A common struggle with many parents is getting their picky toddlers to eat meals and snacks. A great way to get kids interested is by getting them involved in preparing their own food!
Here are 4 recipes that you can make with your kids to get them excited about meals and snack time:
Mini Veggie & Egg Bites:
You will need:
- Butter
- 1 carrot
- 1 zucchini
- 6 eggs
- Shredded cheese of choice
Before getting your toddler to help, pre-slice the carrot and zucchini into small pieces and place into a bowl and preheat your oven to 400 ° F.
Grab a muffin tin and let your toddler grease each of the holes with butter or margarine, this part might get messy! In a large bowl, help your child to break the eggs and let them beat the eggs together. Then, have them mix in the carrots, zucchini and cheese, stirring until combined.
Together with your toddler, pour the mixture into each hole in the greased tin, then bake for 15 minutes. Once finished, set the egg bites aside to cool for 2 minutes, then enjoy!
Yogurt Berry Kabobs
You will need:
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Your child’s favourite yogurt
- Wooden skewers (cut the tips off before letting your child handle them)
This recipe is very easy and is a great activity to improve children’s motor skills and help them learn about simple patterns.
Give your toddler a skewer and have them place the blueberries and strawberries on the stick, alternating between the two. Once the skewers are fully covered, set them aside and grab your yogurt of choice.
Let your toddler dump the yogurt out onto a plate, then take each of your berry kabobs and roll them in the yogurt until fully covered. Once your berries are fully covered, put them on a plate and then freeze them for 45 minutes. Once they are fully frozen, take them out of the freezer and let your toddler enjoy their creation!
No-Bake Cereal Bars
These cereal bars are a great snack to give to your toddler as soon as they come home in the afternoon from daycare. They are filling but won’t spoil your child’s dinner.
You will need:
- ¼ cup of butter, melted
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup honey
- ½ cup of oats
- Granola cereal of choice
- Dried fruit of choice
- Salt to taste
- Cookie sheet
In a pot, mix together your butter, brown sugar, honey and salt, cook until boiling with frequent stirring, then remove from heat.
Place the mixture into a large bowl and have your child add in the granola cereal and dried fruit until the combined. Let the mixture cool and then allow your child to use their hands to scoop the mix onto a baking sheet, pressing down until flat. Place into the refrigerator for 45 minutes to 1 hour until set and then cut into bars for your toddler to enjoy!
Butterfly, Caterpillar & Ladybug Bites
Kids will absolutely love the funny faces on these fruit snacks!
You will need:
- Celery sliced into three pieces
- Pretzels
- Grapes
- Strawberries sliced into fourths
- Raisins
- Cream cheese
Have your toddler take a celery stick and cover the middle in cream cheese. Then, they can take two pretzels and place one on either side of the celery stick to create wings. To make the butterfly’s eyes, use cream cheese to stick two raisins to one end of the celery stick and now you have some adorable celery butterflies!
Using 4-5 grapes, have your toddler line them up on a plate, then using cream cheese, dab a little onto the grape at the front of the line. Like on the butterfly, have them place two raisins on top of the cream cheese as the eyes and your grape caterpillar is ready to go!
For the ladybug, give your child two pieces of strawberry and get them to place cream cheese between the slices, squishing them together. Then dab cream cheese in little dots all over the strawberries and cover the dots with raisins. Have your toddler use a bit more cream cheese to stick a grape to the top of the strawberries and then two tiny dabs on top of your grape to stick the raisin eyes on and you’re done!
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