Toddler lunch ideas

[wehumans]

I’m looking for lunch ideas for my toddler. I usually do a sandwich, yogurt and some fruit but I think I need to include more variety. What do you do for your toddlers lunches?. Ideally I’m looking for cheap and quick, I don’t mind cooking but I’d prefer stuff like pasta that could be done in 10 mins.

Omelettes (You can add what you like, my go to is usually pepper and cut up ham)

Egg Bites Mini Egg Bites with Cheese (3 Ingredients + Freezer Friendly) (Make ahead and then freeze)

Eggy cheese crumpets https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/eggy-cheese-crumpets
Beans on toast
Noodles https://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/mummys-pot-noodle/
Oat fingers https://rebeccawilson.com/recipe/savoury-oaty-fingers/
Cheese scone and marmite

DC2 particularly liked Eggy Bread as a Toddler or "Bits" which was literally bits of whatever we had in assembled on a plate or in an ice cube tray.

Leftovers from the night before are also good.

You could try scrambled egg with some halved cherry tomatoes on the side.

Mashed avocado on white toast.

Beans on toast or cheese on toast.

If you fancy doing a bit of batch cooking you could try some fish cakes which will freeze.

A lot of son’s lunches are comprised of “stuff”. Which essentially means i am ill prepared and don’t always remember to sort something in advance.

Stuff frequently includes crackers/bread sticks which he likes to dip in a big pile of hummus. Whatever bits of meat we have in the fridge. A pile of whatever fruit is edible and maybe one or two of those little chocolate animal biscuits.

depends what he’s going to have for dinner but will quite often do jacket spud with beans or whatever is in the cupboard.

Hummus with bread sticks or oatcakes, carrot, red pepper and cucumber sticks

Soup can be great especially in winter I make big batches and freeze

Thank you for the ideas everyone. I’m going to make a meal plan for our lunches for next week.

Fish fingers, mashed potatoes and a green veg.
Pasta with cheese sauce and salad.
Sausage, potatoes and mashed carrot and swede.
Leftover Sunday lunch reheated in gravy.
Shepherd's pie.
Cottage pie.
Dhal and rice.
Potato egg nests (poached egg in a "nest" of creamed potato/root veg.) with spinach.
Very thick veg. and lentil soup with some pesto.
Fish pie.
Fishcakes (both home made).
Cornish pasty.
Curry and poppadums.
Thai fishcakes and salad.
Leftover boeuf bourguignon and gratin dauphinois.
Ditto leftover wild boar in red wine with potato and celeriac puree (both the above with a green veg and generally after we have had a dinner party).
Ratatouille.
Spanish omelette made with potatoes, onions and red peppers or any leftover veg.
Meatballs in sauce, could be polpette or Swedish style.
Meatloaf and mushroom sauce with potatoes and a veg or salad.
Mapu tofu.

Pudding usually fruit or Greek yogurt (full fat) with a spoonful of home-made compote. If we have had a dinner party there might be leftovers like chocolate mousse or fruit pavlova or even a fruit crumble and cream or custard.

Apart from the inevitable fish fingers in the freezer, everything is home made. Sometimes the fish fingers are home made too.

Forgot to add that liver and bacon is quite popular, too.
Hard boiled eggs in mustard sauce (we are not in the UK).
Rösti.
Welsh rarebit and salad.
I have good eaters, so could go on. Basically they eat what we eat and what is local to where we live.

Nothing fancy or requires a lot of cooking here. We always home cook our dinners and don’t really want to cook a big meal twice in a day. It’s usually something like:

• bagel with toppings like cream cheese and ham or tuna sweetcorn
• crumpets or crumpet pizza in air fryer
• wraps with fillings and salad
• tomato soup with cheese toastie
• pasta with tomato sauce and cheese
• mashed avocado on toast
• Dippy egg and soldiers
• quesidillas (wraps with various fillings folded and fried for a couple of mins in the frying pan each side)
• spaghetti hoops on toast with cheese
• beans on toast with cheese

Then usually some Greek yoghurt, veggie sticks or bit of fruit alongside

Can I come and eat lunch at your house because that all sounds delicious!

Dts loved mini quiche at that age, bake in bulk and freeze.

Eggy bread
egg and soldiers
Beans on toast
cheese and broccoli pasta
spaghetti hoops or beans with egg and waffles

@Fridgetapas Certainly, but you have to wash your hands before lunch, sit up and eat properly and ask if you may get down when you have finished (and others have not finished).
Where we live, lunch is the main meal. We do do suppers, that are not typical of the country, but are much lighter than a UK version.

We look after our 18 month old granddaughter once a week, and she has one of these -

sausage, mash, 2 vegetables
spaghetti bolognese, garilic bread
Fishfingers, potato croquettes, 2 vegetables
cheese omelette, baby tomatoes, carrot sticks
Dairylea sandwich, cucumber sticks, a few Wotsits

Dessert is a Yollie, yogurt and a satsuma

eatingwithzion and yummylittlebelly (underscore after yummy and little which won't work on this post for some reason?!) on Instagram both have fab ideas for toddler lunches and snacks. Definitely worth a follow. I use lots of their recipes for my DGS.

Brilliant, thank you will give these a look!

I quite often do rice with steamed salmon or prawns and a little teriyaki sauce with whatever veg happens to be in the fridge or freezer at the time. Use the leftover rice to make egg fried rice the following day, again using up veg and adding some protein.