Easy, realistic toddler meal ideas for everyday, busy moms. The best toddler meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snack ideas!
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Our son has always been an amazing eater. He likes almost everything we give him. I think one of the reasons is that I give him a wide variety of foods.
A few weeks ago I was searching on Pinterest for toddler meal ideas, and most of what came up were complicated recipes or clean eating things.
Let’s get real. I am fine serving my son frozen chicken nuggets. If he has some high fructose corn syrup, he’s going to be okay. And I think that most moms are probably with me!
I wanted to share some easy (and real) toddler meal ideas, straight from Little J’s menu, in the hopes that it gives other real moms helpful ideas for more things to feed their toddlers.
One note: I try and give Little J a variety of food groups at each meal; specifically proteins, dairy, fruits, and veggies. It’s easy to get carbs and fat in the diet, but you have to consciously decide to give them the other ones. It’s really helpful to have the little plates with the dividers on them. That way you have to have more than just one thing!
So that being said, here are ideas for each meal and snacks!
Breakfast Toddler Meal Ideas
Breakfast is easily Little J’s best meal. He always eats a huge breakfast, which is nice because he starts his day off on a good note. He almost always asks for more of whatever I give him.
I usually give him a few suggestions for breakfast and then he tells me what he wants. If your toddler can do this, then it’s a great way to give him some independence.
For breakfast I usually give Little J milk, one fruit, and a main dish. Some days he gets two different things because he loves breakfast that much and will easily eat it all.
Here are some of the things he loves:
- Waffles (usually frozen and warmed in the toaster
) & syrup
- Pancakes & syrup
- Toast & butter/jelly/peanut butter/nutella
- Scrambled eggs
- Cereal & milk
- Yogurt
- Bagel & cream cheese
- Muffins or toddler muffins
- Oatmeal
) & syrupLunch Toddler Meals
Lunch is sometimes a little harder, but he usually ends up eating all that I give him. For lunch he gets a veggie, a fruit, milk, and then his main dish. Here are some ideas:
- Chicken nuggets & BBQ sauce
- Corn dog
& fry sauce
- Hot dogs (cut up small) & ketchup
- Grilled cheese
- Cheese or shredded chicken quesadilla
- PB&J sandwich
- Tortellini with butter & parmesan or with tomato sauce
- Macaroni & cheese
- Sandwich with deli meat & cheese
- Peanut butter on crackers
- Cheese & crackers
- Meatballs
- Fish sticks
- Scrambled eggs
- Mini pizza rolls
- Leftovers
& 
Dinner Toddler Meals
For dinner, he almost always gets what we are having. Sometimes if it’s something like soup he has something else because he’s not quite good enough with a spoon. But usually, he gets whatever we are having, plus milk, a fruit, and a veggie. I’m not going to make a list of dinner ideas because we eat a lot of things!
Fruits and Veggies
One thing that I like to do is give Little J drained fruit cups from the store. It’s super easy to serve him those, and it takes ten seconds of preparation.
For veggies, I use either a steamed veggie, or I microwave a cup of frozen vegetables. Again, super easy and it takes a minute to heat them up. I know it can be hard to get your toddler to eat more vegetables, but just keep trying.
Here are some of his favorite fruits and veggies (also, I know he doesn’t like a ton of veggies yet, but we’re hopeful he’ll like broccoli and green beans one day!):
Fruits
- Apples
- Bananas
- Oranges
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Bananas
- Pears
- Peaches
- Pineapple
- Grapes
- Watermelon
- Cantaloupe
- Raspberries
Veggies
- Corn
- Carrots
- Sweet potatoes
- Mixed veggies (frozen and warmed in the microwave)
- Peas
- Cucumbers
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Green beans
Okay, so I know you must be thinking, those all sound great, but that’s impossible to do for every meal!
Yes, it is hard. And that’s okay.
Not every meal is going to be perfect and have a fruit and a veggie. Sometimes your toddler is going to be the worst and decide he suddenly hates everything on his plate. And in those cases, we usually just leave his plate out (or put it in the fridge) and when he gets hungry, we offer it to him again.
I don’t want Little J to become a picky eater, so if he doesn’t eat what is on his plate, he doesn’t get a different meal. And that usually works. Sometimes he’s just not hungry when we eat and he will eat later. But most of the time, he is a great eater.
Snack Ideas
One last thing. Let’s talk about healthy snacks for toddlers. We usually give our son a little of something in one of his bowls and he will eat it while he plays. That kid loves snacks. Here are some of what we give him:
- Pretzel chips
- Pretzels
- Yogurt tubes
- Fruit snacks
- Goldfish
- Cheezits
- Fruit squeeze packets
- Graham crackers
- Crackers (Ritz
or Club
)
- Freeze-dried fruit
- Cheese sticks
- Veggie straws
- Animal crackers
- Granola bars
- Raisins
- Breadstick cheese dippers
- Nilla wafers
- Teddy grahams
- Cereal
or Club
)
Side note, we also love using plates that separate each food
I hope that is helpful! Like I said, not every meal is going to be perfect, and that’s okay. Just keep trying new things, because even if your toddler hates chicken one day, he could love it a few days later. Toddlers are crazy like that.
So good luck in your feeding adventure, and I hope some of these toddler meal ideas have inspired you!
Kersten Lindhardt says
Haha- toddlers do change their minds fast about food don't they?! So opinionated for being so small!! This is a great list- perfect for days I'm pulling a blank on what to make!!
Chelsea says
I know! I guess that just means they are going to be strong willed and independent when they are older! I definitely have those days too, so it helps to have a list written down!
Sarah says
Thanks for the tips! I struggle with always offering the same foods to my picky toddler. He refuses to eat meat which makes life really interesting. I'm pretty sure he would live off of goldfish if I let him!
Chelsea says
You're welcome! I know what you mean! Just don't give up offering him meat! That's what my parents did with me and I ended up a vegetarian. So keep trying!
Kimberly White says
None of the pictures worked for me…Can you check out your links for your pictures?
Chelsea Johnson says
I know! I just made a big change on my blog and all my pictures got deleted. I am working on uploading them, but I have over 100 posts so it is going to take me a few days!
Rayla says
Hi Chelsea, I saw this on Pinterest and enjoyed reading it. I feed my 27 month old almost exactly the same way (target protein, veg, and fruit at meals). Your description of your son sounds so much like mine! The only big difference I could see is that mine loves dips. He usually gets to choose just one dip at lunch and dinner. Right now his fave is hummus on EVERYTHING (and by the spoonful), but he also loves to dip his raw veggies into ranch, bbq sauce, mustard, or ketchup. I have tiny little dipping cups that are perfect for this. He eats raw sweet bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, celery, carrots, and cherry toms this way. I just cut/peel them so they are easy and safe for him to bite. Hope that idea helps you or other readers get more veggies into the littles. 🙂
Chelsea Johnson says
Tiny dipping cups would be a great idea! I just wrote a post about ways to get your toddler to eat more veggies, and dipping was one of them! I’ve never tried anything other than ranch though. I might have to check those out!
Amber says
Thanks for the great ideas! I’ll have to reference these once my little guy is big enough. I love how you always do a veggie and a fruit. That makes it easy to keep track of if they’re eating enough healthy foods.
Chelsea Johnson says
Yeah! It has been a little harder with Little J being pickier now, but if I give him the fruits and veggies before the main part of his meal, he usually eats them!
Lauren says
I just have to say that this is THE best, most relevant, most useful, most realistic post about toddler feeding that I have ever seen. Thank you so much! Hopefully this will help me get my daughter interested in eating more that her current faves. Again, thank you!
Chelsea Johnson says
Thank you, Lauren!! That was exactly my hope in posting it!! It has been a huge help for us, and I hope it helps your daughter eat a wider variety of food!!! Good luck!
Chris says
Hi,I’m 67 and have my first grandson who’s 14months. Well it’s been yrs since I’ve fed a toddler. You forget alot.
So I’m glad to find this site. Gives me ideas. Thanks alot.
Chelsea Johnson says
Thanks! I’m so glad I could help! I’m sure I’ll forget when I am a grandma, too!
Laura says
I love this! thank you for posting it!
Chelsea Johnson says
You’re so welcome! Hope it helps!
Brooklyn says
Great ideas! And what I love is they’re practical. I’m all about being healthy and doing what’s best for my 14mo, but when they’re so picky it’s hard. If it were up to my son he’d live on grilled cheese
Chelsea Johnson says
Right? And as much as I would love to make from-scratch meals breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it’s just not practical!
Lupe says
I know you mention breakfast lunch & dinner in your real toddler food web page, but did not give any dinner ideas? Every parent says their kid eats whatever they are having, but never state what “they are actually having?” can you give ideas and share what you have for dinner? Thanks!
Chelsea Johnson says
We have about 30 meals on rotation, so it’s kind of hard to give you an idea of what we have for dinner. Things like different pasta dishes, enchiladas, burritos, tacos, soups, chili, sandwiches, casseroles, that kind of thing. You can check out my Lunch and Dinner Pinterest board for more ideas!
Theresa says
I love this list!! So helpful. My son loves hummus too! I am having a hard time with meat though. He usually will chew it a a little bit then spit it out. Deli roast beef is the only thing I know he will eat. Any tips on getting more meat into my 18 month old?
Chelsea Johnson says
Just keep trying! My 4-year-old and 2-year-old will pretty much only eat chicken nuggets, but that’s how our oldest was, too, and after we just kept trying, he finally tried things and liked them!
Theresa says
Thanks so much Chelsea!! We’ll keep trying lol
Amanda says
Such a helpful post. Thank you! It’s so hard being a mom today with all the guilt for giving our toddlers basic meals that aren’t completely natural. It’s a lot planning with also working. I’m going to try giving him more frozen veggies that I can heat up like you suggested.
Chelsea Johnson says
You absolutely should not feel guilty for giving your kids frozen or boxed foods! You’re doing a great job! I’m glad I could help!!
Raeann says
Finally a list of meal ideas that don’t involve me getting my own grains from the farm!! Thank you for being so realistic!! Loves all of these ideas!
Chelsea Johnson says
Oh my goodness, right? I hated that when I would search for toddler meal ideas. It’s okay to serve your kids things from the frozen foods section, everyone!
Megan says
Can I just say, THANK YOU!!!! I have been looking and watching all the videos and posts healthy eating and what my toddler eats in a day. Thinking I am just losing a battle with all these ideas. Thank you for not only taking time to do this but spelling it out! So glad I found this!!!! So very helpful!!!