Lunch times with toddlers can feel a little like Groundhog Day - another day of sandwiches that you end up picking up off the floor.
What can you give them that will liven things up a bit, are fast to prepare, and will pack a punch for toddler taste buds and healthy eating?
We’ve narrowed down the options to our favourite 15 tasty lunch ideas for toddlers...
1. Cauliflower Cheese Bites
Most toddlers love cauliflower cheese, but oh boy the mess can be something else. By turning this classic favourite in to a fritter, the problem is solved. Find the recipe here.
2. Egg Cups
Omelettes are another great lunch solution that doesn’t quite work for toddlers. Instead, cook up their favourite omelettes in a muffin tray as ‘egg cups’ and you’ve got a morsel they can handle.
3. Homemade Fish Fingers
We all want to reach for the freezer at times, but homemade toddler-friendly fish goujons are a great alternative. Get your little one in on the act of making them for some brilliant messy play. We love this simple but tasty Chunky Fish Finger recipe.
4. Pizza Pockets
Homemade pizzas can be healthy and a huge hit, but with toddlers they can also spell chaos for cleaning up. Make things easier by turning homemade pizza in to ingenious pockets, perfect for little hands.
5. Apple, Cheddar and Peanut Butter Sandwiches
There’s nothing wrong with a sandwich now and then, but if you’re fed up of yours being rejected, try some different fillings. This concoction seems too much for little ones to resist.
6. Toddler-tastic Noodles
There’s something about noodles and toddlers that make them a perfect pairing. Toddler food guru, Annabel Karmel, has a brilliant toddler-friendly noodle recipe.
7. Hummus and Crudités – Toddler Style
Give toddlers a dollop of hummus and you soon discover garlicky goo in every crease of the high chair, or worse, their hair. Serve it up in a little jar or plastic cup, and your dishcloth will thank us. Bulk it up for the hungry toddler by adding some breadsticks.
8. Egg in the Hole Toast
Eggs are a fantastic lunch option for growing toddlers. Give them a protein boost by serving up an egg inside their toast. Use whatever biscuit-cutter that will appeal to your child, and give them the offcuts for dipping.
9. Fruity Veggie Muffins
If you have a stubborn veggie refuser on your hands, cook up a batch of these muffins. They won’t realise they are chomping in to courgette and carrot, and even better, they freeze well.
10. Pizza Puff Pinwheels
This might be an ‘adult’ recipe, but puff pinwheels make for an ideal easy lunch. Follow this recipe for cheese, ham and tomato, or make up your own. We find pesto works a treat.
11. Chicken rollups
Stuff them with whatever you like, but this chicken and avocado wrapticks all the nutrition boxes. If unwrapping wraps has resulted in tantrums that were yours, not your toddlers, whip up some of this edible glueto keep the wrap firmly closed before it makes it to the hatch.
12. Pasta with Hidden Veg Sauce
If your toddler thinks vegetables are akin to poison, then it’s time to get creative. Rustle up this pasta sauce and watch them eat their 5-a-day without the strops.
13. Stuffed Potato Skins
Jacket potatoes make such a brilliant lunch, but they aren’t exactly kind on toddler knife and fork skills. Instead, load some skins and you’ve got a solution.
14. Cheese Straws
Toddlers just love to munch on something on the move. For little bods, too busy to sit still for lunch, load their mitt with some homemade cheese straws.
15. Cheesecake Dip and Fruity Skewers
Who says it all has to be savoury? Round off the end of lunch time with a delicious cheesecake dip with some seasonal fruit. Just watch those sticks, but we know you’ll be desperate to eat up the remnants of this one anyway.
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