40 Toddler Food Ideas – 2 Weeks Worth of Meals!

40 Toddler Food Ideas – 2 weeks’ worth of realistic breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner ideas for your toddler and family!

Toddler Food Ideas

I didn’t intend to follow up on my original What My Toddler Eats post, but since it was such a big hit and readers kept emailing me asking me to add another addition, I decided to do another post showcasing what my toddler eats in the colder months. I was planning on doing this post in October.

Then life took over.
Then the kid’s colds took over.
Then the craziness of the holidays took over.

When I finally got back to work it was just after the holidays and instead of coming up with resolutions I know I would never stick with, I decided to just take photos of what my little one is eating these days. I knew it was one thing that my toddler and I could both stick with;)

And instead of just giving you one week, I really blew my ‘resolution’ out of the water and kept documenting what I was making and what Parker (who is 3), Elliette (who is 5), and myself (who is… um… let’s not go there) were eating for two weeks.

There are 10 meal ideas for every meal of the day. I left out the time we went to Chipotle or when I made them eat cereal with a mixture of half-and-half and water for dinner one night (not a proud moment). But otherwise, here are some healthy and toddler approved meals for the colder months. I will also mention, that we did not get hit by the big cold front, and so far our winter has been extremely mild and nice.

40 easy and delicious toddler recipes are yours for the taking! I included links to most of the recipes, but if I missed one, please let me know in the comments section below.

So I wanna know, what are your resolutions this year? Since I already killed my first and only resolution and it’s only mid-January I might to add another one to my plate.

Happy New Year! Let’s make it a fun and delicious one, shall we?

Toddler Breakfast Ideas

• Steel-cut oatmeal with cinnamon and maple syrup is served with toppings, chopped apples, craisins, and hemp seeds on the side for toddlers to add to the oatmeal or to eat alone.
• Blender Pumpkin Muffins with chocolate chips, chopped strawberries, and yogurt mixed with honey and chia seeds.
• Coconut Date Smoothie (coconut milk, 3-4 dried dates, hemp seeds, chia seeds, banana, and ice) and an English muffin topped with almond butter. This breakfast was for the car ride to preschool, cuz sometimes I just can’t get my act together in the early hours of the day;)
• Hard-boiled egg, bacon, and avocado chunks are hands-down my toddler’s favorite breakfast. Sometimes, I substitute the bacon for organic chicken breakfast sausage.
• DIY Yogurt Parfait – plain yogurt with strawberry jam swirled in and then served with granola with apples and blueberries on the side. My toddler eats everything separately, but my 5-year-old mixes them all together before she eats it. I find the more options you give your toddler, the more likely they will eat a certain food or meal. Also, once fresh organic berries are either out of season or too pricey for my budget, I simply thaw frozen berries, pat them dry with a paper towel, and my kids devour them (sometimes even more than fresh berries).
• Healthy Hot Chocolate Tumeric Milk (recipe coming soon) and paleo waffles with almond butter. I used this amazing mix for the waffles!
• Pumpkin Smoothie and cut strawberries.
• Scrambled eggs with cheese, cut avocado, and blueberries.
• 1/2 of egg breakfast burrito and pomegranate seeds. My hubby usually eats the other half, or I save it for another breakfast.
• Green tropical smoothie (spinach, banana, pineapple, milk of choice, hemp seeds, and ice) and cinnamon toast sticks (toast with butter, sprinkled with cinnamon, and then cut into sticks).

Toddler Snack Ideas

I like to carry my toddler’s snacks around in this small container so that I don’t have to lug around a ton of food with me on our daily outings. If you want even more toddler snacks ideas, then check out my post called 14 On-The-Go Toddler Snacks.

• Chopped blackberries, sliced carrots, and chopped Kashi granola bar are in our snack bento box.
• Hard-boiled egg, apple slices, and craisins.
• Trail Mix (chopped cashews, craisins, dried pineapple, sunflower seeds, and pistachios), mandarin orange sections, and string cheese.
• Mandarin orange, fruit/veggie pouch, and cheese stick. I was rushing out of the house and forgot to pack a snack box.
• Blueberries, snapeas, and chocolate coconut balls.
• Sliced dried dates, sliced Spanish cheese (leftover from a party we had; normally, I won’t go this fancy for my toddler’s snack), and raspberries.
• Pirates booty, sliced pears, and a yogurt tube.
• Sliced apples with a squeeze of lemon juice on them to help them stay fresh, turkey rollups and cut red peppers.
• Applesauce pouch, organic gummy chews (for potty training reward), and string cheese. Again, was on the run with this one.
• Blender Pumpkin Muffin, pear chunks, and feta cheese.

Toddler Lunch Ideas

• Turkey and cheese quesadilla (using leftover ground seasoned turkey from dinner), sliced red peppers, chopped grapes and gluten-free pretzels.
• Chopped grilled chicken with ranch dipping sauce, blueberries, and sliced cucumbers.
• Annie’s organic mac & cheese (or cheesy noodles as we call them) with finely chopped leftover chicken, cut carrot sticks and pomegranate seeds.
• DIY Lunchables – turkey, cheese, and crackers served with sliced cucumbers, mandarin orange sections, pomegranate seeds, and a gluten-free brownie. The brownie was a HUGE treat since I never give dessert for lunch, but we are potty training and thought it would be a nice celebration treat. Parker, devoured the cheese and totally ignored the brownie, so of course I ate it as a treat for having to clean up the potty training;)
• Dino almond butter and jelly sandwiches (here is the cutter I used), cut snap peas and carrots with ranch dip and pineapple chunks.
• Leftover spaghetti with chicken sausage tomato sauce, black olives, and pear chunks.
• Leftover chopped turkey meatballs with pesto ranch dip, rice, and pears chunks with raspberries.
• Leftover chicken and rice soup (served all mixed together; see below for more info), banana chunks, and steamed broccoli.
• Pepper sticks, carrots, broccoli, and pita chips with ranch hummus dip, strawberries, and a few chocolate-covered raisins.
• A container of Greek yogurt, granola, mixed berries, and a hard-boiled egg is a win with my toddler for breakfast for any meal.

Toddler Dinner Ideas

• Chicken and Rice Soup served separately with strawberry applesauce. I find that soup is sometimes very hard for toddlers to wrap their little heads around, too many things in one slushy bowl, so I will make a chunky soup and serve the rest of the family the soup as it was meant to be served (my 5-year-old will totally eat soup the normal way) but for my toddler I will separate the chunks into categories (chicken, rice, carrots, etc) for her to have an easier time eating. This sounds strange, but for my toddler, this totally works, and she devoured this meal.
• Skillet Sausage, Sweet Potato, Brussels Sprouts, and Apples are served separately, along with feta, toasted walnuts, craisins, and chopped blackberries. This skillet meal was adventurous for my toddler so I used the same method as I talked about above and used it with this veggie-packed meal. The rest of the family had the skillet mixed together and then a side kale salad with feta, walnuts, and craisins. My toddler was skeptical at first and ate what she was comfortable with (sausage, feta, and craisins), but then she saw us eating the other vegetables and joined in. She didn’t like sweet potatoes, but she tried them at least once.
• Pan Seared White Fish, rice, garlic green beans and pomegranate seeds. My kids will devour any white fish and this was no exception. This is a great recipe to introduce fish to your little one because it is lightly seasoned with a little crunch on the outside.
• Instant Pot Pumpkin Walnut Chili with cheese and lime, gluten-free cornbread, and cucumber slices.
• DIY Turkey Taco Bowl. I had ground turkey (beef would also work) with taco seasoning, rice, black beans, avocado chunks, sliced peppers, salsa, and cheese out on the kitchen counter, and everyone loaded up their own bowls. My entire family loves this meal, and I swear we have it at least once a week. I usually switch up the seasoning on the meat and the toppings a little each week to keep it fresh.
• Chicken Sweet Potato Nuggets (I rolled mine in gluten-free breadcrumbs before baking) served with ranch or ketchup, chopped spinach, avocado and feta salad, and blueberries. To be honest, I made this spinach salad because my older daughter and I were going to eat it but my toddler picked up some lettuce and exclaimed ‘I loooove spinach’ and then shoved a handful of it in her mouth. Made me realize that I even underestimate what my kiddos will eat.
• Sheet Pan Lemon Parmesan Garlic Chicken, Green Beans, and Potatoes for the win! I made ours gluten-free by just skipping the breadcrumbs and it still turned out great. I love sheet pan meals because they are fast to make and they have very little cleanup. For more sheet pan inspiration, check out my One Pot/Skillet Pinterest board here.
• Instant Pot Italian Meatballs with Veggie Tomato Sauce over pasta, steamed broccoli and cut pears.
• DIY Dipping Dinner – I placed leftover cooked but plain cheese tortellini, leftover chicken cut into cubes, carrot sticks, cucumbers, cut cherry tomatoes and warm breadsticks (basically everything I had leftover in my fridge from the week) along with 3 different dipping sauces (pesto ranch, tomato sauce and thai peanut dip) on the table and everyone got to make their own meal.
• Pizza Night – we loaded up some frozen gluten-free cheese pizzas up with pesto, chicken, olives and a little sprinkle of finely shredded spinach on top. We ate in the living watching a movie and had popcorn for dessert. Still healthy-ish and we all needed a fun night to connect and relax.

Get the recipe: 40 Toddler Food Ideas

4.3 stars (6 ratings)

2 weeks worth of healthy and realistic breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner ideas for your toddler and family!

Author: Michele Olivier

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save RecipeSaved!

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @babyfoode on Instagram and hashtag it #babyfoode!

Rate Recipe Pin Recipe Email a Friend