A bit of sesame oil, garlic, ginger and soy sauce, done!

I make a big pot of Bolognese sauce with tonnes of grated veg in and freeze little portions so you just need to add pasta.

Cheesey mash and beans

Wraps with cold roast chicken bits, grated cheese and chopped peppers and sweetcorn. Microwave spanish omelette/tortilla with beans and veg.

5 veg sauce from freezer with 4 min fresh pasta ( leek, carrot, yellow pepper, aubergine, courgette, tin tomatoes. Fry veg till soft, add toms cook 15 then blitz & freeze in portions) have plain, grate cheese on, stir philly cheese through to make creamy, add ham, defrosted prawns etc even used as pizza base - it’s the sauce that keeps on giving - add garlic, ginger, oregano, add precooked frozen mince & onions etc

I would do a mix of prepping meals at the weekend that can be pulled out of the freezer during the week (Eg mild curry, casserole, home made nuggets or fish cakes) and quick meals like stir fries, noodles, fried rice, pasta and sauce that you can pull together quickly. When I had a long commute and got home when ideally I would be serving dinner my slow cooker was a life saver. Mind you DS1 who is now 26 has very fond memories of fish fingers, beans and potato smilies that figured far too often in his diet when he was nursery age 😁

Avocado toast with and egg.

My toddler is in nursery until 6pm and has a snack tea there about 4.30pm and then doesn’t really have much else. He wouldn’t eat most the things on this thread! He mainly has breadsticks, carrot batons and hummus when he gets in... but doesn’t eat the carrot or hummus ☹️

DD was far better and hungrier. I’ve use a silicon muffin tray to make an extra 6 portions of stuff I was cooking and then freeze them and pop them into freezer bags. I’d end up with a great selection of mini fish pies, mini cauliflower cheese, curries, casserole. Basically tons of stuff that could be blitzed in the microwave. She was and is a great eater.

Just breadsticks for DS though and the occasional sausage if I’ve cooked a whole pack and have some spare....

Fish taco's (with fish fingers)
Egg muffins
Pita pizza
Steak and steam fresh veggies
Chicken (rotisserie) torn through noodle/rice with veggies
Chicken/steak, gravy, gnocchi in the oven or pan (like mini roasties)
Mini party pies with steam fresh veg
Bow pasta with peas, mint and ham
Soup
Dhal
Risotto
Chicken/prawn skewers
French toast
Toasties
Sandwich
Chicken satay/salad/rice
Taco lettuce cups with mince/bean mix

Mine really likes egg fried rice and it takes about 5 minutes. I fry various veggies - garlic, pepper, mushrooom, spring onion, frozen peas and add in either some Chinese five spice or Garam masala powder. Then add a microwave rice pouch (I don’t microwave it first) and a beaten egg.

Some great ideas here thank you !

I used to keep a portion of whatever DH and I had for dinner and serve it up to DD the next day - so risotto, shepherds pie, baked potato, etc. That meant I wasn't cooking 2 meals a day

Do you have a timer on your oven? That can be helpful if you pre-prepare the night before so it's done for when you get home - likewise a slow cooker.

Honestly OP, make life easy on yourself. As long as your DC is getting a balanced diet. Raw fruit/veggies plus one thing you can rattle up is fine. Or feed them a little if what you have. No-one died from eating the odd toastie for tea !