Help! Need ideas for foods to feed my one-year-old

[Ladybug47]

My son's first birthday is in a few weeks and we're gearing up to start eliminating baby food and relying solely on "grown-up food" for his meals. I need some ideas for healthy foods to keep in stock at the house to feed him for his meals. I'm interested in general food ideas as well as specific, brand-named healthy options if you have suggestions.

I'm not going to have a lot of time to cook meat in the middle of the day for him, so I'm planning to save dinner leftovers from the night before for him to maybe eat the next day in small bites (i.e. chicken breast, fish?, pork tenderloin, etc.). Is that a good plan?

He's still getting used to new textures and he has about nine teeth to work with so far. I know I can cook vegetables until they're soft enough for him to gum/chew (carrots, green beans?, squash). He's good at eating Cheerios and small bits of fruit.

The few healthy kid-food ideas I have from a parenting magazine so far are:

Boar's Head all natural deli meats
Reduced-fat Triscuits (he wouldn't quite be able to handle the pokey texture of these yet)
Nature's Own 100% wheat bread
Kirkland Signature organic instant whole grain oatmeal
Quaker Simple Harvest instant multigrain cereals
Kashi TLC 7-grain crackers
Cheerios and Multigrain Cheerios

And I got some Annie's mac-and-cheese because I've heard that's one of the healthier mac-and-cheese options out there. Is that right?

Any other suggestions of general or specific options so that I can feed him healthy, varied, and well-rounded meals? Your ideas are much appreciated!

[happymom]

You'd be amazed what he can and will eat- just try feeding him whatever you are eating- as long as its safe of course.

Here's what DD eats-

Breakfast is either oatmeal (plain with some cinnamon and maybe sugar sprinkled in), yogurt, cottage cheese, omelet with cheese cut into bute sized pieces, and just recently cereal and milk.

Snacks
* any fruit- cut up into safe sized pieces. DD would eat fruit exclusively if I allowed it. This includes melon, berries, apples (you can grate it if youre worried about choking), pears, BANANA
*applesauce (unsweetened)
*half an avocado- cut into chunks with some lemon juice and salt. You can mash into guacomole if you feel better about that)
*raisans
*slice of cheese or cheese stick
*pretzel
*chickpeas
*cut up cucumbers or jicama (DD loves this)

Some lunch and Dinner Ideas-
*potato or sweet potato (usually sweet potato) baked in the microwave and cut into pieces- as a side dish. DD will really eat any cooked veggie
*macaroni
*quinoa
*any chicken....cut small
*meatloaf, meatballs etc
*PB or cream cheese sandwich- I often by the Arnold's thin pitas. She loves those- they have a whole wheat one.
*tuna fish


Theres sooo much to try....HTH!!

[Katigre]

Beans are a great toddler food - very health and easy to eat, plus fast to prepare.

You can do different things with dairy: yogurt, quesadillas, grilled cheese.

Any fruits and veggies are good - they can be fresh and don't have to be steamed to mushiness.

Pretzel sticks make a great snack and are also good to dip - we get Trader Joe's whole wheat ones which are quite thick and easy to grasp and gnaw on.

Oatmeal and eggs are both great breakfast foods (and lunch foods) along with french toast and pancakes and waffles.

[sunshine873]

I give DD whatever we're eating. & I mean whatever. We went for sushi last night & she devoured half of a California roll.

But if you're wanting things to make quick & easy during the day, here are my go tos:
-leftovers (always a great, easy option)
-fruit, fruit & more fruit. I love fresh fruit for her, but I run out of it so quickly (she gets fruit with every meal) so I keep a few cans of fruit packed in 100% juice.
-Grilled cheese. This could be any kind of cheese on any kind of bread. Our favorite is to put it inside a pita & chop it into wedges.
-PB&J If you don't have any food allergies in your family, you can try peanut butter at 1 yo (has to be within your comfort zone, of course.)
-"breakfast" foods. Eggs, pancakes, french toast. We make up a huge batch of pancakes or french toast on the weekend. I pop them in the freezer & then can throw one or two in the toaster as needed.

[Momit]

-Avocado, either small pieces or mashed up. Sometimes I add a little salsa, kiwi or grapes
-Hummus
-Chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans
-Cream cheese on crackers
-Yogurt with oatmeal & fruit (like a European style muesli)
-Fruit
-Peas

[Momof3Labs]

Frozen peas (yes, we serve them frozen -they prefer them to steamed, lol)
All kinds of veggies (I steam up some frozen if we don't have fresh) - corn, carrots, green beans, sugar snap peas, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato, black beans, avocado, cucumber, tomato
Kiwi, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, mango, melon (all cut appropriately)
Freeze dried fruits (Trader Joe's or Gerber)
Cheerios or rice Chex
Baby Mum Mums
Happy Baby puffs
Gerber freeze-dried yogurt thingys
Whole milk yogurt
Bits of cheese, lunchmeat
Bits of veggie or supreme pizza (trying to hook them on more complex flavors vs. plain cheese pizza)

Breakfast is often frozen waffles or pancakes, or scrambled eggs if daddy is around (DH is gluten-free due to celiac).

For dinner, they have what we're having. Last night, we had shish-ke-bobs with brown rice. We cut up the chicken, steak, veggies (red, yellow and green peppers) and pineapple, and served it to them with some brown rice. Salmon, steak, hamburger, chicken, pork - they love it all.

You could make soup and fish out the bits of meats and veggies.

Meatballs are good (I keep a bag of frozen ones on hand for a quick lunch).

They love mac and cheese but I don't make it often. DS1 would eat it 3 times a day given the chance!

Dried fruits like raisins leave sticky residue on teeth, so be sure to brush well after offering foods like that.

We don't do a ton of crackers, cereal or puffs with the babies. They tend to not be very nutritious, and the kids gobble them up at the expense of the good stuff. We do a lot of fruits, veggies and proteins instead.

I need to do a batch of baked oatmeal to introduce to them but don't have room in the fridge these days for the pan with all the fresh fruit we have in there!

[Ladybug47]

GREAT ideas! Thank you so much!! I am making a grocery list so that I can make sure to have a bunch of this stuff in stock to choose from. I really appreciate all the great suggestions!

[Ladybug47]

What kind of yogurt do you feed your kids? If my one-year-old will start drinking whole milk in about a week, should I also find yogurt that's not necessarily low in fat content, too? The kind I like to eat is the Yoplait 99% fat free ones, but should I feed my son something lower in sugar and higher in fat?

[peanut520]

What kind of yogurt do you feed your kids? If my one-year-old will start drinking whole milk in about a week, should I also find yogurt that's not necessarily low in fat content, too? The kind I like to eat is the Yoplait 99% fat free ones, but should I feed my son something lower in sugar and higher in fat?

we do stoneyfield's yobaby yogurt and yobaby meals.

as for left over or if you get a chance cook extra i just freeze in ice cube trays - pop them out when you are ready to use - pop in the microwave for 30sec and quick meal options. i usually have a freezer of mac and cheese with whole wheat noodles, beef soup, chicken noodle with spinach, and rice and bean... and dd loves the frozen organic veggies from costco. we use them for a on the go snack too.

[ncat]

We give the kids plain whole milk yogurt (Brown Cow or whole Foods' 365 brand) with frozen blueberries or whatever fruit we have around. They never got used to the added sugar in most yogurts. When they were still eating baby food, I'd mix some fruit puree in instead of fruit pieces - homemade pureed peaches (or blueberry banana peach) in yogurt is really tasty, even to me!

My kids had different likes at around 1 year.
DD really liked tofu, quinoa, and vegetables while DS likes meat and potatoes

Both kids liked yams, broccoli (steam and cut into small pieces), black beans, frozen peas, olives, blueberries (fresh or frozen), cherries, yogurt, applesauce, cheese, quesadilla (cut into small pieces or strips) and pasta