Quick Meal Ideas for Toddlers

Hey mamas! Enjoying your New Year Holiday? We've been eating so much junk & comfort food for these past weeks & I'm so ready to get back on track. With that said, we've also been trying to get our little girl to actually eat something! Has anyone experienced the phase of toddlers refusing to eat what's in front of them?

We did some research & discovered why some tots do this: apparently, it could be that they've had that meal too many times before, the texture is new or weirds them out, or they've gotten a liking for a new taste of food recently so they really want that instead. Who knew they could be so picky?

Over the last few weeks, I've been quick-snapping photos on my iPhone of some easy meals for Hallie, & keeping photos of the ones that she actually eats. There's been a few nights when we had pizza or the stuffing from our Christmas dinner that I didn't get to capture, but she sure gobbled those up too!

Some tips that helped us get her to eat:

- cut sandwiches of any kind with a cookie cutter for a fun new shape

- roll up sliced meats for another new way of eating

- try putting foods into a tortilla

- toddler meal trays can help introduce the idea of plates as well as give them something new to eat off of other than just the highchair tray they're used to.

- food process the veggies & mix them into your meats, they'll never know!

So let's see some of the lunch & dinner meal ideas from what my 20 month old actually ate:

1. Turkey rollup tortilla, rasberries, & stick colby jack cheese.

2. Mac n Cheese, broccoli, & a diced apple.

3. Peanut butter & jelly sandwich cut with Christmas cookie cutters, 2 pears, & carrots/peas.

4. Fish Sticks, mixed fruit, & goldfish. (bbq sauce for dipping)

5. Rotini noodle spaghetti, blueberry muffin, & avocado. (I added veggies into her beef for her pasta by food processing them, then mixing them into beef meatballs before baking).

6. Sliced turkey, pepperoni, salami, crackers, & string mozzarella cheese.

7. Mac n Cheese, pease/carrots, & a fruit leather strip by the brand Good & Gather.

8. Angel Hair Spaghetti (cut into smaller lengths), corn/beans, & mixed fruit. (Again, I added veggies into her beef for her pasta by food processing them, then mixing them into beef meatballs).

These meals really helped Hallie try her foods in a new way, especially with the new plates. Time to create more variations for her lol. We also started her on Pediasure Organic shakes to help her get in her calories on the days that she's being extra picky, & boy does she love them! Hope you mamas get those picky tots to eat! I'd love to hear your tips & tricks on how you get your littles to eat. :)

-God Bless

Emily

**all Professional & iPhone images on this website are taken & owned by Emily Lollar Photography unless otherwise stated.