Toddlers can be tricky creatures. One day they’re obsessed with a favorite food, and the next they refuse to let a single bite of the very same dish through their lips. One day they’re happy being spoon fed, and the next they insist on shoveling every spoonful to their mouth all by themselves. What’s a parent to do when you just want to make sure you’re getting nutritious food into your tot? I’ve compiled a few tried and true snacks that are (almost!) always bound to make my toddler excited about eating.
Bean “salad”
My major go-to for snacks or lunch is a bean salad. My toddler loves beans of all kinds, but you can use whatever you like best or have on hand. I often start with chickpeas, which are one of my favorites and are the perfect size for little fingers to pick up on their own. Add to the beans cut-up cherry tomatoes, chunks of cheddar cheese, and a dash of salad dressing, and you have a quick and easy nutritious meal that works for a finger snack or even a whole lunch. Bonus points for various colors and textures, which keep my little one interested.
Peanut butter rollup
There are so many things you can do with a tortilla. One of our favorites is to slather on a thin layer of peanut butter (or any kind of nut butter/spread) and roll it up tightly. My son loves “helping” to make this, because rolling it up seems so fun. You can also do this with jam, hummus, or cream cheese. Serve this as one long tube or sliced into small bite-sized disks, depending on the preference of your little prince or princess.
Pre-smoothed smoothies
Smoothies are an obvious quick, nutritious snack for kids — and one they often love since it feels a bit like a treat. But even if I have all the right fruits and berries on hand, it sometimes feels like a pain to prepare it all when it comes time to serve a smoothie. Especially when my son really drinks a pretty tiny amount at one sitting, and then the rest is a warm mush by the time I try to gulp it down myself later on.
One of my (perhaps laziest) mom hacks is to prepare a full batch of smoothie (use whatever your child likes — we’re fans of some combination of banana, blueberry, pineapple, mango, strawberry, plus yogurt, milk, or juice, then ice, a dash of oats to make it heartier, and some chia seeds and honey), and then once it’s all blended up, I pour what he’s going to drink now into a cup and put the rest into small containers to freeze. Later on, when I want to serve a quick smoothie, I simply add a little milk or water to the blender with a couple of frozen smoothie cubes and re-blend to smoothie form. You don’t need to wash multiple kinds of berries or even pick up a knife. It’s so easy I actually make smoothies multiple times a week!
Grab-and-go finger snacks
Another one of my fave quick snacks is edamame beans (that come frozen and shelled in a bag) — I pour a few into a pot to boil for a few minutes to make an instant snack. We also love dried fruits like mango and apple that are easy to hold and don’t need to be cut up. And carrot slivers, created by using the peeler to shave off super thin pieces, are, of course, so much more fun to eat than a regular carrot.
What are some of your favorite “toddler-approved” snacks? I need your ideas for the day mine are suddenly no longer acceptable to my little man (which is bound to happen eventually)!
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