Fast Food for Toddlers

P&S sharing an unpeeled apple at 13 months

I am lazy when it comes to feeding my children....and I have a budget.  I have come up with a list of foods that are healthy, cheap, and can go from your fridge/cupboard to the plate in under 10 seconds.  I ALWAYS have these items in my house.  Now that’s fast food!!

Carbohydrates

• Bread (multigrain is best)
• Cornthins/ rice cakes (mine LOVE these!!!)
• Fruit bread (try to get one where most of the sugar comes from the sultanas)
• Rice crackers (plain are best as they have less salt than others)
• Wheat crackers (try to get ones without tonnes of salt)
• Cereal (mine like Weet bix and museli)

Protein

• Milk (full cream, unflavoured)
• Shredded cheese (mine eat it straight from the freezer!)
• Yoghurt (full fat plain or greek)
• Cream cheese
• Canned chick peas (look for no added salt variety)
• Canned baked beans (look for no added salt variety)
• Canned Tuna (I buy the stuff in springwater and mine would eat it straight from the tin if I let them!)
• Cashews (some people say nuts are a choking hazard but mine have been eating them since 18 months with no troubles)
• Peanut butter (no salt, no sugar variety)

S eating a corn thin with cream cheese at 13 months.  That's a pea stuck to her face.

Fruit

• All fresh fruit can be served within 10 seconds...I don’t bother chopping things like apples, bananas or pears.
• Canned fruit (don’t buy the stuff in “syrup” but the stuff in fruit juice)
• Frozen berries (they will eat them frozen!) 
• Dried fruit (mine like sultanas and apricots)

Vegetables

• Vegemite (not really a vegetable but wasn’t sure where else to put it!)
• Carrot
• Cucumber
• Snow peas
• Cherry tomatoes
• Capsicum
• Mushroom
• Celery
• Canned corn