There have been a few nights lately when I’ve just had no motivation to cook. And I’m quite sure that I’m not the only one who’s ever felt that way! So whether it’s your busy schedule, warm weather, or just the general business of parenting, here are 50 ideas for 50 easy toddler meals (with very little cooking) for those nights that you don’t want to do any “real” cooking. They’re some of my favorite quick dinner ideas for kids!
Easy Toddler Meals
I polled my amazing Instagram community for ideas, I added a few of my own, and I would love to hear additional ones from you! Because the more we share our tips and tricks with each other, the easier all of this feeding the kids business gets for all of us.
Healthy Kids Food Ideas
This list is meant to give you a few new ideas for meals you can pull together in minutes. Each is healthy in essence and can be adjusted and customized for your own kids. I love to take the opportunity on busy nights to make quick dinners for kids that are simple and easy. And most of the time the kids appreciate that!
Quick Dinner Ideas for Kids
Of course, everyone’s idea of “easy” and “cooking” is different, so there’s a range here. Some of these toddler dinners do require cooking and some are assembly only (and others rely on leftovers being stored away in the freezer), but all are relatively straight forward. Keep this list on hand for those nights when you need to make family dinner, but you want to make your life a little easier.
50 Easy Toddler Meals (With Little Cooking)
- Nut butter and jelly sandwiches
- Cheese quesadillas (maybe add a little snipped spinach!)
- Butter and cheese pasta
- Tacos with beans, cheese, and/or salsa
- Meatballs (pulled from the freezer), sliced cucumbers
- Toddler cheese plates with cheese, crackers, fruit, and fresh veggies
- Fruit, veggies, and bread
- Take out!
- Pancakes (from the freezer) or 2-Ingredient Pancakes
- Canned soup (like Annie’s Lentil Soup)
- Pouches (clearly this one only works for toddlers!)
- 15-Minute Lo Mein
- Pasta with jarred sauce
- Pasta with peas and olive oil
- Burrito Bowls with rice and beans
- Rotisserie chicken tacos or Fish Stick Tacos
- Grain bowls with beans, rice, avocado, mango, and salsa
- Quinoa with Peas
- Avocado toast and quick scrambled eggs
- Ham fried rice
- Cheese and salami and fruit
- Cheese and/or deli meat sandwiches or wraps
- Yogurt, granola, and berries
- Breakfast burritos
- Snack plates with hummus, fruit, veggies, and cheese
- Flatbread Pizza
- Quesadilla pizza
- English muffin pizza
- Oatmeal with berries or dried fruit
- Sheet Pan Chicken
- Cereal
- Muffins with cream cheese or nut butter and fruit
- Burgers
- Snacky muffin tin meals
- Tortellini (with a favorite jarred sauce)
- Scrambled eggs with toast
- Pasta Salad
- Pesto Pasta
- Boxed mac and cheese (with peas or broccoli or just plain)
- Poached chicken with bbq sauce
- Chicken simmered in jarred tomato sauce with toast
- Chocolate Chip Oat Bars
- Chocolate chip pancakes (with a handful of shredded zucchini perhaps!), or any other pancakes
- Tortilla roll ups with banana and nut butter
- Tortilla roll ups with deli meat and cheese
- One Pot Meat Spaghetti
- Black beans or pinto beans with salsa and whole grain crackers
- Cottage cheese, granola, fruit
- Toddler trail mix (dry cereal, dried fruit, softer nuts like cashews) and milk
- Smoothies
this is a teen girl in school and you just saved my life, and my diet ( thank you so much )
This is the perfect website for anyone who hopes to understand this topic. You understand so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I actually would want to…HaHa). You certainly put a new spin on a topic that has been written about for decades. Excellent stuff, just wonderful!
I like making chia pudding. It’s real easy, 2 tablespoons chia seed, 1/2 cup milk of your choice, then add and any additions you like. Thoroughly mix then eat 1 hour later, stores for a couple days. My standard is a teaspoon maple syrup for sweetness, then adding fruit on top. I also like adding 2 tablespoons applesauce and a dash cinnamon along with the maple syrup.
One staple in our household is Dr. Prager’s California Veggie burgers- toasted, cut into bites. My picky 2 year old loves them, and they are full of veggies and protein.
that’s so coincidental! I grabbed Dr. Pragers sweet potato puffs and also this like chicken meatball that has carrot broccoli in it… she loved them both! yay for Dr. P. My 15-month old loves meat, bread, and fruit… she WONT DO anything pasta, cheese, marinara, pizza, easy mac… like *mind blown* ….. but girlfriend will eat deli turkey, meatballs, beef burger, turkey burger, shredded chicken… LOL…. and her weight in those mandarin orange cups.
Thank you for this list! Very timely in my household! Some of these are already in regular rotation, as I find what my 3 year old will eat. Thanks for all you do, I am GRATEFUL! Peace to you and your family in the new year.
You’re so welcome!
Thank you for this list! Just the kind of stuff I have time for with a newborn and a toddler who doesn’t like meat. All the other ideas I keep finding look like gourmet meals! Not practical for this household:)
Pasta is not healthy
Without any context as to the type of pasta, what else is in the meal, what other foods are offered and eaten in a week, what other foods a child will eat, to categorically say that “pasta is not healthy” is categorically false and is simply a lie straight out of diet culture. We all get to make choices for our families and if there’s a food you don’t want to serve for any one reason or another, that is always of course fine. But shaming or degrading an entire category of food isn’t helpful to anyone.
I agree with you Amy. Whole grain pasta is certainly not unhealthy.
Of all the things on that list, including “Take out” and “Nut butter and jelly” etc, you single out Pasta as being unhealthy?? Right…..
My toddler will not eat any meat so I compensate by buying pasta made from chickpea. He absolutely loves it and it is the farthest thing from unhealthy!!!
Thank you for helping to fuel eating disorders, and diet culture. FYI – no food is bad. Ideally we eat in moderation, and children are naturally intuitive eaters. Thanks Amy for your advice and recipes 🙏
Try Kroger’s frozen beef or cheese ravioli. My son loves these and eats them with his hands, no sauce needed! They are really good.
Sometimes I’ll even break a small hole in the ravioli and gently smush a green food into it like spinach.
Another favorite…a bowl of no sugar added applesauce with frozen berries on top (partially thawed)
And whipped cream…we use it a lot! In small amounts it’s low in sugar and once we put whipped cream on something he almost always eats it.
mini quiche bites, Jimmy Dean Delights for breakfast, veggie pizza (cover veggies with extra cheese if needed)
String small bites of whatever onto a kabob. This interests some toddlers enough to pull the food off and eat it. Just supervise so there’s no eye pokes.
Why are pouches , trail mix, and oat bars listed under “meals”?
Because they’re easy, nutritious foods that can be part of a satisfying and fast meal.
Beautifully said, thanks for this list. Helped a lot?
hi i have very fussy 2year old who doesnt rally like to chew food he only eats food that has been mashed up
Have you checked in with your pediatrician about this? You can take a look at my post on kids with Texture Aversions too.
Hi, I have a very picky almost two-year-old and I’m struggling with coming up with meal ideas. Unfortunately I’m not very creative in the kitchen, and I’ve tried several things to get him to try new things, but it is still a big struggle. I’d love to hear ideas of what to try. He’s not a fan of pasta, so a lot of things have been a no go for him.
Hi Kaely-
It’s hard for me to give individualized info in a reply, but you can search my site for other recipe ideas. Here is a post about Normal Picky Eating and the feeding approach that I follow which could help reduce your stress about having to continually serve new foods.
I make savoury quinoa muffins: 1 cup of cooked quinoa to 1 egg as a basic ratio and mix in whatever you like: ham and cheese/ buffalo chicken/ taco meat/ spinach and tomato are some of our faves. Press the mixture into silicone muffin cups and bake 20 minutes at 350. My twins girls gobble them up and you can customize flavours for any meal. You can add panko breadcrumbs for a bit of crunch I’d preferred.
Thanks for sharing Lynsey! I made these last night for my 15 month old. He sorta liked them which is a win in my book! I added chopped carrots, spinach and bacon.
Thanks! Will be trying this
Add a cup of ground up carrots to spaghetti sauce. It disappears in the sauce, adds a little sweet to the sauce, and adds one more serving of veggies to the day.
Great idea!
Thank you for all those great ideas, which are really practical! I love how you strive for reasonable healthy ideas without being dogmatic, and how you combine convenience products and “shortcuts” with fresh fruit and veg to allow for quick meals which are not hideously high in salt and sugar.
Sugar-free spelt-and-date-syrup-homemafe waffles with rice flour crusts are great, but I think I speak for many patents when I say we also need the “quick fix” options. So thanks for providing those!
Yes, I think being realistic is helpful for most families!
Cauliflower crust is great for picky toddlers! Load them up with more veggies and protein or keep it simple with sauce and cheese. Simple, quick healthy alternative to reg pizza 🙂
What would you suggest for a toddler who only wants to eat mixed fresh fruits (mostly just blueberries, blackberries and strawberries) and sometimes plain rice, sometimes pizza with only cheese and sauce and fries with tomato sauce(ketchup)…I’ve read that too much fruit can be bad for tots so I’ve tried hiding veg and hasn’t really worked, he won’t even eat potato if it doesn’t look like fries. At one point he refused to eat anything but ice cream so I found a recipe for chocolate mousse made with avocado, coconut cream and honey, he still enjoys that and when I couldn’t get him to eat I used to just tell him it’s ice cream. We’ve also tried making him fruit smoothies and that’s worked too but I’ve tried adding veggies and anything but adding carrots “tastes yukkie”. I’ve even tried healthy versions of pizza and he just picks off all the toppings, eats the cheese separately and the base. We’re trying granola with a kids groundup superfood nutrients mix and yoghurt in the mornings just so we can be sure he’s getting all the nutrients he needs, the yogurts quite sweet so at least for now he thinks it’s just a sweet treat but I’m dreading the day he decides he no longer wants to eat that. Seriously hoping he grows out of this phase soon.
I would recommend reading about the feeding approach known as Division of Responsibility and to try to stress less about keeping track of bites. Fruit and veggies are both good for kids, so I wouldn’t worry so much about pushing veggies. Most kids get the nutrients they need if you zoom out a bit and look at the bigger picture of what they eat over the course of the week versus each meal.
This page is super useful, thank you! My son is just going from baby to toddler, and I’m struggling to come up with a variety of easy meals.
And I have no idea if this will help anyone since as people said every kid is different and maybe I just got lucky with mine being tolerant of veggies… But something I’ve found is that the way I cook the food and season it will make or break whether my son will eat it. He would not eat the plain scrambled eggs I made for him. Spit them out multiple times. But he really likes having eggs the way I make them for myself – sunny side up in olive oil, with salt and pepper, on a buttered wheat English muffin. He doesn’t like steamed or microwaved vegetables, but if they are sautéed with pepper he will eat them with gusto and cry when there’s no more! He loves curry chicken and veggies, and will eat even veggies he doesn’t really like in it (green peppers), or in a burrito.
Awesome perspective, thanks for sharing!
I do a smoothie with washed raw collard greens, dried peanut butter powder, bananas, whole milk or almond milk, pecans and almonds. I blend it on my smoothie setting. If there are still chunks i blend it again. I usually freeze the bananas so that it makes it a thicker. My 12 month old loves this. He is getting a full serving of Greens. You can substitute spinach as well. I have even thrown his salmon in there because he didn’t want to eat it. The bananas hide the flavor.
Wow, salmon?!
Thanks for the ideas. Not to sound silly, but for the comment about hiding vegetables and parent child trust, gotta be from someone with one child. I have 8, and I can tell you for sure, that every kid is different. If they are picky, they will grow out of it. Hide it, don’t hide it. Do we tell them the truth about Santa? Do what’s best for your own child, chances are if you hide a vegetable or let them eat a cookie, they’ll probably still grow up perfectly fine. Enjoy the toddler years, it’s the teenage years you have to worry about lol just wait
So true!
I think it’s not just a parent with one child coz I have only one with one on the way I think it’s also just how picky their child is. If they’ve never had to deal with a child who is a picky eater then it’ll be very difficult to understand the plight of a parent with a picky eater(even if it’s just one child) . I come from a large family with many picky eaters as kids, they all seem to grow out of it but while they’re in that phase it can be really tough. My nephew decided one weekend that he only ate Kelloggs cornflakes and refused to eat anything else. It didn’t last too long but the point is people don’t always understand what they haven’t been exposed to.
Thanks amy
Thank you for sharing this. Toddlers can be so fussy and it’s hard to think of healthy food ideas.
My little guy has had a ton of feeding issues since day one and as a result developed oral aversion and required intervention by speech therapy. Once we finally advanced past him eating only crunchy textures, his favorite foods include: sun butter roll ups, crackers, or sandwiches, egg bites (copycat sous vide from Starbucks), and meatloaf (without sauce). For the egg bites and meatloaf, I meal prep and freeze so that I always have them on hand. And for the meatloaf, I use my food processor to chop/ nearly puree all the veggies (usually onion, celery, and carrots) to make sure he’s getting some veggies and form them into meatballs.
Hi, can you share the meat loaf recipe? How did you get your sun to eat other foods besides crunchy stuff? Going through the same thing!
Thanks Amy!
Sometimes in a pinch I do the frozen chicken nuggets and minute rice with frozen veggies. Usually i’ll cook the veggies in with the rice so it all boils together! Easy, quick chicken and rice.
Love that idea!
Just wanted to suggest that you can chop up spinach or dark salad greens very finely and add them to many of these things (tacos, burritos, pizza, sandwiches) to give it a bit of a healthy kick. If it’s chopped small at least my kids tend to not notice it’s there!
Great idea!
Hiding veggies in kids meals is a breach of trust between parent and child. How would you feel if you’d find out that someone you trust hides certain foods in your foods because “it’s good for you” ?
I follow “ family.snack.nutritionist” on instagram and she has some great advice on how to expose your kids to veggies and work on that parent-child trust relationship.
I always recommend that you show and tell the kid what’s inside a recipe and instead of thinking of it as “sneaking”, think of it as adding a range of foods to help add flavor, texture, and color. If you can let food be food and don’t let veggies be the most important thing, that can help too.
Sometimes young children need veggies hidden. My son fortunately loves veggies and I do not have to hide them. A very close friend struggles to get their child to eat anything other than plain cheese pizza. Their child is constantly sick with issues. These are situations that for now, its better to try and hide veggies just so the child can be healthy and grow and as the child grows and understands more, to show them veggies are good. Not everyone’s situation is the same and as a parent, you do what you can to give your children the best possible chance.
I’d say thank you because they care enough about me to make sure that I get the nutrients I need. I’m all about open and honest with my daughter but I’m also the adult. I don’t ask her opinion on needed medical procedures and I don’t rely on her getting everything she needs from her food by choice .We teach and talk about nutrition and what healthy food does for the body but she’s a toddler. She’s doesn’t know everything, even if she says she does.
I have to disagree to be honest. You must have a very easy kid, because my kid just wont eat vegetables put in front of him (almost every meal has different vegetables on a plate in front of him) and he hardly ever touches it.
Camouflaging the vegetables is the only way some parents can get the micro nutrients into their kids.
I think its a bit dramatic to say you are breaching trust by making food in a way they may not recognise what they are eating. It’s ridiculous. We all want our kids to eat healthy foods and if thats the way you have to do it, then respect how parents provide it to their children each child is different.
My son is three and very very picky, he will eat somethings one day and the next acts as if he never tried it LOL. whats been working for me is waiting until he tells me hes hungry and he will tell me what he wants as well. This list of meals really helped me prepare a grocery list for him (yes his own list smh) i would buy the 6 or 7 things he regularly eat then all of a sudden he doesn’t eat them anymore, 50 dollars almost wasted. Guess we just have to take it one day at a time.
It can be really hard at this age, especially the unpredictability. You could also decide to be more in charge and let him pick from two choices that you think he may eat—it could cut down on waste. But I realize that may make you worry he won’t eat anything. This approach may help: https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/the-division-of-responsibility/
What do you suggest for a 2 year old that is very picky? I have difficulties getting my kid to eat anything. He likes mac and cheese, corn dogs, hot pockets, pea’s, and pbjs. That really sums it up lol.
My six years old eats only plain pasta (no sauce or anything on it), toats with butter, plain tortilla wraps, popcorn and a pumpkin soup. That’s pretty much it. She doesn’t even like chocolate. The only good thing is that she likes cucumbers, apples and sometimes banana.
I got tired of trying to convince my kids to eat their greens and certain other foods so I made a smoothie one day, frozen tropical fruit (can get it at walmart/Sam’s Club/costco), yogurt and kale. And they love it. You can add a ripe banana for sweetness.
Thank you for the list of food
Will try them
really helpful, thank you
Thank you for this list. Unfortunately, nut butter n jelly sandwiches are not option for bringing to daycare. Daycare says it’s not a meal! Will try some of the other recipes n see. Wish me luck! Lol
That’s interesting to know! I hope the other ideas are helpful!
How is nut butter and jelly sandwich not a meal?! It’s a complete protein, a complex carb (assuming whole grain bread), and a healthy fat.
Day cares do not allow nut butters as some kids are allergic. Use soy butter jnstead.
Great list! Thank you for compiling it.
Absolutely, I hope it’s helpful!
My husband is out of town, and he usually watches our kiddo while I cook full meals. It was not happening by myself. This list saved me. Thank you!
I’m so glad that this was helpful!