What did you give your toddler for lunch today?

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And what will you be feeding them for dinner while we're on it?!

I need new ideas for my 2.5 year old rather than relying on my usual 'go to' options.

I'm saving this thread. DS's diet has taken a turn for the worst this week as he's been really poorly with fever (viral infection I think) and all he wants to eat is biscuits and cereal and squash. Not ideal.

Breakfast was branflakes with raisins.

Lunch was tinned veg soup bit of a baguette, vegan cheese (she has a dairy intolerance) and cucumber sticks.

Dinner was turkey dinosaurs, alphabites and peas.

Not a particularly exciting food day now I look back at it!

18 months here:

B - toast with peanut butter and a kiwi
L - porridge muffins, crisps, banana, dried strawberries, apple, raisins, ritz biscuits
D - tofu saag with rice and naan

Today:
Muitigrain hoops for breakfast

No snack, so are a full adult sized takaway sausage buttie for lunch as she was hungry
Banana and a small portion of cake for afternoon snack

Meatballs in tomato sauce with broccoli and sugarsnap peas for dinner, left the potatoes
She's late falling asleep tonight and has complained she's hungry, so she's just had an oaty bar

17 month old daughter.
Beans on toast, mango and raspberries and cucumber and tomatoes.
The beans on toast were devoured, the mango and raspberries picked at and the cucumber and tomato thrown on the floor. Oh well.

lunch was baked egg "muffins" ham pepper and cheese, and tea was homemade bolognese but with tagliatelle instead of spaghetti

Cauliflower cheese for dinner. It's a weekly one for us. I also put in brocoli, bacon, and peas. Sometimes sausages. For dinner I give the kids what we have but if we eat late or its not suitable, I do beans on toast, or dippy egg, or baked potato and beans, or pasta with cheesy sauce and peas.

Often dc get a banana sandwich or peanut butter sandwich for lunch..or they get leftovers.

My dc LOVE their big bowl of porridge for breakfast which takes my anxiety away as I know they've had a full belly already. DS is currently against eating meals and I'm unimaginative.

Breakfast: cereal (shreddies and apricot wheats...and some of Mummy's granola)

Lunch: picky plate with tomato, cucumber, sliced apple, raisins, bread sticks, 'hard cheese' (cheddar slices), cracker and cream cheese to spread on themself.

Snack: hot cross bun with butter

Dinner: sausage, swede, peppers casserole with mash. Pudding: apple and mango fruit pouch, yoghurt.

Wetherspoons jacket potato & beans for lunch. Pizza, garlic bread and salad veg for dinner.

Really healthy day. 🙃

Pesto pasta with ham and tomatoes for lunch and strawberry yogurt

About 5 quavers and a stick of watermelon

Sweet potato and spicy chicken with peppers and broccoli for tea

She also ate a fistful of sand at the beach but I dont think that counts nutritionally

DD is 2.5

Lunch was scrambled eggs on toast (was actually half a toasted bagel from the freezer as I realised we’d run out of bread), a mini corn on the cob left over from yesterday, and some blueberries

Dinner was beef stew with peas and carrots.

Both went down well but could have been declared yuk and refused on a different day - they like to keep you guessing don’t they?

Eggs of most kinds are usually an easy win for lunch though - just not if I serve them in omelette form, then she doesn’t want to know.

Lunch: Sourdough bread, with marge, couple of slices of red Leicester cheese, few cherry tomatoes. He ate all the cheese and had a bit of seconds of it, and about half the bread and that's it. He had a large snack in the morning though, so I think he just wasn't that hungry at lunchtime.

Dinner: assortment of stuff from a vegetarian Chinese takeaway...! followed by about half of a blueberry muffin.

I promise not every day looks like this though thankfully!

Four year old:
B - porridge with peanut butter, glass of milk, yogurt
Snack - packet of mini Jammie dodgers
Lunch - chicken bagel, rice pudding
Snack - strawberries, ice lolly
Dinner - was offered vegetables rice and corn on the cob but didn't eat it. Had a bowl of sugar free cereal instead.

I struggle with the four year old tbh -
His diet is pretty plan and repetitive and he's suspicious of new foods

18 month old
Breakfast - porridge with peanut butter, half a satsuma, strawberries. Greek yogurt
Snack - rice cakes and raspberries
Lunch - Ella's kitchen meal, mango and strawberries
Dinner - pasta bolognaise with cheese. Greek yogurt.

20 months old over here.

For lunch, DD had beef meatballs with miso soup, rice and a side of corn.
For dinner, she had Peruvian chicken with garlic butter rice and grapes

Ham and cheese sandwich, he had one bite. He then had some roast potatoes with a dipping pot of cauliflower cheese!

He is so fussy with us, but is apparently an amazing eater at nursery, will try everything and often asks for seconds!

Yesterday for 17mo DD:

B: Untouched blueberry shredded wheat and untouched banana, grapes which she kept asking for more of. She’s usually a good breakfast eater so think she was feeling funny.

S: Organix carrot cake bar

L: In a cafe with not much on offer so was a bit of vegan square sausage and potato scone and Pom bears, she didn’t eat any of it except a few Pom bears. Offered a peanut butter and jam croissant when we got home and that was untouched too.

S: A hobnob

D: Mashed sweet potato, mini veggie burgers from paxo burger mix, corn and green beans. She ate loads! Everything except the green beans and a bit of the corn. Had seconds of the burgers. Had soya yoghurt and kiwi for dessert and had seconds of the yoghurt.

Not the healthiest day but I’m more relaxed at the weekend, today she’s having porridge with almond butter and blueberries then lunch at nursery and dinner with her grandparents.

Yesterday for DD 2.5

Breakfast - 1 weetabix with milk, half a piece of granary toast, blueberries
Snack - malted milk biscuit and some grapes
Lunch - Random selection in one of those section trays - mini corn on the cob, apple slices, small handful of raisin wheats, hard boiled egg, cracker with butter - ate it all apart from the cracker
Snack - rice cake with peanut butter
Dinner - couple of olives, pasta bake which started out as tuna pasta bake with sweetcorn but I was using up other veg so had added sweetcorn, mushrooms, peas and red pepper. She picked the red pepper out as expected but the rest went down well and she had seconds.

Today for breakfast I made porridge with grated carrot, apple and courgette, also put in ground almonds, milled seeds and a handful of sultanas. She absolutely loves this (and it’s not that much work as I use the grater on my food processor which lives on the worktop ready anyway, and only needs a quick rinse out) - I sometimes do it for an easy dinner after the childminders or lunch too. You can make a big batch and keep in fridge for a few days. Can add nut butter, Greek yoghurt, different fruits or seeds.

DS 2.5
Breakfast - 2 slices of wholemeal toast with almond butter and flaxseed
Snack - banana and pretzels
Lunch - sunbutter and jam roll ups with a boiled egg, kidney beans, olives, strawberries and a yoghurt
Snack - carrot and dried apricot flapjack
Dinner - chicken & tomato dahl and cantaloupe

Yesterday 20 month old:
b - 2x Oatibix with peanut butter and half a banana
l - wrap pizza, a seeded wrap topped with tomato purée, vegan cathedral city cheese, sweetcorn and onion
d - tofu saag, red lentil and lemon dhal and garlic paratha - only ate the tofu and the bread

snacks - beans on toast after soft play and a bag of chickpea crisps

Lunch is normally a sandwich, beans on toast or soup with fruit or yogurt.

Dinner at the moment is tomato spaghetti, chilli and rice, cauliflower and broccoli cheese, shepherdess pie, chicken curry.

Today has been an awful eating day 🙈
Rejected: anything remotely healthy or fresh 😭

Breakfast: shreddies
Lunch: spaghetti hoops on toast, 2 yoghurt tubes
Dinner: shreddies again, hot cross bun, fruit puree pouch
Snacks: peanut butter cookie, yo-yo bear

I think toddler is feeling under the weather or teething, 2nd molars are coming through!

That doesn't sound too awful, could be a lot worse

Today was

At childminders (where she always eats everything)
Breakfast - Cheerios, toast, raspberries
Snack - Brioche, apple
Lunch - Chicken, mash, carrots, sweetcorn, gravy, 2 yoghurt tubes
Snack - 1/2 a waffle, watermelon and raisins

Dinner at home - Vegetable chilli. Wouldn’t touch this last time so this time I took her portion out and blended it, then added the kidney beans to the blended sauce. Told her it was beans and topped with grated cheese. She liked this version! Served with rice and mixed grains from one of those lazy microwave sachets.

She also had a chocolate crispy cake she’d made at childminders.

Hope people keep posting, I really like seeing different ideas!

First breakfast : weetabix (1 oval)
Second breakfast: scrambled egg wrap (half a wrap)
Lunch: cheesy chips (small, not all eaten)
Dinner: caponata

Milk and water throughout the day.

Thanks for all the other ideas, it is hard having a variety of dishes when they then decide they dislike them after having lived them. 🤪🤪

Today:

B - toast with peanut butter and a banana 2 pieces
S - pear
L - seeded wrap with tomato purée, vegan cheese and sweetcorn ate all of this
S - vegan chocolate buttons (as big sister brought home a chocolate crispy cake from preschool!)
D - pasta with tomato & spinach sauce, avocado and pepper salad, ate all of this too

posting this makes me realise that he’s having the same breakfasts/ lunches too much so will be using some more of these ideas!