toddler meal ideas for picky eaters

Looking for healthy toddler breakfast ideas? You are in the right place.

Breakfast is our favorite meals of the day. Both my husband and I try out new recipes from time to time in order to add more variety to our diet. Now that our son is growing up, we are definitely eating healthier than before and along the way, we have tried new recipes that have become family staples.

In today’s post, I cover a few of our favorite and healthy toddler breakfast ideas.

Healthy Toddler Breakfast Ideas

1. Oats porridge

A bowl of oats porridge in the morning has been a family staple for a long while now. We have oats porridge 2-3 times a week. To make the perfect porridge I recommend using instant oats.

Recipe for Oats Porridge

Ingredients

• ¼ cup oats
• 150 ml soymilk/almond milk/coconut milk/cow milk
• Chopped fruit of your choice (we generally use bananas, berries, chikoo, and apples)

Instructions

1. In a pot add the oats, fruit, and milk. Let it cook on a medium flame, occasionally stirring the mixture so that the porridge doesn’t stick to the sides and burn.
2. Serve with toasted nuts and seeds or nut butter and fruit.

Featured ingredients and products

Avanchy bamboo wood bowl

Soy milk/Almond Milk

Oats

For more oats recipes for babies and toddlers read here.

2. Overnight oats

Soaking oats overnight breaks some of the phytic acid present in the oats and makes them easier to digest.

When I am running short of ingredients, I use readymade mixes like this one by True Elements.

Even if you forget to soak it overnight, you can simply pour in some milk in a bowl of the grain mix and leave it aside for 15 minutes in the morning.

Add in some chopped fruit, berries and nut butter and a delicious breakfast is ready. Toddlers love cold breakfasts like overnight oats, and it’s a great break in the routine.

Here is another variation of overnight oats we tried in the past.

This overnight oats recipe contains oats, almond milk, almond butter, chia seeds, banana, desiccated coconut, and hemp seeds.

3. Egg Muffins

Do you have a picky eater at home? Wondering how to make eggs for toddlers who are picky? Egg Muffins is your answer. This was an instant hit in our home.

This egg preparation looks appealing to little ones because it is shaped like a muffin. For mothers of picky eaters, it’s a sneaky way to add in veggies and make them taste delicious. Here is how to make these easy toddler breakfast muffins;

Recipe of Egg Muffins for toddlers

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2-3 broccoli florets
• ⅓ cup peas
• ¼ cup cheese
• Salt to taste
• Pepper

Instructions

1. Whisk the eggs and add the vegetables, salt, and pepper to taste.
2. To greased muffin tins add the egg and vegetable mix.
3. Top with cheese and bake for 20 mins at 350°F/180°C.
4. Makes 3-4 egg muffins.

Here is another high protein muffin recipe for kids.

4. Pancakes

We love pancakes in our home. I make them with a variety of whole grains and they turn out amazing each time. These are my favorite whole wheat and ragi (millet flour) pancakes. To get the recipe, check my recipe ebook with 36 easy snack recipes for toddlers. I usually pair the pancakes with fresh fruit and some nut butter either almond nut butter, peanut butter or homemade chocolate hazelnut spread.

5. Barley porridge (Sheera)

Sheera is an Indian porridge usually made during auspicious occasions. Semolina is generally used to make sheera, but you can also use barley to make the dish more nutritious.

How to make barley porridge

1. Roast the barley (½ cup) in 2 tbsp of ghee until an aromatic fragrance is released. Add a cup of milk to the barley.
2. For sweetness add 1 tbsp jaggery powder or sugar and keep mixing into the porridge until well combined. You may add cardamom pods for fragrance too. It usually takes 5-7 minutes to cook to a thick porridge-like consistency.

Here is the recipe for semolina porridge.

6. Carrot and peas paniyaram

Do give this Indian toddler breakfast recipe a try. It requires prior prep but is quick to make on busy mornings.

To make paniyarams start with regular dosa batter. You will also need a paniyaram pan.

In your regular dosa batter add some salt, peas, and carrots. Cook in paniyaram pan for about 2 minutes on each side. Serve with coconut chutney.

7. Gram flour pancake (Chilla)

Another easy peasy Indian toddler breakfast idea is gram flour pancakes or chilla as we call it in Hindi. Gram flour is very nutritious for babies and toddlers. It is a high iron food and easy flour to work with to make a variety of savory pancakes for toddlers.

To make a gram flour pancakes you need:

Ingredients

• ½ cup gram flour
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• ¼ tsp coriander powder
• ¼ tsp cumin powder
• ½ onion finely chopped
• ½ tomato finely chopped
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup Water

Instructions

1. Mix all the ingredients together until a smooth batter is made.
2. Pour out 2-3 spoonful’s of batter on a hot pan and make the pancakes. It takes about 2 minutes to cook on each side.
3. Serve with homemade pickle and green chutney.

You can make many variations of besan chilla, i.e. by adding more tomatoes you get tomato chilla.

To make an egg chilla, whisk in one egg to the above batter mix and you get egg chilla.

For more ideas on what to feed toddlers, here is an older post on What my toddler eats in a week and one on breakfast ideas for babies.

If you are looking for more easy recipes check out my ebook The Easy Toddler Snack Book, which contains many yummy recipes that can be used for breakfast like granola bars, frittata, pancakes, smoothie bowls, smoothies and more.

What are some of your favorite toddler breakfast ideas? Do leave me with your family’s favorite recipes in the comments section below.