Ideas for Finger Foods Please

[hoolagirl]

Ok, ds does not want to be spoon fed any longer (he whispered this to me whilst chucking his dinner on the floor). After me slaving over a hot stove to cook nutrisous (cannot spell) meals!
He of course loves feeding himself which i am happy to let him do, but i just need some ideas on what to give him, have a few limited recipies for chicken sausages and have been feeding him birdseye vegtable fingers.
So any ideas for finger foods that are packed with vits for a 12 month old please??

Here are a couple of my standbys- frittata and homemade fish and chips for kids. They are very easy, quite cheap, filling and fairly healthy:

I used to make frittata for my two at this age (once you are happy with egg..)
Just like a big omelette with as much food as poss in it - Once you had made up the omelette mixture (usual - eggs, a littl emilk, knob of butter) I put in everything/anything I could find. Usual combo would be precooked potato cut into little squares, peas, toms, sometimes a little chopped meat etc and then cook like an omelette until set - don?t flip it, pop in oven half way through to cook fully.
When just warm, I used to cut half of it into fingers and the other half in half again for us to have with salad and spicy sauce. The fingers they don?t eat can be stored and eaten cold next day.

Another fingerfood we did a lot was to cook large pasta twirls, serve in a bowl just warm, with separate little bowl of a suitable dip - warm passata, maybe with grated cheese in it and some veg, sometimes with a mayo type dip. On the side I would have lightly cooked carrot sticks, green beans etc just warm again for dipping.

Make your own fish fingers and chips. Get well boned white fish fillet, cut into small fingers. Dip pieces in flour, then dip into beaten egg, then dip into whoelmeal breadcrumbs (just whizz 3 slices in processor/liquidizer). Once breaded, place on baking sheet lightly oiled, and will cook in hot oven for 12 mins - until fish is nice and white/not opaque.
To go with it I serve "chips" - a jacket pot cut into small wedges with skin on for older kids, off for tinies, part boiled ( 5 mins on good boil). Put these on a baking tray, spary with a light cooking oil and optional season with a sprinkle of paprika ( I think milder than pepper and better than salt). Bakes in 25-30 mins so do this before prepping fish.. Serve at temp that they can pick them up and dip into some passata ( my kids now believe passata is ketchup, poor things!) and some veggies like broccoli, beans etc that can be finger food too.

Excellent, thanks, off to stock up now!

My ds (11mo) will only be spoonfed a few things. I made a list for myself of everything he eats the other day; here it is -

any fruit or veg that can be cut into a vague chip shape
peas, broccoli, sweet pepper, green beans
lettuce, tomato, raw sweet pepper, raw mushroom
satsumas

cheese
sausages
sliced cold meat
chunks of slo-cooked chicken, beef etc (chews, sucks and spits out the remainder)
fishfingers
mince sauces if stuck in pasta twirls...

toast (with cheese spread, jam, peanut butter, melted cheese, butter, meat paste, tuna...)
boiled / baked potato
chips (Tescos do organic ones containing only potato and oil, or I make my own)
pasta twirls; tagliatelle; lasagne
noodles (its surprising what they can pick up in their fists)

breadsticks
biscuits
rice cakes
cake
hot cross bun

and spoonfed -
weetabix with fruit puree in
greek yoghurt with fruit puree mixed in
fromage frais
baby food jars aimed at 4-6 months (if desperate!)

30% of every meal ends up on the floor.

But I think this is an ok diet, and I don't actually have to prepare him anything special as long as I plan the family meals carefully. We don't eat rice much any more!

Dried prunes and apricots.

Sandwiches are a great thing I found.

Also another vote for the frittata (although I confess to flipping mine if its a mini one for DS as that's quicker). They are absolutely brilliant at using up leftovers too - yesterday DS had tuna pasta (his leftovers) and green bean frittata. As XmasPud says, cut it into sticks and stand back and admire!

Raisins too. I buy a big bag for when we are at home, but get those little Goodies boxes for out and about - always a snack to hand then.

Sainsburys sell little organic meatballs which I chop in half and serve with pasta, tossed in a vegetable sauce. Dd eats it all with her fingers.

I do the same with felafel (no idea how to spell it, but it's basically little balls made withonion and chickpeas).

Also, chopped up dried dates.

I LOVE this thread, it is perfect for me! I've been asking myself the same questions recently. Thanks

Soory to hijack your thread but (and this is probably a really stupid question) what do you give a 10 month old with no teeth as finger food?

Sticks of steamed veg, sticks of soft fruit, pitta bread, bread sticks, rice cakes. Babies' gums are really hard and they can chomp on relatively hard things. Just make sure you stay with them all the time just in case they choke!

mine only has his two lower centrals, and he manages to chew most things with his gums!!