Finger food suggestions for 1yo

[Gloria42]

Hi

DS (12months) has decided he is a big boy now and will now only eat what he can pick up himself .
There are only so many chicken dippers and meatballs a boy can eat, even if they are lovingly handmade by his DM (i.e. me!) so any suggestions / recipes would be much appreciated

my DS 11mths (aswell as DS1 4yrs and DD2.5yrs) likes:

cheese on toast
sardines and cheese on toast
omlette (to which you could add various things for variety eg cheese/bits tomato/ham etc)
pasta with various sauces(twirls are the easiest IMO to hold)
goujons of fish
fishcakes...I make nice tuna ones

I recommend a great book - Finger Food for Babies and Toddlers by Jennie Maizels. Get it from library. Loads of great ideas...

But tbh most food can be eaten with fingers! (even rice, baked beans...)

(non-messy-ish) ideas off top of head
quiche
spanish omelette
homemade pizza
sandwiches
cucumber sticks
eggy bread (with dips - my top tip is to introduce tomato Passata as 'ketchup'. We even have ours in an old ketchup bottle. She loves it and can eat loads - and it's pure tomato so another veg. You can of course mix with sugar/vinegar to make ketchup but dd laps it up without)

pasta (you can stuff sauce into shells)
jacket potato
sandwiches
vegetable chips (roast in the oven)

I generally do whatever I am having, but varied to take account of his allergies - yesterday ds ate scrambled egg and baked beans on toast. and he loves tuna-mayo - just picks it up and shovels it in! and they do get less messy..

Thanks for the ideas, especially the "ketchup"! Will get my cooking hat on ASAP!

my two love potatoes in any form....but their faves are stuffed potatos or crispy skins with dips...

i cook a handful of jacket potatoes, cut 3 in half and use the flesh inside to mix with tuna mayo, sour cream and chives, sometimes a bit of leftover chilli, then stuff the skins with the mixture (my kids like two halves for lunch of 2 different flavours...and i love eating them too) top with cheese and oven bake until cheese is melted.

with the other 2 potatoes i use the flesh for the tea that night and use the skins...i cut then into quarters, make sure there is little flesh on the skins and roast in the oven till crispy....ideal to keep in the fridge for a snack the next day with a bit of sour cream dip....or salsa dip...

yummy!!!

i've found you can eat almost anything with your fingers if you put your mind to it. ds certainly does anyway. here are a few ideas.

Breakfast:

porridge pancakes
eggy bread
muffins
crumpets with cheese
toast with cream cheese
greek yoghurt
boiled egg with soldiers
scrambled egg
poached egg
omelette
bagel with cream cheese
cheese on toast
random pieces of ham and cheese

occasionally:

pancakes
bacon
sausage
bacon and egg mayo sarnies

Lunch:

quiche
egg or cheese on toast
slices of ham, chicken, beef etc
omelette (cooled and cut into squares)
use tortilla wraps or pitta bread instead of bread to make a wrap instead of a sandwich.
rice cakes
home-made crumpets with cheese
bread sticks and cheese
rice and vegetables
pasta with sauce
savoury pancakes
risotto
mac cheese
cheesy flapjack

Dinner: takes a bit more time than the other meals but generally we rotate this sort of list.

courgette fritters
chickpea burgers
quesadillas
kedgeree
chicken kievs
chicken with pesto
turkey twizzlers
cheese and courgette muffins
fish cakes
fish fingers
chicken goujons
sausages
chicken curry
burritos
fajitas
curried eggs with rice

there are loads of recipes on here

oh and mini pizzas.

croquettes (my dd liked chicken ones, but fish ones are also nice)

Love the ketchup idea. Mine eat the organic stuff from health food shops but I never thought of such a great idea as passata!

My DS likes little baby sweetcorns, carrot sticks dipped in houmous, ryvita and marmite, falafels, Cauldron Lincolnshire vegetarian sausages, fish fingers, smooth peanut butter on toast, Cauldren Tofu marinated in Ginger and Soy sauce (it comes marinated in little cubes, very tasty and easy to pick up), pizza, Goujons of Quorn, it's all abit veggy but I'm sure non veggy kids will like it too. All easy to pick up for a one year old. Those pasta parcels from Sainsburys come in lots of flavours and very easy to pick up. Twiglets. Quiche, rice cakes.

not sure twiglets would be very good aren't they very very salty?

we use this for tom ketchup -

• 4 cups tomatoes
• 2 cups vinegar
• 2 chopped red peppers
• black pepper
• 1.5 teaspoons dry mustard
• 2 teaspoons mixed spices